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Thu Oct 22, 2015, 08:43 AM Oct 2015

'It's a whole other world': religious pilgrims venture deep into Alaska forest

Pilgrims from as far as Russia descend up the small town of Kodiak to honor a Russian Orthodox saint who lived and died in the archipelago centuries ago

Ryan Schuessler
Thursday 22 October 2015 08.19 EDT

Celeste Englehardt has traveled all over the world to pray.

A Russian Orthodox Christian from Washington, DC’s Virginia suburbs, Englehardt’s faith has taken her to Jerusalem, Ukraine, Moldova – even to the ruins of ancient Orthodox monasteries in Ireland. And now an island in Alaska’s Kodiak Archipelago is among the holy sites she has visited.

“Sometimes you can’t describe things,” Englehardt said, sitting on a beached log on Spruce Island in the Gulf of Alaska, choking back tears. “Because you feel it in your heart and your soul, and there’s a peace. There’s a peace beyond understanding.”

In August, Englehardt was one of some 200 pilgrims who descended upon the Alaskan fishing town of Kodiak to honor a Russian Orthodox saint who lived and died in the archipelago centuries ago.

Indigenous Alutiiq people have been making the journey across this short stretch of the Gulf of Alaska to Spruce Island for centuries, and pilgrims come here year round. But the August pilgrimage has come to draw large international crowds – including a growing number of Russians – since Father Herman became North America’s first canonized Orthodox saint 45 years ago.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/religious-pilgrim-russian-orthodox-kodiak-alaska

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