#canonisation

The Proclamation of the Holy Synod of Bishops on the Glorification of the Righteous Matushka Olga

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

To the beloved Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America

God is wondrous in His Saints

November 8, 2023 Chicago, IL

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America has heard the petition of The Right Reverend ALEXEI, Bishop of Sitka and Alaska, expressed in his November 2, 2023 letter to His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, concerning the glorification of the Servant of God, the Righteous Matushka Olga.

In this letter, His Grace Bishop ALEXEI states: “I am writing to Your Beatitude with respect to the departed handmaiden of God and faithful Orthodox Christian, Matushka Olga Nicholai of Kwethluk, known by the pious peoples of the Kuskokwim as Arrsamquq.  Her humility, her generosity, her piety, her patience, and her selfless love for God and neighbor were well-known in the Kuskokwim villages during her earthly life.  Her care for comforting the suffering and the grieving has also been revealed after her life by grace-filled manifestations to the faithful throughout not only Alaska, but all of North America.  The first peoples of Alaska are convinced of her sanctity and the great efficacy of her prayers.  For this reason, after prayerful consideration, I, Alexei, Bishop of Sitka and Alaska, am hereby making the formal request to Your Beatitude as the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America to begin the process that, if it be in accord with God’s will, would lead to her glorification.”

The Holy Synod, having prayerfully reflected upon this petition and having observed and acknowledged the sincere devotion among the faithful of Alaska and beyond, has unanimously determined that the time for the glorification of Matushka Olga has arrived, fulfilling the hopes and prayers of pious Orthodox Christians throughout Alaska and the entire world.

THEREFORE, meeting in Solemn Assembly in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois, under the Presidency of The Most Blessed TIKHON, Archbishop of Washington and Metropolitan of All America and Canada, We, the Members of The Holy Synod of The Orthodox Church in America, do hereby decide and decree that the ever-memorable Servant of God MATUSHKA OLGA be numbered among the saints.  With one mind and one heart, we also resolve that her honorable remains be considered as holy relics; that a special service be composed in her honor; that her feast be celebrated on November 10 (October 28, old style) on the Feast of All Saints of North America, the Second Sunday after Pentecost; that holy icons be prepared to honor the newly-glorified saint in accordance with the Canons of the Sacred Ecumenical and Regional Councils; that her life be published for the edification of the Faithful, that the name of the new saint be communicated to the Primates of all Sister Churches for inclusion in their calendars; and that the date and location of the Rite of Glorification be communicated to the Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of our Church in due time.

FURTHER, we entrust to the Canonization Commission of The Orthodox Church in America, under the Chairmanship of The Most Reverend DANIEL, Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest, with the honorable task of assisting The Right Reverend ALEXEI, Bishop of Sitka and Alaska, in preparing for the celebration of the glorification by providing an authorized Life of Matushka Olga for the education and edification of the Faithful, with overseeing the painting of holy icons of her, in keeping with the canonical iconographical tradition of the Church, with the composition of liturgical texts to be sung at the Divine Services in which she will be commemorated, and with assisting in the uncovering and recognition of her holy relics, and in promoting her veneration among all the Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of our Church.

We call upon the faithful to remember Matushka Olga at Memorial Services or Litanies for the Departed when appropriate until the day of her glorification.

Through the prayers of Matushka Olga and of all the Saints who have shone forth in North America, may the Lord grant His mercies and blessings to all who seek her heavenly intercession with faith and love.  Amen.

Holy Mother Olga, pray to God for us!

Given at Holy Trinity Cathedral, this 8th day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, 2023.

We get a lot of questions on this blog that mention a difficulty conveying to readers that a character is in fact aromantic, and I feel like I need to point out, as nicely as I can, that ‘aromantic’ isn’t a bad word. 

It’s not impossible for there to be a scenario where using the word aromantic isn’t necessary. What is necessary is erring on the side of caution, because aros are still very much an invisible group. You cannot say of an aro character ‘they don’t date’ and have readers know what that means in the same way you can say of a gay character ‘he only dates boys.’ 

Aromantics can guide you on how best to describe our orientation without saying the word aromantic, but it is not helping us for you to try and use any euphemism you can before you call us by the actual term for what we are. 

I understand not wanting to use modern terms in a fantasy setting, but using an orientation term won’t take audiences out of the story the way saying ‘twitter’, or ‘nuclear power’ will. There aren’t equivalents of twitter in (most) fantasy worlds. There can be a word for aromantic, and your readers will just assume that’s been translated from whatever fantasy language your characters are speaking into whatever language they’re reading the book in. 

Everything in fantasy is translated. Unless they wouldn’t have a version of the thing you’re talking about, please just use whatever words you like. Don’t let a warped idea of accuracy get in the way of an underrepresented group seeing themselves in the media. 

(Especially when, as pointed out many times to male writers who use ‘accuracy’ as a reason not to let women fight, fantasy isn’t realistic. You have dragons in this book, you can have aros. Please don’t be that male writer everyone hates.)

Historical fiction is a little different, but unless you’re writing something with zero anachronisms that is meant to be completely serious, I’d rather an ahistorical term be used than aromanticism be erased.

I know I’ve reassured people before than canonising a character’s orientation via word of god is always possible, but I also want to stress that that should really be a last resort. The few aro characters we have are erased 99% of the time even by people who already know about their canonical, word of god, aromanticism. We need the most explicit canonisation possible, because people do not respect us. Unless you’re willing to personally argue with every fan online making ship art of your word of god aro, please consider that route to be a cop out you take when there are literally no other options. 

I know that sometimes, it is genuinely difficult to make a character’s aromanticism clear, especially in cases where access to the word might be difficult or inaccurate. But the amount of asks we get about how to make it obvious a character is aro, when in the context the asker has given about their story it wouldn’t be necessary to go without the word, is worrying. 

Please don’t act like ‘aromantic’ is a word to be avoided at any cost. It allows us to be erased even when we should be represented, and frankly it makes me feel like even our allies don’t want to support us explicitly. 

2 Kings 5:14-17; Ps 97; 2 Tim 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

“Your faith has saved you”, this is to say that, it is through believing in Jesus Christ, believing in who he is – and he is truly God and truly Man – that we are healed, made whole, saved. All ten lepers believed that Jesus was a miracle worker and a healer – they’d obviously heard about him and had seen him from afar. So, as soon as he enters their village, they call out to him and ask him to have mercy and heal them. However, this is not faith. This is consumerism or just begging – asking for something from someone who can give us what we want. And this, unfortunately, is how many of us might pray. We ask for things, and if we don’t get what we asked for, we go away disappointed, our so-called faith shattered. So the ten lepers ask to be healed of their leprosy, and they’re willing to obey Jesus, just as I might obey my doctor when he tells me to take certain tablets, or do more exercise and so on. And if I do, then my health improves. In a sense this is all that the lepers do, notwithstanding the miraculous nature of their healing. 

But Jesus heals them miraculously because he wants to bring them to faith. What I mean by this is that the Lord wants them to recognise who he is, and thus enter into a relationship founded on trust, love, and gratitude. God always wants this of us because God is love. Hence, St Paul says to Timothy: “We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self. “ God can never disown us, because he has bound us to his own self through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Hence, God wants us to know him as intimately as a shepherd knows his sheep; to trust in him as a child trusts a mother or father; and to rejoice in him, as the leper does when he praises God “at the top of his voice.” This relationship that God desires with you and me, therefore, is intimate, friendly, warm and loving. Few of us have that kind of relationship with our doctor, or the pharmacist, or the delivery man. Those relationships are transactional – they’re based on commerce, on buying and selling, and getting what we want. Sadly, most people seem to view God, and indeed, view the Church, and their own parishes, and priests in this way. But this is not how it should be, it is not what God desires. The prophet Elisha makes it clear that God doesn't want a present or any favours from Naaman in return, because he is not buying a service from God. Rather, God wants an exclusive relationship with Naaman: "your servant will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any god except the Lord." Because it is this kind of intimate marital-like relationship that God desires, and not the kind of attitude that sees God as a service provider. This would be an obstacle to having a faith that saves. 

Consider, on the other hand, the Samaritan who is cured. He jumps with joy, praising God, as soon as the miracle is worked and he runs back to Jesus. For he realises at once who Jesus is. This is not just a Master, as in a wise teacher. This is not just a miracle healer who he calls upon to have pity on him. No, this is God for only God can heal like this. And he believes this through a gift of the Holy Spirit, for this kind of living faith is a divine gift from God. But he is able to believe, able to receive the gift of faith because he has a good disposition, he is open to believing, he is humbly in search of Truth in all its fullness. He is, as St John Henry Newman (whose canonisation we celebrate today) says, “on the look -out”. So, Newman explains: “As the Jewish believers were on the look-out for a Messiah who they knew was to come, so at all times, and under all dispensations, and in all sects, there are those who know there is a truth, who know they do not possess it except in a very low measure, who desire to know more, who know that He alone who has taught them what they know, can teach them more, who hope that He will teach them more, and so are on the look-out for His teaching.” Such people, therefore, are humble, open to grace, and looking for God. 

These qualities are evident in the Samaritan.  We see his humility as he comes and prostrates himself before Jesus. In doing so, he acknowledges the divinity of Christ. And then he gives thanks to Jesus, or literally (in Greek), gives him glory – again, he does something that is normally reserved for God, so he believes in who we know Jesus to be. Because the Samaritan, in humility and faith has acknowledged who Jesus is, the Lord tells him: “your faith has saved you.” In Greek, the sentence has two meanings: your faith has healed you, which refers to the physical cure from leprosy, and then the deeper meaning, your faith has saved you, had led to your eternal salvation. 

So too for us in our time. God can only heal and save us, he can only draw us to himself in love if we go to him in humility, if we’re open to being loved by him, and if we’re willing to trust him and let him be our loving and merciful God. So many resist and refuse to turn back to him, like the nine other lepers. Many, indeed, do not want to have a genuine personal relationship with God, preferring to have a consumerist approach to the Faith. Many prefer their own ways, their own ideas, their own habits of mind and action, and a relationship with God is just too demanding, because he might expect too much of us. As St John Henry Newman comments, “their own passion or pride, self-love or self-will” makes it difficult to hear the voice of God, to acknowledge him, to believe and trust in him. 

Newman knew the demands of faith. His humble search for the fullness of the Truth, his search for deep friendship with Jesus Christ led him to the Catholic Church. He left behind a successful career as an Anglican vicar, Oxford professor, and respected man in Victorian society; he left behind old friends, and a secure livelihood, and the familiar in order to follow his conscience. And his conscience led him to become a Catholic. As Pope Benedict XVI said when he came to London in 2010: “Newman’s life… teaches us that passion for the truth, intellectual honesty and genuine conversion are costly. In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel… often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. [However, like Newman] if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom.”

And what about us today? God wills to give us the faith of the Samaritan, the faith of Newman, if we only approach him with humble trust and gratitude. We’re invited each day to trust in God’s love and providence. This trust comes from real relationship with God, it is the fruit of prayer. And there is, I think, no better prayer today, no more beautiful an expression of trust in divine providence than this poem by heaven’s newest Saint, John Henry Newman: 

“Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom 

Lead thou me on; 

The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead thou me on. 

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see 

The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not for ever thus, nor prayed that thou 

Shouldst lead me on; 

I loved to choose and see my path; but now 

Lead thou me on, 

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, 

Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still 

Will lead me on, 

O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone; 

And with the morn those angel faces smile,