St. Herman's Chapel - Kodiak Island, Alaska

St. Herman, Protector of the Aleuts

Spruce Island, Alaska was residence to St. Herman, the first canonized Russian Orthodox saint in North America. St. Herman's chapel is located at Monk's Lagoon and can be visited with a local, community Russian Orthodox Church reader who enlightens tourists on the holy sites and old gravestones located on the grounds of the Chapel. The Chapel was originally built in 1898 over the exact spot where St. Herman was buried on Spruce Island in December 1836.

St. Herman's Chapel is an important pilgrimage location where the devoted followers of the Russian Orthodox religion often take soil from his grave and water from the spring named in his honor.

Herman along with some other monks came to Kodiak Island in 1794, aboard a vessel named The Three Saints, a title which became that of Three Saints Bay, Alaska. The monks converted the native Aleuts. Over time Herman remained while the others either being martyred for their faith, dying of natural causes or returning to Russia vacated Spruce Island.

In 2002, 208 years after Herman's arrival the chapel of the seminary was consecrated, which is a replica of the original church built in Kodiak. This small but impressive chapel stands at the heart of the seminary grounds.