Our venerable father Herman of Alaska (1756 – December 13, 1837) was an 18th century missionary to Alaska. He was an Orthodox monk from Valaam Monastery in Russia who traveled with eight other monks in 1793 to bring the Gospel to the native Aleuts and Eskimos in the Aleutian Islands. St. Herman’s trek is the longest overland Orthodox missionary journey ever undertaken, spanning approximately one-fourth of the earth’s circumference.
As part of the Russian colonization of the Americas, Russians had been exploring and trading there since at least 1740. Thus, he is part of the first arrival of Orthodox Christian missionaries in North America. He built a school for the Aleutians, and he often defended them from the injustices and exploitation of the Russian traders. He was known to them as Apa which means “Grandfather.” He lived most of his life as the sole resident of Spruce Island, a tiny wooded island near Kodiak Island.
St. Herman’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska, is named in his honor. A portion of his relics are enshrined at the St. Ignatius Chapel at the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, where he is regarded as one of their patron saints.
–information taken from the OrthodoxWiki entry on St. Herman