From St Herman’s website:
In 1963, the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood was founded with the blessing of St. John Maximovitch, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) as a missionary brotherhood for the dissemination of the Orthodox Faith, primarily through the printed word. The brotherhood chose as its patron a holy missionary monk of the American land, Fr. Herman of Alaska, who would later be glorified as a saint of the Orthodox Church. In 1969 the brotherhood moved to the mountains of northern California in order to pursue a monastic life in the wilderness. The following year, the first monks were tonsured, marking the beginning of the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery.
Amidst its monastic labors, the St. Herman Monastery continues its missionary work by publishing books and its bimonthly journal, The Orthodox Word. Its co-founder, Fr. Seraphim Rose, has since his repose become one of the best-loved spiritual writers in the Orthodox Church, especially in traditionally Orthodox countries.
In the year 2000, the St. Herman Monastery was received into the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The monastery is now under the omophorion of His Grace Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevic). Its superior is Abbot Damascene.
I made my first pilgrimage to St Herman of Alaska Monastery in early September 2007, for the annual commemoration of the repose of its co-founder, Hieromonk Seraphim Rose († Sept. 2, 1982). I made the photographs below on that journey, and look forward to returning to this important and inspiring center of Orthodox monastic life in North America.
The North American Thebaid 