Icon of Saint Innocent of Alaska & Moscow – S341

Description

This icon of Saint Innocent is from the iconostasis of the Optina Elders Chapel in Holy Trinity Monastery.   Saint Innocent (a.d. 1797-1879) was a gifted student at his church boarding school.  He married at the age of 20 and had six children.  After serving as a deacon in Siberian Irkutsk, he was sent as a missionary to Alaska in 1824, where he worked among the native tribes, especially the Aleut Indians.  Learning the Aleut tongue, he translated many Orthodox liturgical and spiritual books into their language.  When his wife died, Saint Innocent took up the monastic life, and returned to America after being consecrated its first bishop.

Saint Innocent tirelessly labored among his flock, preaching the Gospel everywhere.  He encouraged services in the common language and Native Americans to enter the priesthood.  When he was called back to Russia to become the Metropolitan of Moscow, he still worked for the American mission, asking all clergy to be fluent in English, and encouraged everyone to make the Orthodox Faith their own.  He is called the Enlightener of the Aleut and Apostle to the Americas.  O Holy Saint Innocent, pray to God for us!