A Song from Her Children: The New Akathist to Our Lady of Sitka

Among the sacred treasures bestowed by God upon the peoples of Alaska, none is more tenderly loved than the wonderworking Sitka Icon of the Mother of God. For generations, the Orthodox faithful have come before her in prayer with their joys and sorrows, their illnesses and fears, their gratitude and repentance. They have looked upon her peaceful countenance and known that they were not alone.

We do not love her merely because her icon is beautiful, venerable, and woven into Alaska’s history. We love her because she has remained with us.  She remained with us as earthly governments changed. She remained with us through hardship and isolation. She remained with us even when Saint Michael’s Cathedral burned to the ground and faithful hands bore her holy image safely from the flames. Through every trial, she has watched over Her peoples throughout Alaska as a mother keeps vigil beside her child: quiet, compassionate, watchful, and near.

The Orthodox Church in North America already possessed an Akathist to the Sitka Icon, and that hymn served the faithful well. It praised the Mother of God as the Protectress of Orthodox Christians in America and called upon her amid the many dangers of life: storms, fire, flood, earthquake, sickness, and peril upon the waters.

The new Akathist was not composed to set aside that earlier offering, but to fulfill it in our day. Love does not speak once and then fall silent; it longs to speak again to the beloved, in words born of our lives, our trials, our hope, and our gratitude. And so it seemed right to offer her a new song born of the prayers of those who have stood before her, trusted in her intercession, and come to know the gentleness of her protection. The new Akathist therefore takes as its refrain:

Rejoice, Gentle Protectress of the faithful in North America.

These words arise naturally as we behold her holy icon. Her countenance is peaceful and tender; her gaze draws the suffering near. It is the gaze of a mother who understands what her child cannot yet put into words. She is indeed our mighty Protectress, and her strength is maternal. She shelters us that we may repent. She consoles us that we may rise again. She receives our tears and teaches us to pray.

The new Akathist is offered in Alaska’s own voice. It speaks of our seas and rivers, our winter darkness, our villages and families, our fishermen and hunters, our mothers and children, our elders, and those who journey through dangerous waters. Yet it speaks not only of the land, but of the faith of our people. For generations, our Native Orthodox fathers and mothers preserved the faith entrusted to them with humility and steadfastness. They prayed in their own languages, cared for their churches, kept the feasts, baptized their children, buried their departed loved ones, and called upon the gracious Queen of Heaven in danger and sorrow.

The new Akathist is offered in gratitude for their faithfulness. It gives voice to the love they handed down to us for the Most Holy Theotokos. Our people have long known her not as one far removed, but as their Mother and Protectress.

In the new Akathist, a fuller choir of Alaska’s saints gathers around the Mother of God: Apa Herman, Saint Juvenaly, Saint Innokenty, Saint Peter of Kaguyak, Saint Yakov, and Saint Olga of Kwethluk. Their lives reveal the fruits of God’s grace in those who dwell beneath her protecting veil: prayer, courage, wisdom, faithfulness, service, and sacrificial love.

The presence of Saint Olga brings particular joy to this new hymn. In her hidden works of mercy, her care for women and children, and her compassion for the wounded and ashamed, we recognize something of the Mother of God’s own tenderness. The glorification of Saint Olga has allowed the Church to see with still greater clarity that holiness has not merely visited Alaska; by the grace of God and through the intercessions of the Most Pure Virgin, it has taken root and blossomed among her people.

The new Akathist also brings before Our Lady the wounds of our day: troubled homes, weakened faith, loneliness, addiction, despair, fear, and souls who have lost their way. We ask her not only to calm the storms of the sea, but also those within the human heart. We ask her to preserve marriages, strengthen parents, guide children, console widows, protect the vulnerable, bring the wandering home, and lead sinners to repentance.

Above all, we ask her to lead us to Christ.

This is the deepest purpose of every true hymn to the Mother of God. Her maternal hand ever directs us toward Him. As at Cana, she says to her children: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” Every mercy received through her intercessions is an invitation to do His will: to return to the Church, confess our sins, forgive one another, serve those who suffer, and begin again.

Thus, the gratitude of her children has ripened into a new offering. We who have long prayed before Our Lady of Sitka now offer her a song born of what we ourselves have received: the peace of her countenance, the tenderness of her care, her protecting love for Alaska’s first peoples, the saints of Alaska gathered around her, and her unfailing desire to lead all her children to Christ.

It is a hymn from her children.

It is our thanksgiving for her nearness.

It is a garland of words offered to the Mother who has remained with Alaska through every trial and who still receives all who come before her with faith.

May all who take up this Akathist in prayer come beneath her protecting veil and, through her intercessions, draw nearer to her Son.

And so, joining our voices to all generations, yet speaking in the accents of our own land, we cry with love and gratitude:

Rejoice, Gentle Protectress of the faithful in North America.

The new Akathist to Our Lady of Sitka is included in the newly published prayer book, Daily Prayers of the Orthodox Church: According to the Use of the Holy and God-Protected Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sitka and All Alaska.