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Bishop Matthew honors memory of St. Peter the Aleut at the site of his martyrdom

On December 20, 2024, after visiting St. Nicholas Cathedral in San Francisco, the Interim Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the United States & Canada proceeded to the nearby Mission San Francisco de Asis, also known as Mission Dolores, where he honored the memory of the holy martyr Peter the Aleut, who died for his faithfulness to Orthodoxy at this site in 1815.

At the historic cemetery near the cathedral, where the relics of the holy martyr are presumably buried in a mass grave, the Bishop and the clergy accompanying him performed a short moleben.

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Martyr Peter († 1815), an Aleut from Kodiak Island. In 1815, while still a youth, he and thirteen Aleut comrades sailed to the shores of California and were captured by the Spanish. The Franciscans began to persuade the Aleuts to renounce the Orthodox faith and accept Roman Catholicism, but the captives refused. A trial was held over the captured, and the Aleuts were then placed in prison, two to a cell.

Then they again tried to persuade two Aleut youths to renounce Orthodoxy. When they began to refuse, they gradually began to cut off Peter's fingers and other body parts, in the presence of his companion and friend. The martyr firmly professed Orthodoxy, repeating "I am a Christian" until his death, which occurred then from loss of blood.

Before they could execute the second youth in a similar manner, an order came from the Spanish authorities in Monterey to release the captives. So the second youth returned to the Russians and told Simeon Yanovsky about Peter's martyrdom, who in turn passed the information on to St. Petersburg. Reverend Herman of Alaska, having heard from Yanovsky about Peter's martyrdom, immediately turned to the newly departed saint with a prayer. In 1980, the youth Peter the Aleut was glorified as a locally venerated saint of the Sitka diocese.

Despite the fact that the martyr's name is not included in the menaion of the Russian Orthodox Church, his memory is sacredly honored by the faithful of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA together with the Orthodox Church in America on October 7 according to the new style.

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"The Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA - www.mospatusa.com"

 

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Published with the blessing of His Grace Matthew
Bishop of Sourozh
Interim Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA & Canada

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