Jacob of Alaska

 So far this month, I have been very busy, so I feel like I have been "phoning it in" on my Saint posts. Today I wanted to give you something more interesting. I was thinking of the time that my Dad spent as a hospital chaplain and remembered that I have recently gotten to know another hospital chaplain. Fr. Jacob lives at our parish and serves in the hospitals around the city.

When I did a search for "St. Jacob", I found a story that is a little outside my ordinary line. I hope that you will enjoy this side trip into Orthodoxy.

Jacob Netsvetov was born in 1802 on Atka Island, Alaska. His father was Russian, and his mother was an Aleut from Atka Island. When the family moved to Irkutsk, Russia, in 1823, Jacob enrolled in Irkutsk Theological Seminary. He was ordained as a subdeacon on October 1, 1825, as a deacon on October 31, 1826, and was elevated to the Holy Priesthood on March 4, 1828. The newly ordained Fr. Jacob yearned to return and minister in his native Alaska. Archbishop Michael provided the young priest with two antimensia (sacred altar cloths used in the Eastern Orthodox liturgy). One would be used in the new church that Fr. Jacob would build; the other would be for his missionary activity. Less than two months after his priestly ordination, he set out for Alaska with his father and his wife.

The Atka "parish" that comprised Fr. Jacob's new assignment stretched for nearly 2000 miles, including Amchitka, Attu, Copper, Bering, and the Kurile Islands. Being fully bi-lingual and bi-cultural, he was uniquely positioned to care for the souls of his Alaskan parishioners. When he arrived in Atka, the church had not yet been built. Fr. Jacob built a large tent in which to conduct liturgy. Later, when he traveled on his missionary journeys, he carried this tent with him. When he completed his first six months in his parish, Fr. Jacob recorded that he had baptized 16, chrismated 442, married 53 couples and buried 8.

At his parish, he built a school where the children would learn to read and write in both Russian and Unangen Aleut. He was very active both physically and intellectually. He hunted and gathered for his own sustenance, prepared specimens of fish and animals for natural history museums and corresponded with St. Innocent Veniaminov on matters of linguistics and translations. He created an alphabet in the Unangen-Aleut language and translated the scriptures. 

After the deaths of his wife and his father, Fr. Jacob petitioned his bishop for permission to return to Irkutsk and enter a monastery. Permission was granted contingent upon the arrival of a replacement. None ever came. Father was eventually convinced that God's plan for his life was with his flock in Alaska. He was appointed to lead the new Kvikhpak Mission. Here he learned new languages, embraced new peoples and cultures, devised another alphabet and built another church. He traveled hundreds of miles up and down the Yukon river and baptized hundreds of Indians, many from formerly hostile tribes. 

In 1863, one of Fr. Jacob's assistants leveled spurious and slanderous charges against him. He was summoned to Sitka by the bishop. He was quickly cleared of all charges, but his age and worsening health compelled him to remain in Sitka until his death on July 26, 1864.

Jacob Netsvetov was canonized by the Orthodox Church in America in 1994. His feast day is July 26.

St. Jacob of Alaska, pray for us.