Anchorage, June 23, 2025
Photo: adn.com
The Orthodox Church in America joyously celebrated the glorification of St. Olga of Alaska last week and over the weekend.
After months of intense preparation, hundreds of pilgrims descended upon the tiny remote Alaskan village of Kwethluk where St. Olga’s husband was once the priest and where she was buried after her repose in 1979.
Among the pilgrims were St. Olga’s four living children and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.
“One of the sons, James Michael, had been living in a nursing facility in Bethel after a stroke that left him with paralysis,” reports Anchorage Daily News.
Photo: adn.com
“On Friday morning, a medical team brought him upriver, itself a daunting logistical feat that involved using a portable stretcher. With great care, a group of people lifted him from the bed of a pickup and up the stairs into the church, where his daughter sat cradling his head as a stream of people stopped to kiss his forehead or quietly greet him… Eventually, a wheelchair was procured. His family and helpers carefully transferred him into it, and wheeled him into the church, where his mother—now known as the mother of all Alaska—was becoming a saint.
The celebrations in Kwethluk, and later in Anchorage, were presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, the primate of the Orthodox Church in America, with a host of brother hierarchs, including the local hierarch His Grace Bishop Alexei of Sitka and All Alaska, who initiated the canonization of St. Olga, and His Grace Bishop James of Sonora of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
Photo: adn.com
The celebrations began with the All-Night Vigil at the Church of St. Nicholas in Kwethluk on Thursday evening, during which the magnification to St. Olga was chanted for the first time, as OrthoChristian reported on Friday.
The next morning, the eight hierarchs celebrated the Divine Liturgy, led by Met. Tikhon:
The homily was offered by Bp. Alexei, beginning at 1:09:30 in the video above.
“Today, the Holy Church in Alaska joins the choirs of Heaven, glorifying our beloved Matushka. Yes, today Heaven rejoices; today the earth listens. The land does not shout, but it listens. For the stillness deeper than words, it listens. The tundra listens. The rivers pause. Even the summer sky grows still. A saint has appeared. Not from a distant land. Not from a forgotten time, but from right here and right now in Kwethluk. From the heart of our land, from the soul of our people, St. Olga stands revealed,” His Grace proclaimed.
“The world praises loud greatness, but Heaven treasures quiet, soft holiness. St. Olga claimed no titles, sought no fame. Yet her compassion became her crown, her humble prayer her strength. And now the Church proclaims what many already knew in their heart: Our Matushka Olga from Kwethluk was a saint. Our St. Olga. She lived quietly. But her life still speaks. And what does it say? It says that holiness is possible. That God is near and that even in sorrow, even in silence, you too can become a light of this world.”
Photo: adn.com
Following the Liturgy, the people of Kwethluk hosted the hierarchs, clergy, and pilgrims to a festive banquet at the local school. Later that evening, the hierarchs and clergy traveled to Anchorage, where the celebrations continued at the St. Innocent Cathedral.
In Anchorage, the OCA and ROCOR hierarchs were also joined by His Grace Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes in the U.S. and Canada. Watch the All-Night Vigil from Anchorage:
Watch the Divine Liturgy from Anchorage:
The glorification of St. Olga was a deeply moving experience for many. One pilgrim, Marii Qagnax Swe wrote:
There are moments in life that leave an imprint far deeper than memory—moments that settle in the soul. Attending the glorification of Holy Matushka Olga, now Saint Olga, in Kwethluk, was one of those moments for me. It was more than just witnessing a ceremony; it was standing in the presence of something deeply holy, deeply human, and beyond description.
The prayers, the unity, the ancestral reverence, the tears, the land—all of it wove together in a way that language can't contain. To try to explain it is like trying to capture the northern lights in a sentence—you can describe the colors, but not the awe. What I experienced was a moment in time where heaven and earth seemed to touch, and I was simply present, humbled, and grateful…
See the Facebook group My Alaska Orthodox Christian World for more reflections, videos, and photos from the four days of services.
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