The Glorification of St Olga of Alaska - A model for the eventual glorification of Blessed Father Seraphim Rose (and others)

The ranks of the Saints of North America could grow even more over the coming years, if their popular veneration and the sharing of their lives and intercessions continues to take root and spread.

From an Anchorage Daily News article, the following observations about St Olga provide a classic example of local veneration by the faithful leading to glorification by the universal Church, and apply equally well to the cause for the glorification of Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina, and other righteous ones of North America:

“People were painting icons of her, as if she were already a saint,” said The Most Reverend Daniel, Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest, who was the chair of the canonization committee.

In 2023, the Orthodox Church in America’s national leadership voted to make Matushka Olga a saint. To Alaskans, especially, the decision to formally recognize Olga as a saint was a foregone conclusion, Archbishop Daniel said.

“The question I got was, well, what took you so long? ...  It was a grassroots veneration that began in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region and spread," he said.

In addition to Blessed Father Seraphim, one also immediately thinks of Blessed Elder Dimitri (Egoroff) of Santa Rosa, who I posted about recently here, who had an enduring formative impact on several Orthodox monastics (both monks and nuns), parishes, clergy, and hierarchs in California and the Pacific Northwest. One article I quoted from reports his far reaching influence as follows:

Archimandrite Dimitry managed to raise a whole galaxy of monks in the U.S. He is remembered as a spiritual father by such well-known American Church figures as Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) and the popular preacher Abbot Tryphon (Parsons) of the All-Merciful Savior Monastery on Vashon Island, founded by Archimandrite Dimitry in 1986. Bishop Gerasim (Eliel) also talks about meeting him in 1981. He recalls that he witnessed the “gift of tears” in the Elder’s Jesus Prayer. His name has been on the Orthodox Church in America’s list of candidates for canonization for many years now. 

Elder Dimitri's long life of faithfulness to Christ and His Church began during the twilight of Holy Russia. Persecuted by the Bolsheviks, he was tonsured at Old Valaam, then went to Paris and served there until 1949, after which he was was invited to California where he began his latter ministry and mission work. An icon has been painted of Blessed Elder Dimitri, and he is openly venerated on the West Coast by many. Perhaps the rivers of grace released with the glorification of St Olga of Kwethluk will move the OCA to consider the glorification of Blessed Elder Dimitri.

In my 2018 pilgrimage to the monasteries of Spruce Island and Nelson Island in Alaska, I was deeply moved by the open veneration of Bishop Joasaph (Bolotov), who, while still an Archimandrite, led the Valaam monastic mission to Kodiak, Alaska, in the longest ever missionary journey in Orthodox - if not all Christian - history. Fr Joasaph was summoned back to Irkutsk, Russia, in 1799, where he was consecrated a bishop, and sent back to Alaska with more monks and supplies to strengthen and expand the mission, but the ship capsized during a fierce storm as they neared Kodiak, and all aboard perished. 

Bishop Joasaph is openly venerated in Alaska as a confessor for Christ and an Apostle to America, and icons of him adorn St Michael Skete on Spruce Island, and St Nilus, the women's monastery on Nelson Islet just a mile from Spruce Island in the Ouzinkie Strait.

Perhaps it is now time for the OCA to formally convene another Canonization Commission to advance the cause of these two great confessors and missionaries - Blessed Elder Dimitri and Blessed Hierarch Joasaph - and affirm their sanctity as saints of the Orthodox Church.

In a unique way, perhaps Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina might best be glorified by a joint commission made up of representatives from ROCOR (Fr Seraphim's original jurisdiction), the Serbian Archdiocese (under which the St Herman Monastery in Platina thrives), and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), in which one of Father Seraphim Rose's most prominent spiritual sons, Gerasim Eliel, serves as Bishop. These three Slavic-derived jurisdictions in America already are quite close in many respects. The joint glorification of Father Seraphim Rose would be a crowning affirmation for the three to proclaim together, and would be a cause of great rejoicing for the Orthodox faithful in America. 

Read about Bishop Joasaph here and here.

Read about the Glorification of St Olga, Matushka of All Alaska, on the OCA website, accompanied by an extensive photo gallery.