His name was John Benjaminov. He was born in 1797 in the villages of the Siberian province of Irkutsk, where he was raised by his uncle after the death of his father. From an early age he showed a keen intellect and technical skill in carpentry and watchmaking. He remained active in his work until his last days. After his marriage he was ordained a priest for the Irkutsk parish when the Holy Synod asked for missionaries to preach in Alaska. Father John was not interested at first, but when a Russian immigrant told him about the piety of the Aleut people and their desire to hear the word of God, his heart was inflamed and he decided to go to America with his family.
After a journey of 14 months, they arrived at the island of Unalaska and found nothing but a ruined church where no one prayed because there was no priest, although a large number of the inhabitants had been baptized by previous missionaries. Father John built a church with his own hands with the help of the inhabitants and taught them carpentry and Christian education at the same time. He quickly learned the local language and began translating the Sunday and holiday Gospels and liturgical prayers. He traveled from island to island in a small boat, preaching, baptizing, and writing notes on the animals, plants, and customs of the people. He treated everyone with fatherly love and great patience. In the first four years, he wrote down the rules of the Aleut language, which until then had only been spoken, published the Bible, the Catechism, and the Book of Prayers, and wrote a book entitled “The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven,” a simple yet profound book that showed that the path opened by baptism alone certainly leads to eternal joy with Christ. The book became so popular that it was printed 47 times and translated into several languages.
After ten years there was not a single pagan left in Unalaska. Father John traveled to Sitka, a Russian settlement on the land of the Tlingit warrior tribe who were resisting the Christian message. Here, too, Father John learned the language and customs of the people and discovered a rich culture. But when half the people died from smallpox despite the prayers of the witches on their behalf, and no Russians were harmed, the people were convinced to be vaccinated against smallpox and began to respect the Russians and accept Father John’s teaching. After building the Church of the Archangel Michael, Father John spent his time writing, translating, doing carpentry, mechanics, and making musical instruments. Handicrafts were a unique evangelistic way of teaching people the faith and a profession from which he earned a decent living, and they helped bring Father John closer to the people. Father John also took an interest in establishing schools and providing books for the students.
As the evangelization expanded, Father John traveled to Russia to recruit priests and raise money to build churches. In Moscow he met Metropolitan Philaret, one of the most prominent church figures in Russia at the time - he had been canonized the previous year - and Father John's news was well received by the Holy Synod, which decided to support the mission in Alaska.
Meanwhile, when news of the death of Father John's wife reached him, Metropolitan Philaret pressured him to accept the episcopate, and he was ordained bishop of Kamchatka (the outskirts of Siberia) and Alaska with the name Innokendius, and the church took care of his six children. He returned to Sitka three years later with helpers and many donations, and began building churches and schools and founding a seminary. He then made a long pastoral tour of his vast diocese, traveling in a dog sled over the snow or on foot; he and his companion would stop for many days in a snow shelter because of storms, share food with the natives, sleep in their tents, preach to them, and build churches.
In 1850, the Yakut country was added to his diocese, so he began to learn their language, translate the Bible and the Mass, and preach. When the Russian Council elected two bishops to assist him, he extended the tour to Mandatory lands, reaching China from the north. He would pass through the villages, appoint servants, and tend to the needs of the people. He had grown old and his eyesight had weakened from traveling in the snow, so he decided to ask the Holy Council to relieve him of his service so that he could spend the rest of his life in a monastery. However, the Council surprised him by electing him as the successor to Metropolitan Philaret, Archbishop of Moscow.
For ten years he held the first position in the Church of Russia, achieving a spiritual revival and organizing institutions, especially the Russian Missionary Society. When he lost his sight permanently, he remained active in church administration, celebrating the Mass and prayers that he knew by heart. God took him in 1879 shortly before Easter Mass, and for 58 years he was a faithful servant of the Word. He was declared a saint in 1977 in America. The Church celebrates his feast on March 31.
It is worth mentioning that the saint of God was struck with blindness in the last days of his life, yet he managed the affairs of the Russian Church. He performed divine services relying on God’s grace and memory.
