The Righteous Priest Jacob Enlightener of the Alaskan

The Righteous Priest Jacob Enlightener of the Alaskan People The First Native-Born Saint of North America

Life of St. Jacob 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 8

1 St. Jacob was born in 1802 on Atka Island, Alaska into a pious Orthodox family. His father Yegor Netsvetov was a Russian from Tobolsk, and his mother Maria was an Aleut from Atka Island, AK.

2 The Netsvetov family moved to Irkutsk in Siberia in 1823, and St. Jacob decided not to follow his two brothers into the St. Petersburg Naval Academy. Instead, he enrolled in the Irkutsk Theological seminary.

3 After serving for sixteen months as a deacon, St. Jacob was ordained to the holy priesthood at Holy Trinity-St. Peter church in Irkutsk by Arbp Michael on March 4, 1828

4 Father Jacob’s deepest desire was to serve in Alaska. In the spring of 1828, his wife and father joined him on the arduous 13 -month journey to his island birthplace

5 Since there was no church building in Atka when he arrived, St. Jacob conducted services in a tent which he constructed with his own hands. He took this tent with him on his missionary journeys.

6 St. Jacob's Atka parish comprised a territory of more than 2, 000 miles, but this did not deter him from fulfilling his ministry. He traveled to remote villages and settlements, enduring great hardships in his missionary labors.

7 After building the church of St. Nicholas in Atka, St. Jacob also built a school to educate the Aleut children. Many who studied there became leaders of the Aleut communities in the next generation.

8 St. Jacob often consulted St. Innocent on matters of linguistics and translation. He also labored to create an Unangan-Aleut alphabet, translating Holy Scripture and other texts into Native Alaskan languages.

9 Following the deaths of his wife and father in 1836/7, a sorrowful St. Jacob requested to become a monk. Joining St. Innocent on board a ship bound for Kamchatka, the holy bishop comforted him, dissuaded him from the monastic life and encouraged him to continue his mission.

10 In 1844, St. Jacob was assigned to Ikogmiute (Russian mission) and labored tirelessly there, and also traveled throughout the Yukon/Kuskokwim region to preach to the Yupiks, bringing the light of Christ to the Yukon

11 In 1845, he converted and baptized the local shaman (leader) in the village of Kalskag after encourntering some initial resistance. The entire village followed the example of their leader. This was typical of St. Jacob's missionary labors

serve at a chapel in Sitka, where his flock was largely composed of Tlingets. St. Jacob fell asleep in the Lord on July 26, 1864, his funeral was at St. Michael's Cathedral

13 St. Jacob was proclaimed a saint by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America in March 1994. In October, glorification services of the newly-glorified saint were held in Anchorage, Alaska, presided by Metropolitan Theodosius

14 St. Jacob is venerated by the entire Orthodox Church in America (represented here by Metropolitan Theodosius and the Diocese of Alaska (represented here by Bishop Gregory).

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