Spruce Island

Spruce Island lies off Kodiak in Alaska. St. Herman moved here from Kodiak in the early 1800s and called it New Valaam. He lived in a small cell, kept a garden, cared for orphans and the sick, and taught the Alutiiq people. A chapel stands over the place where he was first buried, and every August pilgrims come by boat from Kodiak to pray at his spring and cell.

• Date: early 1800s