From Administrator:
I think that someone who is interested in this issue should volunteer to contact the OCA with the appropriate questions before making any assumption about the official position of the OCA.Following up on that I have written to the OCA and here is the reply I received:
Dear Robert,
Thank you for your enquiry, which has me extremely puzzled.
YOU WRITE: It has been brought to my attention that in the 'Saints of North
America' on the OCA website St Peter the Aleut no longer appears. I have
confirmed this by accessing the OCA website.
RESPONSE: I just accessed the "Saints of North America" at
http://www.oca.org/pages/dwp/dwp.asp?dayid=924 and Peter the Aleut is there.
Don't know what you were accessing, or who brought this to your attention,
but they are clearly wrong.
Log on to the OCA web site. Click "Orthodox Christianity." When a new page
appears, click "Feasts and Saints."
When that page opens, click "Saints by Month," which leads to a search
engine specifically for the day-to-day saints.
When that page opens, key in "Aleut" in the appropriate box, click "Go," and
http://www.oca.org/pages/dwp/dwp.asp?dayid=924 shows up! Not only has his
name, appropriate troparia, but also his icon!!! So you might want to ask
the individual who brought this alleged travesty to your attention that he
or she is wrong!!!
YOU ASK: It has also been brought to my attention by a non Orthodox that
recently that Metropolitan Theodosius omitted the name of Saint Peter the
Aleut
when commemorating the Saints of North America.
RESPONSE: How would a non-Orthodox have such information when I, as the
Communications Director of the OCA, have no such information, nor is there
any indication that any of this is true even when making a casual visit to
the OCA web site??? How odd that we've dropped St. Peter the Aleut when the
new icon that the Holy Synod commissioned and presented to Metropolitan
Theodosius as a retirement gift shows Peter the Aleut right up front! I
have also found at least three other places on the OCA web site sporting
icons of the American saints, and Peter's there, right where he always was!
YOU ASK: Has St Peter the Aleut been removed from the ranks of North
American saints?
RESPONSE: Most certainly not!!!
YOU ASK: If so, why?
RESPONSE: Why do we assume that such rumors are true and then challenge our
own church, as if such ecclesiastical "urban legends" are indeed true??!!
Perhaps some one misunderstood the fact that initially, Peter the Aleut and
the Martyr Juvenal were originally glorified as "local saints" for the
diocese of Alaska, even though it is often the case -- and it IS the case
with these two saints -- that veneration of "local" saints often spreads
beyond the initial "locale" in which and for which they were glorified.
It seems to me that a few weeks ago a Byzantine wrote to me asking for
clarification on "local" as opposed to "universal" saints, and I used
precisely this example to show how veneration for local saints often
spreads, which is perfectly fine. Hope my answer to the rather adversarial
enquirer didn't lead to his twisting what I wrote on some forum, which has
happened many times before.
Regardless, I would love to know where someone got this "insider"
information when obviously the OCA "officialdom" knows nothing of it!! In
logging on to the OCA web site a few minutes ago, I found Peter the Aleut
right where he's always been -- on 24 September!!
You might also want to ask the non-Orthodox individual how he has access to
this information from Metropolitan Theodosius when the OCA's Communications
Office didn't have the information?! I don't know of too many non-Orthodox
who have such an "inside track."
Hope this helps, and you might want to share these facts with the folks on
the Byzantine forum!
In Christ,
Father John Matusiak, OCA Communications Office
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In addition:
Private email from OCA Bishop Tikhon:
Dear Robert,
St. Peter the Aleut was never canonized by the Orthodox Church in America:
local veneration in the Dioceses of Alaska and of the West was approved by
the Holy Synod in the 1980s. Nevertheless, many icons, including that of
All Saints of North America that hangs in the Chapel of the Metropolitan,
depict St. Peter.
+Bishop Tikhon
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Hope this clears up your confusion Gerard.
Bobby