Oyster Bay Cove, NY (OCA): Not since December of 1793 did the physical presence of the monk Herman grace the land and brotherhood of the Orthodox Monastery at Valaamo. At that time a young Father Herman and eight pious monks and their assistants began a journey that would carry them across thousands of miles of wilderness to their appointed destination on Kodiak Island.
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius departed New York July 5, 1996 with a portion of the sacred relics of the Blessed Father Herman of Alaska, America?s first Saint, for Valaamo Monastery in Russia. At the special invitation of His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy II of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America will bring the holy relics to Valaamo for the first time since the original party departed for Alaska in 1793. Accompanying the Metropolitan will be His Eminence, Archbishop Herman of Philadelphia, and Deacon John Hopko, Secretary to His Beatitude.
According to officials of the Russian Orthodox Church, a large pilgrimage is scheduled for this historic event at Valaamo, which is expected to draw thousands of pilgrims from Russia, Finland and other regions in the north. Metropolitan Theodosius will be joined in St. Petersburg by Patriarch Aleksy, along with the renown Elder (Staretz), Father Confessor of the Trinity-St Sergius Monastery at Sergiev Posad, Archimandrite Kyrill (Pavlov), who will accompany the group to Valaamo.
For the Feast of St Sergius of Radonezh, Metropolitans Philaret of Minsk and Vladimir of Kiev will join His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy and the American delegation at Sergiev Posad, where liturgical celebrations are planned for the Feast. In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Metropolitan Theodosius will present a gift of $35,000 to the Churches of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, contributed by Orthodox faithful in North America, including $10,000 from the Federated Russian Orthodox Clubs, for the suffering victims of that catastrophe.
According to officials at the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, the hierarchs, clergy and faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church have long anticipated the arrival of these sacred relics which originated from their homeland in the person of Fr Herman more than two hundred years ago.