A church bell rang out on a misty July morning in Kwethluk as a procession of Orthodox believers gathered at the old St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and cemetery, a short distance from the muddy banks of the Kwethluk River.
They were holding a panikhida memorial blessing at the gravesite of Olinka Arrsamquq Michael, known as “Matushka Olga.” She recently became St. Olga, the first female Orthodox saint in North America, and the first-ever Yup’ik saint.
Now, there are big plans for St. Olga. The head of the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sitka and Alaska, Bishop Alexei, along with clergy from across Western Alaska, visited Kwethluk for three days to deliver services and discuss these plans as part of the church’s Kuskokwim Conference.
“Through the help of our saint, of St. Olga, we’re going to build a beautiful church, a beautiful church to St. Olga, Arrsamquq, in this beautiful land. This is the beginning,” Alexei said.
But before any of this can happen, the Orthodox church and its followers in Kwethluk must make her sainthood official through a process known as glorification.
“The bishops will come, and just as she was lowered into the grave, now she will be lifted up,” Alexei said.
That lifting up is scheduled to happen in November 2024, when the church will exhume St. Olga’s remains and place them in a reliquary. This is the ornate final resting place that local woodworkers have volunteered to construct, and that will eventually be moved to a new church now only in the early stages of the design process.
This summer, the Orthodox church plans to hold a grand ceremony in Kwethluk, inviting pilgrims from across Alaska and from far-flung parts of the Orthodox world where icons bearing the name “Blessed Matushka Olga of Alaska” have become commonplace. The services will include the first-ever Orthodox hymns written originally in Yugtun, the Yup’ik language.
With limited options for lodging, it remains to be seen how Kwethluk and the hub city of Bethel will handle an influx of potentially hundreds of pilgrims. But the church has already put out the call for volunteers with boats to be a part of history by shuttling pilgrims along the roughly 15 river miles separating the communities.
“She belongs with her people”
In recent decades, accounts of holy acts attributed to St. Olga both before and after her death in 1979 have reverberated among Orthodox believers. These range from her record of spiritual healing and midwifery while living, to vivid descriptions of her appearances in dreams as a healer of deep-seated trauma and abuse in the years since her death.
In the eyes of many in Kwethluk, including her direct descendants gathered around the gravesite, she has already long held a saint-like status in the community.
St. Olga’s daughter Agnes Ashapak, who attended the services in Kwethluk, said that her mother deserves the recognition.
“I think she has a right of being a saint, because she was the most gentlest person I've ever known in the world,” Ashapak said.
St. Olga’s youngest daughter, Matushka Helen Larson, said that she’s hopeful the ambitious plans surrounding her mother’s sainthood can help spread healing throughout the region. She said she’s glad her remains will stay in a part of Alaska where she has had such a positive impact.
“I think it will be better if she’s here because of the surrounding villages and the people of Kwethluk,” Larson said.
The Orthodox Church in America had previously proposed moving St. Olga’s relics to Anchorage for the convenience of pilgrims. But Bishop Alexei said that he believes keeping St. Olga in Kwethluk is the right thing to do.
“I think pilgrims that come here, they can see and understand the struggle and how simple acts of kindness here are really quite monumental,” Alexei said. “I think one can understand the saint actually here in a way that it's impossible to understand her at all in Anchorage.”
Bishop Alexei said that the feedback from the community has confirmed these sentiments.
“I heard, you know, with one voice that, yes, she belongs with her people for many, many reasons,” Alexei said.
But however compelling the reasons are, the long-term plans the church has proposed for Kwethluk will be expensive. The Alaska Diocese plans to raise the funds to not only build a large church to house St. Olga’s relics, but to also construct a lodge for pilgrims, and a Yup’ik cultural center within the next five to 10 years. They are currently working with Kwethluk’s tribal council to secure a suitable piece of land in the flood-prone community.
Bishop Alexei was recently featured in a video produced by the Alaska Diocese requesting donations for the project. He said that a large part of raising funds will simply be telling the story of St. Olga to more and more people.
“Telling the story, telling the story. And I think people, people will be moved to give,” Bishop Alexei said.
For now, the more immediate concern is the upcoming glorification of St. Olga. The event could be unprecedented for Kwethluk, and it could also be unprecedented for the hub city of Bethel as followers stream through to honor the first Yup’ik saint.
In whatever way the church’s ambitious plans pan out, St. Olga has already become a symbol for a region where both Orthodox tradition, and the spirit of kindness that she embodies, still run deep.
