The elder Herman of Alaska, missionary monk of Spruce Island near Kodiak, died on the thirteenth of December in 1837. He is the first formally canonized saint of the Orthodox Church in America.l   The feast day of his death now forms a central part of the liturgical celebration of the Winter Pascha for Orthodox Christians living in North America. O joyful North Star of the Church of Christ, Guiding all men to the heavenly kingdom.