The first female Orthodox saint in North America was an Indigenous woman who spent her entire life with her Yup'ik family and ...

Last month, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized a new saint: Olga Michael, who lived in the small ton of Kwethluk, Alaska, until her death in 1979. St. Olga is the first Yup’ik to be canonized in ...

St. Olga, a Yup'ik woman who died in 1979 at age 63, was a midwife, a mother of 13 and the wife of an Orthodox Christian priest, honored as a spiritual mother by the title of “matushka.” ...

When the bishops of the Orthodox Church in America authorized St. Olga’s canonization in 2023, there was talk of moving her body to Anchorage as a more accessible location.

The Orthodox Church of America said in the press release that “Every state, including Washington, honors the clergy-penitent privilege. ...

When the bishops of the Orthodox Church in America authorized St. Olga’s canonization in 2023, there was talk of moving her body to Anchorage as a more accessible location.

Worshippers, including an Orthodox priest wearing a black cassock, walk on the dusty streets of Kwethluk, Alaska, on June 19, 2025, heading to St. Nicholas Orthodox Church for the canonization ...

Worshippers fill St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Kwethluk, Alaska, on June 19, 2025, for the canonization ceremony of St. Olga, the first female Orthodox saint in North America. (AP Photo/Mark ...