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Instructions and Teachings

St Tikhon of Moscow, Russian Orthodox American Messenger, 1898–1905

A Proposal to the Diocesan Consistory of Alaska (1899)

One hundred years ago, in 1799, on the 10-th day of April, the week before Palm Sunday, took place, in the city of Irkutsk, the consecration of the Archimandrite Josaph for Bishop of Kadyak.

The Archimandrite arrived on the Isle of Kadyak in September 1794, with a company of monks from the Monastery of Balaam, with the object of imparting the light of Christ’s faith to the heathen population of the Aleutian Islands and of Alaska. The Lord blessed these missionaries’ efforts: in the course of two-three years they converted to Christ no less than 10.000 heathens. The cause of Orthodoxy prospered here so rapidly, that the Most Holy Synod perceived the necessity of instituting an episcopal see on the islands; it was to fill this see that Archimandrite Josaph was appointed and consecrated, But it was the inscrutable will of Providence that he should not occupy the episcopal see on the island he had converted: the ship which was bringing the new Bishop from Asia was wrecked in a storm, and the Ocean swallowed up in its waves Josaph and his companions.

It is onr sacred duty to honor the memory of our teachers, the men who preach to us the Word of God (Hebr. 13, 7). In fulfilment of this duty, I propose to the clergy of the Aleutian diocese, that they should commemorate their first prelate, the Right Rev. Josaph on the hundredth anniversary of his consecration, the 10-th day of April, which will be the Sabbath of Lazarus, at the Liturgy and follow it up with a Requiem service, to be preceded by an address in memory of the Bishop, who met his death in the waters.

In order to perpetuate his memory I also propose to name after him the parochial school at Kadyak, and to appropriate for its maintenance a yearly sum of $500 out of the funds of the Consistory.

Bishop TIKHON.