Editing Peter the Aleut

{{Short description|Christian martyr and saint (died 1815)}}
{{Infobox saint
|name= Saint Peter the Aleut
|birth_name=Cungagnaq
|birth_date=
|death_date=1815
|death_place=
|feast_day= [[September 24 (Orthodox Liturgics)|September 24]]; December 12
|venerated_in= [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
|image=Saint Peter the Aleut.jpg
|imagesize=300px
|caption= Icon of St. Peter the Aleut
|titles=Martyr of San Francisco and Protomartyr of America
|beatified_date= 
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=1980
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=[[Orthodox Church in America]]
|attributes=portrayed as an Aleut youth, wearing a traditional gut [[parka]]<ref name=icon>[http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/icons/icon_peter_aleut.html Icon: St. Peter the Aleut] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171308/http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/icons/icon_peter_aleut.html |date=2016-03-03 }}, [[Creighton University]]</ref>
|patronage=
|major_shrine=
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}
'''Cungagnaq''' ({{langx|ru|Чукагнак|Chukagnak}}; died 1815) is venerated as a [[martyr]] and [[saint]] (as '''Peter the [[Aleut]]'''; {{langx|ru|Пётр Алеу́т|Pyotr Aleút}}) by the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]].  He was a native of [[Kodiak Island]] ([[Alutiiq people|Alutiiq or Sugpiaq]]), and received the [[Christianity|Christian]] name of '''Peter''' when he was baptized into the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] faith by the monks of [[Herman of Alaska|St Herman]]'s [[missionary|missionaries]] operating in the north.<ref name=allsaints>[http://www.allsaintsofamerica.org/orthodoxy/peter.html All Saints of North America], an Orthodox Church in Virginia, USA {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627100001/http://www.allsaintsofamerica.org/orthodoxy/peter.html |date=June 27, 2013 }}</ref>  In 1815, he was captured by [[Spain|Spanish]] soldiers near San Pedro, tortured and killed either there or at a nearby location. [[Semyon Ivanovich Yanovsky|Semyon Yanovsky]]'s letter, which was the first account of Peter's alleged martyrdom, written 50 years after his murder, describes Peter as being murdered and tortured by Spanish soldiers on the orders of the [[Jesuit order|Jesuits]].<ref>[http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=102713 Text of Yanofsky's account of the martyrdom of Peter the Aleut, contained in his letter to Abbot Damascene (at Orthodox Church in America website)]</ref><ref>For a translation of the letter, see ''The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission in America, 1794-1837'', pp. 80-89.</ref> However, historians reject the involvement of the Jesuits because they were not present in the territory at the time.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14100a.htm Pollen, John Hungerford. "The Jesuits After the Restoration (1814-1912)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 25 Aug. 2014]</ref><ref>[http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=244 Moses, Bernard. "Charles III: Expulsion of the Jesuits (1767)", ''Spain's Declining Power in South America, 1730-1806'' (Berkeley, Calif., 1919), pp. 104-106]</ref><ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14096a.htm Pollen, John Hungerford. "The Suppression of the Jesuits (1750-1773)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 25 Aug. 2014]</ref>

==Martyrdom==
At the time identified for Peter's death, [[Alta California|California]] was Spanish territory, and Spain was worried about [[Russian colonization of the Americas|Russian advances]] southwards from [[Russian Alaska|Alaska]].<ref name=umich>[http://www.umich.edu/~ocf/saint_peter_the_aleut.htm Saint Peter the Aleut], Oct 22 1999, [[University of Michigan]]</ref> According to the most fully developed version of the story, in 1815 a group of Russian employees of the [[Russian American Company]] and their [[Aleut people|Aleut]] [[seal (mammal)|seal]] and [[otter]] [[hunter]]s, including Peter, was captured by [[Spain|Spanish]] soldiers, while hunting illicitly for seals near San Pedro, (which has variably been interpreted as either [[San Pedro, Los Angeles]]<ref name="primary-sources">[http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/02/02/primary-sources-on-st-peter-the-aleut/ Namee, Matthew (et al, for comments following main article). "Primary Sources on St. Peter the Aleut" OrthodoxHistory.org (see both main article and following comments)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203220643/http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/02/02/primary-sources-on-st-peter-the-aleut/ |date=February 3, 2011 }}</ref> or as [[San Pedro y San Pablo Asistencia]] (in [[Pacifica, California]]).  According to the original account, the soldiers took them to "the mission in Saint-Pedro" for interrogation.<ref name="original-account">[http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/10/24/peter-the-aleut-the-original-martyrdom-account/ Namee, Matthew. "Peter the Aleut: the original martyrdom account", OrthodoxHistory.org]{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111215105043/http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/10/24/peter-the-aleut-the-original-martyrdom-account/ |date=December 15, 2011 }}</ref> One Russian source states that after being taken prisoner near modern Los Angeles, the captives were taken to Mission Dolores—that is, modern [[San Francisco]].<ref name=umich /><ref>[http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/andre/i_unity.html McNichols Icon: St. Peter the Aleut and St. Andrew Bobola, SJ<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091231182126/http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/andre/i_unity.html |date=2009-12-31 }}, Creighton University</ref>

==Historicity==
The only contemporary account of Peter the Aleut is contained in a lengthy letter written on November 22, 1865, by [[Semyon Ivanovich Yanovsky|Semyon Yanovsky]] to Damascene, abbot of the [[Valaam Monastery]] in [[Finland]], 50 years after his death.<ref>[http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=102713 Text of Yanofsky's account of the martyrdom of Peter the Aleut, contained in his letter to Abbot Damascene (at Orthodox Church in America website)]</ref><ref>For a translation of the letter, see ''The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission in America, 1794-1837'', pp. 80-89.</ref> Yanovsky (1789–1876), who is also one of the chief sources of information about [[Herman of Alaska|St. Herman of Alaska]], was chief manager of the Russian colonies from 1818 to 1820. In the letter he was reporting on an incident that he had heard from a supposed eyewitness, and that had taken place fifty years earlier in 1815.  The letter contains the description of Peter being tortured by "Jesuits" but this would have been virtually impossible, as the [[Jesuit order]] had been expelled from all Spanish territories in 1767,<ref>[http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=244 Moses, Bernard. "Charles III: Expulsion of the Jesuits (1767)", ''Spain's Declining Power in South America, 1730-1806'' (Berkeley, Calif., 1919), pp. 104-106]</ref> suppressed generally in 1773,<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14096a.htm Pollen, John Hungerford. "The Suppression of the Jesuits (1750-1773)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 25 Aug. 2014]</ref> and had only been reconstituted in 1814 (one year before Peter's alleged death). In 1815 there were no Jesuits within several thousand miles of California, as the reconstitution of the Jesuits in New Spain (that is, Mexico) would not take place until 1816.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14100a.htm Pollen, John Hungerford. "The Jesuits After the Restoration (1814-1912)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 25 Aug. 2014]</ref> There were only [[Franciscans]] in California at the time, and it would be highly unlikely that anyone could confuse members of the two well-known and very dissimilar orders. Yanovsky adds, "At the time I reported all this to the Head Office in [[St. Petersburg]]." And indeed, this earlier communication, his official dispatch to the company's main office—dated Feb. 15, 1820, five years after the event—also relates the story of St. Peter's martyrdom, albeit with different details.<ref>See ''The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission in America, 1794-1837'', cited below, p. 177.</ref>

Other historical sources describe an indecent between Russians and Spaniards, but do not mention Peter or the Jesuits explicitly. [[Hubert Howe Bancroft]], in his multi-volume ''History of California'', only notes that one Russian source accused "the Spaniards of cruelty to the captives" in connection with an incident wherein a [[Russian fur-hunting]] expedition was taken into custody after declining to leave San Pedro.<ref>Ivan Kuskof was a sailor and official associated with the [[Russian-American Company]]</ref><ref>Bancroft, p. 308, see footnote referencing "Barânof, Shizneopissanie, 135-6; Khébnikof, Zapiski, 11; Tikhmenef, Istor. Obosranie, i. 213, 216."</ref>

==Location of martyrdom and "San Pedro"==
Peter the Aleut has been referred to as a "martyr of San Francisco".<ref name="umich"/><ref name="deathtotheworld">[http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/st-peter-the-aleut/ Valadez, John. "Saint Peter: The First American Born Martyr". Death to the World. February 8, 2013]</ref> Additionally, many modern descriptions of the martyrdom of Peter the Aleut often describe the event as occurring "in San Francisco",<ref name="goarch">[http://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=334 "Holy New Martyr Peter the Aleut" Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America]</ref><ref>[http://www.roca.org/OA/7/7a.htm Podmoshensky, (Abbot) Herman. "America’s New Saints - Protomartyrs Juvenal and Peter the Aleut" Orthodox America] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001212150800/http://www.roca.org/OA/7/7a.htm |date=December 12, 2000 }}</ref> and others describe the Native Alaskan traders as being brought "to San Francisco".<ref name=umich/> Other sources can be found describing the event as occurring near Los Angeles or in Southern California.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.synod.com/01newstucture/pagesen/news04/fortross.html|title = Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia}}</ref> These varying descriptions of the location may be based on varying oral traditions, varying understandings of the relationship of the location of the martyrdom and Fort Ross, and also on varying interpretations of references to "San Pedro" in the original historical documents.

The earliest historical sources about the death of Peter the Aleut describe the event as taking place in or near "the mission of San Pedro".<ref name="primary-sources"/><ref name="original-account"/><ref name="Bucko">[http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2007/2007-3.html Bucko, Raymond A., S.J. St. Peter the Aleut:Sacred Icon and the Iconography of Violence Creighton University] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808195432/http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2007/2007-3.html |date=August 8, 2007 }}</ref> Some have taken this to refer to [[San Pedro y San Pablo Asistencia]], a "sub-mission" of [[Mission San Francisco de Asís]] (also known as Mission Dolores). San Pedro y San Pablo Asistencia was located on the site of the modern-day [[Sánchez Adobe Park]] in modern-day [[Pacifica, California]].

Others have interpreted the historical description to refer to the dock in [[San Pedro, Los Angeles]] (now located in modern-day [[Los Angeles]]), which was used at the time as a trading post by Spanish missionary friars from [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel]].<ref>[http://portoflosangeles.org/idx_history.asp "History" The Port of Los Angeles]{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126212805/http://portoflosangeles.org/idx_history.asp |date=November 26, 2010 }}</ref> Such an interpretation of "San Pedro" fits well with other references to geographical locations in the historical documents, including an island named Santa Rosa (interpreted to refer to [[Santa Rosa Island, California|Santa Rosa Island]]) an island named "Climant" (interpreted to refer to [[San Clemente Island]]) and an island named Ekaterina, (interpreted by some to refer to [[Santa Catalina Island, California|Catalina Island]]).<ref name="primary-sources"/><ref name="Bucko"/> These documents also describe the captured Native Alaskan traders as transferred to Fort Ross, by way of sequential stops in Santa Barbara and [[Monterey, California|Monterey]]. This interpretation of a Southern Californian location for the martyrdom is further supported by a letter contemporaneous to the alleged martyrdom event from Franciscan Fr. [[José Francisco de Paula Señan]] dated June 19, 1816 (but which runs counter to allegations of [[forced conversion]] and violence against the Native hunters from [[Russian America]]), which describes the capture and transfer of "Russian Indians" to the Santa Barbara Presidio from Mission San Buenaventura (in modern-day [[Ventura, California]]).<ref name="Bucko"/>

==Veneration==
[[File:SaintPeter&SaintHerman.jpg|thumb|[[Icon]] of Saint Peter with [[Herman of Alaska|St. Herman]] in an Orthodox parish in the United States]] According to Yanovsky's 1865 letter, upon receiving the report of Peter's death, [[Herman of Alaska|St. Herman]] on Kodiak Island was moved to cry out, "Holy new-martyr Peter, pray to God for us!"<ref name=umich/> Peter the Aleut was glorified as a saint by the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] and locally glorified by the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120810222355/http://dioceseofalaska.org/ Diocese of Alaska] of the [[Orthodox Church in America]] as the "Martyr of San Francisco" in 1980.  His [[feast day]] is celebrated on [[September 24 (Orthodox Liturgics)|September 24]] or December 12. A number of churches have been dedicated to him in North America, including churches at [[Lake Havasu City]], [[Arizona]],<ref>[http://saintpeterthealeut.org/ St. Peter the Aleut Orthodox Christian Church, Lake Havasu City, Ariz.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711031358/http://saintpeterthealeut.org/ |date=July 11, 2012 }}</ref> [[Minot]], [[North Dakota]],<ref>[http://www.oca.org/DIRlisting.asp?SID=9&KEY=OCA-MW-MINSPA St. Peter the Aleut Church, Minot, ND]</ref> [[Calgary]],<ref>[http://www.oca.org/DIRlisting.asp?SID=9&KEY=OCA-CA-CALSPM Holy Martyr Peter the Aleut Church, Calgary, AB]</ref> and [[Abita Springs]], [[Louisiana]].<ref>[http://www.roacusa.org/SaintPeter/htdocs/ Saint Peter the Aleut Orthodox Mission, Southeast Louisiana<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905191601/http://www.roacusa.org/SaintPeter/htdocs |date=2008-09-05 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Il'mena]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{Citation | last = Bancroft | first = Hubert Howe | author-link = Hubert Howe Bancroft | title = California, Vol. II, 1801-1824 | place = San Francisco | publisher = A. L. Bancroft & Company | series = History of the Pacific States of North America | volume = 14 | year = 1882 | chapter = XIV. Russians in California - Foundation and Progress of Fort Ross | chapter-url = https://archive.org/stream/historyofpacific14bancrich#page/308/mode/1up | pages = 307–309 | language = English | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofpacific14bancrich | lccn = 01022960 | oclc = 648737}} ([https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=v74UAAAAYAAJ Google Play Books link])
*Farris, Glenn, "The Strange Tale of Saint Peter, the Aleut: A Russian Orthodox Martyr on the California Frontier". A paper presented at "The Spanish Missions and California Indians Symposium," D-Q University, 3 March 1990.
*Ogden, Adele, ''The California Sea Otter Trade 1784-1848''. (University of California Publications in History, 26). (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1941).
*''The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission in America, 1794–1837, with Materials Concerning the Life and Works of the Monk German, and Ethnographic Notes by the Hieromonk Gedeon.'' Originally published in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1894. Translated from the Russian by Colin Bearne; ed. by [[Richard A. Pierce]] (Kingston, Ont., Canada: Limestone Press, 1978).
*Tarakanoff, Vassili Petrovitch, ''Statement of My Captivity Among the Californians'' (Los Angeles: Glen Dawson Press, 1953).
*Tikhmenev, P. A, ''A History of the Russian-American Company''.  Translated and edited by Richard Pierce and Alton Donnelly. (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1978).

==External links==
* [http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=102713 Full text of Yanofsky's account of the martyrdom of Peter (Orthodox Church in America website)]
* [http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/01/31/is-the-st-peter-the-aleut-story-true/ Namee, Matthew. "Is the St. Peter the Aleut story true?", OrthodoxHistory.org, January 31, 2011]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peter, The Aleut}}
[[Category:Alaskan Creole people]]
[[Category:18th-century births]]
[[Category:1815 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:19th-century Eastern Orthodox martyrs]]
[[Category:19th-century executions of American people]]
[[Category:Alaska Native people]]
[[Category:American saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church]]
[[Category:American people of Aleut descent]]
[[Category:American people of Russian descent]]
[[Category:American Orthodox child saints]]
[[Category:Christians from Alaska]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodoxy in Alaska]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodoxy in California]]
[[Category:Executed people from Alaska]]
[[Category:People executed by dismemberment]]
[[Category:People executed by New Spain]]
[[Category:People from Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska]]
[[Category:People from Russian America]]
[[Category:Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from California]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from Alaska]]