Homily 690– 1APE All Saints
Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church, Ames, Iowa
June 7, 2026
Epistle:  (330) – Hebrews 11:33-12:2
Gospel:  (38, mid-79) – Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

Today, the feast of All Saints, is a good time to consider the saints, and what they are.  In many respects, the closest analogy we have today is a “Hall of Fame.”  But fame isn’t the full story when it comes to Saints.

Saint is the English word for the Latin “Sanctus”.  The Greek work is “Agios”.  But the meaning is the same for all of them – the meaning is “Holy”.  Regardless of the language we use, there is a declaration that the individual is Holy.

What is holiness?  How does the Church establish holiness?  The canonization of St. Olga gives us a recent example.  By the way, “canonization” simply means, in this context, the recognition of someone by adding them to the calendar of commemorations.  For St. Olga, that commemoration is on October 27 each year.

So how did St. Olga get to become a saint?

It is probably worth taking a moment to define some of the words we are using here.  The Church, with the proclamation, isn’t making anyone a saint.  It is recognizing that someone has been found to be holy.  That recognition is what the Church does best.  God does the transformation, not the Church.  The Church recognizes what God does.

In the case of St. Olga – how did she become a saint?  First and foremost, through prayer, which led to a life of self-sacrifice.  She was referenced in Alaska as Matushka Olga, because she was the wife of a priest.  Something you may not realize, though, is that while she had Father Nicolai married in 1935, Father Nicolai didn’t become a priest until 1963 – so, 28 years later.  Incidentally, Father Nicolai was a second priest – he was not the rector or primary priest in the parish in Kwethluk.

She died on November 8, 1979, so she was a Matushka for the last 16 or so years of her life.  On the Old Calendar, which is still utilized in Alaska, this was October 27.  Almost immediately, the love of the people manifest itself.  People called her burial a miracle in and of itself.  At that late date, the ground was typically frozen, yet for St. Olga, there was a thaw that allowed her burial to take place.

People started making pilgrimages to her burial place.  The pilgrimages and visitors came not because the Church said so, but because of their love for her, rooted in her love for them.  One of the things that is common in the Orthodox Church is for the anniversary of the death of a revered figure to be remembered every year on the anniversary, so on October 27, on the Old Calendar, November 8 on the New Calendar, the people would remember her and serve a panikhida for her.

Over time, this love and devotion grew, the stories of her love for the people were spread, and more and more people asked for her intercession, believing in her holiness.  Eventually, the whole Orthodox Church in America, led by the Archdiocese of Alaska, came to recognize and commemorate and pray to her, and she was recognized as having achieved holiness.

That holiness was obtained the same way we obtain holiness.  Through our denial of self, which is to say the diminishing and crucifixion of our ego, and through the replacement of our ego with the Holy Spirit.  Through our love for one another, and our love for those that find love nowhere else.

It is that simple.  And that difficult.

The actions of the Church did nothing for Matushka Olga Michael that the Church doesn’t do for each and every one of us, if we allow it to happen.  If we follow the direction of the Church and the ascetical disciplines, it serves to minimize our ego, our self.  If we offer ourselves to God as we offer the bread and wine to God – because that bread and wine is in fact us – by offering ourselves and allowing ourselves to be used by God, we also become holy.

There are categories of saints.  Some are martyrs, some are teachers, some are evangelists, to name but three.  The martyrs especially may not have lived a very rich and full Christian life.  I think about the theif crucified on our Lord’s right, who confessed in the last moment of his life, and was found holy.

I think about my own patron, Martin of Tours, a military soldier, who had compassion on the poor, and embraced non-violence, even while serving in the military.  I think about Panteleimon the unmercenary physician, who offered healing to those around without payment.

As we heard last night at vespers, the reason we have this commemoration today is because the Emperor Leo the Sixth believed his wife Empress Theophano to be a saint, but she would not allow herself to be commemorated individually.  So we have this day to remember all saints, those revealed to the Church, and those known only to God.

We do well to ask how all this applies to us.  And the answer is pretty simple, actually.  The first thing for us is to follow the examples given to us by the recognized saints.  And for those who are not saints recognized by the Church, the people we find to be holy in our own lives and in our own spheres, let them also guide us.

We can ask for their prayers, even though the Church doesn’t recognize them formally.  The Church won’t ask formally, but we can in our private devotions.  We can have pictures of those we find meaningful.  We can pray for them, and ask them to pray for us.  We can pray the panikhida on the anniversary of their death.  We can share their example with others.

And as God wills, we may find them remembered on the calendar of our Church.  But if not, we remember them now.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Glory to Jesus Christ!