Saint Innocent, Equal-to-the-Apostles

Saint Innocent was born in the city of Irkutsk in Russia in 1797 and named John. His father died when John was only 7 years old. His family became very poor. His uncle was a deacon and he looked after him.

John was very good at school. He learned to read well and when he was 7 years old he even read the Apostol in church! He went to study at a special church school.

When he was 20 years old John married and was made a deacon. A year later he was made a priest. He worked very hard and his parishioners loved him very much. He taught the children about their Christian faith.

When Father John was 26, his bishop started looking for a priest to go to Alaska look after the people there. There were many Russian hunters living in Alaska, and lots of Eskimos who did not know about our Lord Jesus Christ. Father John decided to go and with his matushka and family he travelled to Alaska.

It was a long and difficult trip! There were no trains or cars or aeroplanes in those days, and so they travelled on horseback and on foot, and then by sailing ship. It took over a year to get there!

Before Father John came, the natives were wild and prayed to statues. He found an old church there, but had to build a new one. He tried to learn the native language and all their customs, so that he could more easily teach them about Jesus Christ. He even translated the Holy Gospel into their language, using an alphabet that he had made up himself!

Father John's parish covered many thousands of miles. A lot of his time was spent travelling from island to island. On these trips he would baptise, teach the people about Jesus Christ, hear confessions, give Holy Communion to the people, and perform weddings and funerals. Sometimes he would paddle great distances by himself, over the sea in a tiny canoe!

Father John worked on one island for 10 years and eventually all the natives became Christians. Then his bishop asked him to move to another island where he stayed for 5 years, working just as hard. On this island, Father John looked after an injured eagle, which became his pet. Everywhere he taught the people to read and write, how to build and make candles and sew, and all about the Christian faith. All the people loved him greatly.

When Father John was 42 years old, he went on a trip back to Russia to get permission to print his translations of the Holy Gospel. He met the Tsar, who liked him very much. But sadly, a letter arrived to tell Father John that his matushka had died while he was away. Father John was broken-hearted.

Soon after this, the Tsar and the bishops decided that Father John should become a bishop for Alaska! He was given the name Innokenty (or “Innocent”) and went back to Alaska to continue his old work there. He travelled all over Eastern Siberia and the islands. Sometimes he went thousands of miles by dog sled! He also travelled by reindeer sled. Just as before, all his people loved him greatly.

When he was old, Bishop Innocent became sick. He was very surprised, then, when he found out that he was to become the Metropolitan of Moscow, the most important bishop of the whole Russian Church! He served in this position until 1879, when he died.

What a great worker for Christ Saint Innocent was! For nearly 50 years he worked in the most far-way and difficult places to teach people about Jesus Christ. Lots of people became Christians because of his hard work . Because of this, and because he worked as hard as the apostles to teach people about Jesus Christ, he is called “equal-to-the-apostles”. His feast day is on February 16 th (February 3 rd on the Church calendar).