"St. Olga of Kwethluk, Matushka of All Alaska," as she is officially known, was canonized June 19 as the first female ...

St. Olga, a Yup'ik woman who died in 1979 at age 63, was a midwife, a mother of 13 and the wife of an Orthodox Christian ...

Deacon Michael Lucius of Toronto visits the gravesite of Matushka Olga Michael in Kwethluk, Alaska, on June 18, 2025, a day before she became the first female Orthodox saint in North America.

In the foreground is the grave of Olga's husband, Nicolai Michael, who was a priest in Kwethluk. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen) AP Now, after an elaborate ceremony in her village of about 800 people in ...

The Orthodox Church in America has its first female saint from North America. Hundreds of pilgrims joined several bishops in an elaborate ceremony to canonize St. Olga Michael in her ...

Worshippers, including an Orthodox priest wearing a black cassock, walk on the dusty streets of Kwethluk, Alaska, on June 19, 2025, heading to St. Nicholas Orthodox Church for the canonization ...

St. Olga joins a growing cadre of saints with strong ties to Alaska — widely deemed an Orthodox holy land, even though only a fraction of the state’s population are adherents.