KWETHLUK, Alaska — It was in the dusty streets and modest homes of this remote Alaska Native village that Olga Michael quietly lived her entire life as a midwife and a mother of 13. As the wife of an ...

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 of Kwethluk, Matushka of All Alaska," as she is officially known, was canonized June 19 as the first female Orthodox saint from North America.

Several Orthodox monks and martyrs with ties to Alaska have already been canonized in the Orthodox Church in America, the now-independent offspring of the Russian Orthodox Church. St. Olga is the ...

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 ...

St. Olga is the third with Alaska Native heritage recognized by the Orthodox Church in America, following the 19th century St. Peter the Aleut and St. Yakov Netsvetov of Alaska, who was of Aleut ...

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 ...

Now, after an elaborate ceremony in her village of about 800 people in southwestern Alaska, she is the first female Orthodox saint from North America, officially known as “St. Olga of Kwethluk ...

Native American News; Alaska Native woman, ‘everybody’s helper,’ is Orthodox church’s first female North American saint. Published: ; Jun. 26, 2025, 2:58 p.m.

Several Orthodox monks and martyrs with ties to Alaska have already been canonized in the Orthodox Church in America, the now-independent offspring of the Russian Orthodox Church.