Autocephaly & New Saints

St. Vladimir’s Seminary celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s autocephaly Thursday, January 30, 2020. A full-day of events included three workshops on the topic of autocephaly. In the third, “Autocephaly & New Saints,” His Grace, Bishop Daniel (Brum) of Santa Rosa explored the importance and canonization of North American saints including St. Herman of Alaska, who was canonized the same year the Tomos of Autocephaly was granted (but decided upon a year earlier). Excitingly, Bishop Daniel’s talk also touched upon the possibility of new North American saints, notably Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich, d. 1965) and Matushka Olga Michael of Alaska (d. 1979).