Spruce Island () is an island in the

Kodiak Archipelago The Kodiak Archipelago () is an archipelago (group of islands) south of the main land-mass of the state of Alaska (United States), about by air south-west of Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska. The largest island in the archipelago is Kodiak Islan ...

of the

Gulf of Alaska The Gulf of Alaska ( Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the ...

in the US state of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. It lies just off the northeast corner of

Kodiak Island Kodiak Island (, ) is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the Un ...

, across the Narrow Strait.

Size and demographics

Spruce Island has a land area of 46.066 km² (17.786 sq mi) and a population of 242, at the time of the 2000 census, whom reside mainly at the island's one settlement, Ouzinkie (in the southwestern part of the island).

History

From 1808 to 1818, Spruce Island was the hermitage of

Herman of Alaska Herman of Alaska (; 1756 – November 15, 1837) was a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary to Alaska, which was then part of Russian America. His gentle approach and ascetic life earned him the love and respect of both the native Alaskans and th ...

, later glorified as a

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

and considered the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

, in the Americas. The island was referred to as New Valaam () by St. Herman, and is a site of pilgrimages by Orthodox Christians. In 2008, a group of commentators and researchers—led by the mayor of the northern

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

n city of

Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...

—argued that the island should, legally, still belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, as the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

had no authority to sell "religious property" as part of the

Alaska Purchase The Alaska Purchase was the purchase of Russian colonization of North America, Alaska from the Russian Empire by the United States for a sum of $7.2 million in 1867 (equivalent to $ million in ). On May 15 of that year, the United St ...

.Tetraultfarber, G.
After Crimea, Russians Say They Want Alaska Back
. ''The Moscow Times''. April 1, 2014.

References

Islands of Alaska Islands of the Kodiak Archipelago {{KodiakIslandAK-geo-stub