« Bishop Matthew made a pilgrimage to California's spiritual and historical heritage sites »

On April 30, 2026, upon arrival in California, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, temporary Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the United States and Canada, visited the Mission of the Holy Archangel Gabriel and the Port of St. Peter the Apostle in Los Angeles.

According to new data from researchers of the Aleutian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America, it was here in 1815 that the Orthodox Aleut youth Peter was captured by Spanish residents of the Mission of St. Gabriel and, refusing to renounce Orthodoxy, suffered a martyr's death. The martyrdom of the Aleutian Peter was described by St. Herman of Alaska, but the Dolores Mission in San Francisco was previously considered the place of his death.

Bishop Matthew offered a prayer to the martyr Peter and all the saints who shone forth in the American land, and also commemorated all Orthodox Christians who laboured to strengthen Holy Orthodoxy in North America.

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