Saint Peter the Aleut

Source: The Faithful Steward, Issue 8, 1999, pp. 11-12.

 

 

Alaska, twice the size of the state of Texas, was the birthplace of Orthodoxy in America and the home of America’s second martyr, Saint Peter the Aleut.* In 1794, eight monks including the future Saint Herman of Alaska left the Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga in Russia and, traveling through Siberia, made the grueling journey to America in order to spread the light of Orthodoxy among the pagan inhabitants of what was then called “Russian America.” When the party landed on Kodiak Island, they met the local Indians and began immediately converting them to the Faith.

The Orthodox monks taught by personal example and with much love and gentleness they encouraged the people to learn about Christ. As they spread among the Aleutians and through the Alaskan mainland, the monks worked hard and learned the local languages. Through patient teaching they were able to convert whole tribes of these Indians, including the Aleut tribe inhabiting the Aleutian Island chain that stretches southwest from the Alaskan mainland.

Aleut Indians were often hired by Russian fur traders to hunt sea otters, whose pelts brought high prices in China. With their ships, the fur traders would bring the hunters to islands or coastal areas where otters abounded. During the day the hunters stalked the beautiful animals in bidarkas (hunting kayaks) and brought their prey back to land each evening. They would remain in an area as long as the hunting was good. When otters diminished in that area, the hunters would move on to new territory.

Not many details of Saint Peter’s life are known to us. For example, we do not know his date of birth or when he was converted to the Faith. We do know that in 1813 the future Saint Peter was one of 50 Aleuts who agreed to sail down the coast of North America and hunt with the Russians. At that time, much of California was claimed by Spain. The Spanish believed that Russia was preparing to attack them and did not want Russian ships or people anywhere near their territory.

The hunting party sailed south along the coast with little success until it reached the area of San Francisco, which was guarded by the Spanish. There four Indian hunters were captured by Spaniards when their bidarkas overturned. But the Russians continued to sail south to hunt, even though they were moving ever deeper into Spanish territory. Nearing Santa Barbara, their supplies ran low and several Russians and Aleuts, including Saint Peter, landed to hunt for fresh meat. The entire party was captured by soldiers on horseback, who bound them together with ropes. The prisoners were forced to march, first to Santa Barbara, then south all the way to Los Angeles. While being held captive, the men were treated as slaves. They were beaten frequently, received little food or clothing, and were forced to perform labor in the fields. After about a year, they were marched back north to the mission in San Francisco.

California’s Spanish missions at that time were actually forts for Franciscan missionary priests and for the soldiers who protected them. The Franciscans usually built their forts with the help of trusting Indians, who were paid in food, clothing, and trinkets. Only after the chapel, barracks, and dwellings had been circled by a high, strong fence did the natives realize that they had built themselves a prison. Since the missionaries felt that they had “converted” the Indians to the Catholic faith, they kept a very close watch to prevent their return to their native religion, in which they worshipped the sun, moon, and earth, as well as animals and plants.

The Indians received from the Franciscans little religious instruction in their own language, and few of them understood much about their supposed new faith. The Franciscans tried to “civilize” the Indians by requiring most of the men to work in the mission’s extensive agricultural holdings. Under Mexican rule the missions were secularized during 1833 and 1834 and the Indians released from servitude. Many mission lands were subsequently given to settlers from Mexico, who established vast cattle-raising estates. The colonization of California remained largely Mexican until Americans began arriving in the 1840s.) Others they taught useful trades. The women were kept separate from the men and were taught to cook and weave. Indians who ran away were usually caught by the soldiers and punished severely. For any disobedience or sin the monks whipped the Indians or punished them in other ways. The Franciscans regarded the Indians as children who could not understand any other treatment.

The Catholic priests at the mission in San Francisco were especially notorious for their cruelty toward the Indians. And not surprisingly, these same priests were perennially eager for “converts.” As well as losing many workers in an epidemic, their mission compiled a high rate of runaways. When Saint Peter and his fellow prisoners arrived, after receiving beatings along the way, the Franciscans pressured the Aleuts to become Catholic. The Aleuts answered, “We are Christians, we have been baptized,” and showed the crosses they wore on their necks. But the Franciscans responded, “No, you are heretics and schismatics, and if you do not agree to accept the Catholic faith, we will torture you to death.”

Then they put the men in prison, two to a cell, to give them a chance to ponder this threat. In the evening, the Franciscans came with lanterns and lighted candles and again began pressuring the Aleuts to renounce Orthodoxy and become Catholic. All repeated that they were already Christians and would not change their Faith. The Franciscans took Saint Peter and began to torture him slowly in the hope that the others would be terrified into apostatizing and joining Rome. They cut off the first joint of his toes, one toe at a time, and then the next joint. He endured everything, constantly repeating, “I am a Christian and will not change my Faith.” Then they cut off one joint from each of his fingers, then the next joint, then the next. Finally, they cut off his hands and feet. With the help of the Holy Spirit he endured heroically, like Saint James the Persian who also was slowly chopped to bits by his executioners. While still undergoing torture, the soldier for Christ Peter gave up his spirit from loss of blood. Until the end he continued to repeat this one phrase, “I am a Christian and will not change my Faith.” Saint Peter reposed on September 8/21, 1815.

The Franciscans left the other prisoners to mull over the atrocity until morning when they, too, the Franciscans promised, would die by torture unless they converted. But that night the soldiers received orders to send the Aleut prisoners under guard to Monterey, the capital of Upper California. In the morning the surviving Aleuts left for Monterey. Eventually Saint Peter’s former cell mate escaped and spread word about his friend’s martyrdom.

Since the bodies of Indians at the San Francisco mission were thrown into unmarked graves, the site of Saint Peter’s burial is not known. Thus unless God chooses to reveal them, we are deprived of his holy relics. But the courageous example of this Aleut Indian who loved Christ more than his own life has survived to inspire the Orthodox in America and across the world.

Holy New Martyr Peter the Aleut, pray unto God for us!

 

* The first Orthodox martyr in America was Hieromonk Juvenaly, who, after converting some 5,000 inhabitants of the Alaskan mainland, was slain for the faith in 1796 near Lake Iliamna.