St. Peter the Aleut: Sacred Icon and the Iconography of Violence

• Published in: Journal of religion & society 2007-01, p.31-48
• Main Author: Bucko, Raymond A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alaska; Indigenous Populations; Political Violence; Russia; Saints; Violence
• ISSN: 1522-5658; 1522-5658

On September 24, 1980, the Orthodox Church in America celebrated an important event: the glorification of a Native Alaskan martyr whose title in English is Saint Peter the Aleut. Peter was not this man's original name. His name was Chunagnak. Peter was his baptismal name. Nor was Peter actually an Aleut. He was born in the village of Kaguak on Kodiak Island, which is neither geographically nor culturally part of the Aleutian Island chain. Nor can we say for sure that Peter was actually martyred. Nevertheless, Peter's glorification and the accounts chronicling his martyrdom are enshrined in stories and icons that focus our attention on religious violence and doctrinal division. While his martyrdom may well be a non-event, his glorification becomes an epitomizing event for centuries of conflict enshrined in an iconographic image recalling though rarely actually showing religious violence and terror. By focusing on a single act of religious violence, one whose reality is questionable, the icon obscures a long history of concomitant economic, political, and social violence. In order to understand the story of Peter as event and non-event we need to first examine the iconographic image of Peter and then pull back to focus on the larger picture of violence and terror in Russian Alaska. Adapted from the source document.