The Ross Colony, founded in 1812 by the Russian American Company based in Alaska, is the home to the first Orthodox church outside of Alaska in all of North America. The chapel at Fort Ross, known as Holy Trinity-St Nicholas Chapel, is the "birthplace" of Orthodoxy outside of Alaska, which is a distinguished title and quite remarkable for this humble little chapel.
After the chapel was built in 1822 it was noted by Ivan Kuskov that a cantor would offer simple reader's Services. However, it was Priest John Veniaminov, the future Saint Innocent Metropolitan of Moscow, who in 1836 traveled the 1100 miles from Alaska to visit Fort Ross, a part of his pastoral territory, and became one of the first Orthodox priests to serve the first Divine Liturgy outside of Alaska. Subsequently, after Fort Ross was sold in 1841 no other Divine Services were held at Fort Ross until a visit by St Sebastian in 1897 and later by His Holiness Tikhon Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in 1905, when he was Archbishop of North America. In 1905 the Russian Orthodox Church traveled on a pilgrimage to Fort Ross for a service and picnic. In April of 1906, the San Francisco Earthquake flattened the little chapel. It was years of fundraising by the Orthodox Church to rebuild and on July 4th, 1925, they held their first pilgrimage marking the beginning of this annual tradition. Since 1925 liturgical services have been held in the chapel every year except when a fire destroyed it in 1970. Then pilgrims held the services outside the chapel until it was rebuilt in 1972. Therefore, 2025, marks One Hundred Years of Divine Services at the Fort Ross Chapel.
The priest who held this first service, Archpriest Vladimir Sakovich is remembered greatly for his passion and efforts in organizing this pilgrimage. We are honored and blessed to welcome his granddaughter, Maria Sakovich, as our honored guest and our keynote speaker at the
"Fort Ross, Then and Now" conference being held on October 3rd, 2025.
All roads of Orthodoxy outside of Alaska lead to Fort Ross! This little fort and the humble chapel have many firsts in all of North America. Fort Ross is home to the first Orthodox church, the first Divine Liturgy as noted above, the first Baptisms, the first Orthodox weddings, and the first catechumens in the contiguous United States. These "firsts" are noteworthy and important to our Orthodox history.
Furthermore, many Saints have walked the sacred lands of Fort Ross. These Saints include Saint Peter the Aleut who lived at Fort Ross in 1815. He was a young Kodiak man working for the Russian American Company (RAC). In 1815 he traveled with a group of Alaskan hunters and other RAC employees as a part of a sea otter hunting party. While in the San Pedro Bay near Los Angeles, this hunting party was captured by Spanish soldiers. Saint Peter was subsequently martyred at the San Gabriel Mission as he refused to meet the demands of the Catholic priests to be Baptized by them. He is the first Orthodox Christian Martyr outside of Alaska. The second Saint to visit Fort Ross is Holy Hierarch Innocent Metropolitan of Moscow who as a missionary priest labored in Alaska. He traveled to Fort Ross in 1836 and there served Divine Liturgies, performed Baptisms and Marriage Rites, heard confessions, and performed Funerals. The third Saint to visit Fort Ross was Saint Sebastian of Jackson and San Francisco who in 1897 visited Fort Ross. Born John Dabovic, he grew up in San Francisco serving his church. At the age of 21 he was sent to Alaska to serve in the Cathedral (that St Innocent built) in Sitka. After three years of study in Russia, John was tonsured a monk in 1887 with the name Sebastian. Following his ordination to the diaconate, St. Sebastian returned to San Francisco where he served as deacon at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco. In 1902. Saint Tikhon, (noted above) ordained Saint Sebastian to the priesthood and elevated him to the rank of Archimandrite in 1905. The fourth Saint to visit Fort Ross Saint Tikhon in 1905 the head of the Orthodox Diocese in North America (later Patriarch of Russia). And finally, the fifth Saint is St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, whom we all know and love. He visited Fort Ross around 1962. We know very little about this visit.
Following in the footsteps of these Saints, we honor Fort Ross as a place of pilgrimage, remembering its history and all of those who came before us.
Please, join us as we celebrate this Centennial Anniversary that will be remembered for generations to come! We invite you to register for the catered festive luncheon, for the conference, and to visit this webpage for more history, for updates to the centennial celebration on Saturday, October 4th, 2025, and to share your own Fort Ross story (readers are invited to submit their stories, recollections and photographs about their pilgrimages to Fort Ross. Go to the Contact page).
