It is my pleasure to share these pearls of wisdom with my friends here at RPF!
Alaska has several saints, St. Herman being another one. Others include St. Raphael of Brooklyn, St. John of San Francisco. Indeed, America has many saints, though some have not yet been recognized 'officially' yet. This is because saints are not publicly glorified as such until usually many many years after they have reposed for several reasons, most notably so that time will prove that they have indeed preached the true faith. The Orthodox Church does not follow a legalistic approach to canonization and it is the lay people of the Church who call for such official recognition through appeal and remembrance of these holy followers of Christ (that is, in effect, it is a bottom up grassroots movements). This differs slightly from the practices of the the western Church, where there are certain legalistic requirements and conditions which must first be met and then approved by a single bishop (notably, in the case of Roman Catholicism, the Pope). It must also be stated that canonization does not make one a saint, but rather, it is simply a public declaration by the Church that the person is already recognized as one through their lives as children of God in the image of God and graced by the Holy Spirit.
The questions regarding the members of the priesthood and marriage is a good one. In the early Church, we find that St. Peter was married as were other Apostles of Christ. Indeed, marriage was not an impediment to the priesthood or even to become a bishop in the early Church. However, it became evident that as clergy are fallible men and prone to temptation as we all are, the Church in synod (as was always the traditional way to resolve doctrinal disputes such as is described in the Acts of the Apostles) decreed that while men who were already married could enter the priesthood, men who entered the priesthood unmarried must remain so. Indeed, even now, it is forbidden for an unmarried priest to become married and remain in the priesthood (though of course, this does not mean that their marriage is not blessed. Rather, they cannot hold the office of priest and thus must find other ways to minister to the Church and the local community.)
This used to be the practice for the Roman Catholic Church, though later they unilaterally decided that all members of the clergy must not be married and remain celibate. Many believe this is one of the reasons why the Roman Church is plagued with so many sexually related scandals and there is encouraging talk that they may revert to the original practice of the earlier undivided Church and allow married men into the priesthood.
The Church in council also determined that in order to have the bishop be as one married solely to the Church and shepherd to the whole flock within his see (and to avoid the many distractions involved with the married life), the Church decided that only unmarried or widowed members of the clergy (usually monks) could become ordained bishops.
Thus, we see this with regards to St. Innocent, who was first married, then entered into the priesthood. When his wife sadly died unexpectedly, he then entered into the monastic life as was later encouraged to become a bishop.
He has, by the way, written an excellent work entitled
"Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven" and I HIGHLY recommend you (and everyone else) read this. It will become clear to you when reading this why this man was and is regarded as a saint and in fact he is aptly called 'the Apostle to America'.
