OUR FATHER INOKENTIE…

On December 11, 1842, Bishop Kamchatskiy, Kurilskiy and Aleutskiy, Inokentie Veniaminov arrived in Nizhne-Kamchatsk. Nothing extraordinary about it: from August 19, 1942, through February 9, 1843, he was on a 174 day routine trip around his eparchy. Outstanding things would start later, which, perhaps, is very typical of our national history. During his lifetime Bishop Kamchatskiy, Kurilskiy and Aleutskiy was to be raised to Metropolitan Moskovskiy and Kolomenskiy, that is Leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. After his death, he would be proclaimed Apostle of Siberia and America, more precisely, of America as Siberia and Kamchatka were not allowed to name their own saints. It just recently that we started to acknowledge significance of this great individual and his sanctity.

But what is most surprising is that, even for present times, holy became not only his deeds, words and thoughts but many other things related to his life.

In Inokentie's works, Metropolitan Moskovskiy and Kolomenskiy, we find the true starting date of the Russian America Orthodox chronology. "Andrian Tolstykh the Cossack, upon discovery in 1743 of islands, later named the Andrianovskiye, probably was the first one to start baptizing the local natives."

So, as alleged Metropolitan Inokentie, the history of the Russian Orthodoxy is closely tied with the initial period of American exploration by Russian hunters, long before the Russian American Company.

On August 12, 1993, on 250th anniversary since the beginning of industrial exploration of the Russian America, two priests, Father George (Pletnikoff), an Aleutian from the Proximate Aleutian Islands, and Father Yaroslav (Levko) from the Church of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, in the presence of numerous guests from Russia and the U.S. sanctified the cradle of the Russian Orthodoxy in the North Pacific. Among the honored guests was one of those individuals who heartily supported the idea of the Blessed Virgin Assumption Cathedral's restoration – grand-grandson of Saint Inokentie, Farther Inokentie. Hundreds of people, including the former Nizhne-Kamchatsk, were baptized in the restored cathedral. Thus one more miracle was performed, connected with the name of Saint Inokentie.

In 1997, we celebrated the 200th birthday of this great person. On October 6, 1977, on request of American Autokephalic Church and by a decision of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Inokentie Moskovskiy and Apostle of Siberia and America was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.