Department for External Church Relations
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Administrator of Patriarchal parishes in the USA and Canada takes part in celebrations marking the glorification of St. Olga of Kwethluk (Alaska)
DECR Communication Service, 24/06/2025
On 18th – 22nd June 2025, celebrations marking the canonization of the Holy Righteous Olga of Kwethluk (Alaska) took place in Alaska in compliance with the Proclamation of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America on the Glorification of the Righteous Servant of God Matushka Olga, issued on 8th November 2023.
At the invitation of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada, taking part in the festive divine services was Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, interim administrator of the Patriarchal parishes in the USA and Canada. His Grace was accompanied on his pilgrimage to Alaska by Priest Mark Rashkov, vice-chancellor of the Patriarchal parishes in the USA, and his personal secretary, Subdeacon Nikolai Trubnikov.
In the evening of 21st June, the eve of the commemoration day of the synaxis of the saints who shone forth in the Russian and American lands, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada officiated at the All-Night Vigil in the Cathedral of St. Innocent in Anchorage. A reliquary containing a particle of St. Olga’s holy relics had been brought to the cathedral from Kwethluk the day before.
Concelebrating with the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America were Archbishop Alexei of Alaska, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco, Bishop James of Sonora (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia), Archbishop Michael of New York and New Jersey, Bishop Andrei of Cleveland, and Bishop Gerasim of Fort Worth; as well as an assembly of the OCA clergy and numerous ordained pilgrims from different Orthodox jurisdictions. A thousand pilgrims came to the church that evening to venerate the holy relics of the newly glorified saint.
On 22nd June, 2nd Sunday after Pentecost and commemoration day of all the saints who shone forth in the Russian and American lands, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon officiated at the Divine Liturgy in St. Innocent Cathedral in Anchorage.
After the service, His Beatitude warmly greeted his concelebrants and numerous pilgrims who had come a long way to take part in the church-wide celebrations that marked the canonization of the new North American saint.
Bishop Matthew of Sourozh conveyed to Metropolitan Tikhon and his blessed flock heartfelt greetings from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ and noted that the Holy Righteous Matushka Olga had been the first among the North American saints to be born in the USA, becoming a “wonderful fruit of the salvific sowing work” of the Russian Orthodox missionaries of the previous centuries.
Bishop Matthew presented to His Beatitude an icon of St. Vladimir, Equal-of-the-Apostles, Baptizer of Rus’, with Saints Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, and Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev. He also presented an icon of Prophet Elijah to Archbishop Alexei of Alaska, and an icon of St. Tikhon and the Holy Hieromartyr Alexander Hotovitzky to Archpriest Thomas Rivas, sacristan of St. Innocent Cathedral.
Patriarch
Department Chairman
Sermons
24.01.2021
06.11.2020