Saint Peter is the 2nd Russian Orthodox Saint connected with the history of the Russian American Company in California and of Settlement Ross on our own Sonoma Coast. The other is Father Veniaminov who was from Siberia, Russia and did much of his service in Alaska. He briefly visited Settlement Ross, returned to Alaska, eventually to Russia and was canonized as Saint Innocent in the last century.
As with all martyrdoms the story of Saint Peter is considered controversial but accepted by the Orthodox Church of America and he was canonized an American Saint in 1980. A native of Kodiak Island, Alaska, Chukagnak, whose Christian name was Peter worked for the Russian American Company as an ocean fur mammal hunter using a baidarka, Russian for kayak. In 1815 Peter was arrested in Cabo San Pedro waters with 23 other Aleuts. Priests tried to force the Alaskan hunters to embrace Roman Catholicism. The prisoners replied, “We are Christians; we have been baptized.”; And showed their orthodox crosses to the priest. “No, you are heretics.” is said to have been the response. The captives were told to think it over. Everyone but Kyglaya and Peter were taken to Santa Barbara. Coming back later that night the priests found that
these two men still refused to renounce Russian Orthodoxy. These men were then told that they were to be tortured until they would embrace Catholicism. One man, Kyglaya would survive and be witness to the eventual death of Peter who while being tortured was only to have said “I am a Christian; I will not betray my faith.”
In the morning an order came to move the remaining prisoner to Santa Barabara. Kyglaya managed to escape. He was eventually picked up by a Russain ship and returned to Fort Ross allowing Kyglaya to tell the story. Upon hearing the story much later Father Herman in Alaska is said to have immediately turned to an icon and pronounced “Holy new Martyr Peter, pray to God for us!”
Stephen Little Bear,
(fourth from left) himself part Choctaw, avid kayaker and builder of his own kayak in much the traditional way of the
original men, is piecing together the details of this story. Little Bear’s keen
interest in the Native Alaskan people, their cultural ways and the truth about Saint Peter’s story has led him to speak with Orthodox
priests here and in Alaska, to Catholic priests, to historians in the U.S. and Russia and to
researching in a variety of historical documents. Little Bear has also made contact with an anonymous iconographer who has elaborated
on her original exquisite icon of Saint Peter and made Little Bear a new one just for him. This incredible icon was blessed by Father
Shcherbakov in a liturgy at the Cultural Heritage Day at Fort Ross this past July 26.Whether or not the story can be fully documented remains to be seen. Certainly there are so many threads of the story interwoven in various documents of the past that someday we may see a completed picture. It must be said that no matter what is the end result we must reflect and honor those men and women in history who have stood by their convictions no matter the cost, including the loss of one’s own life.