Peter the Aleut

Saint Peter the Aleut
Icon of St. Peter the Aleut
Martyr of San Francisco and Protomartyr of America
Born	Cungagnaq c. 1800[citation needed]
Died	1815
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	1980 by Orthodox Church in America
Feast	September 24; December 12
Attributes	portrayed as an Aleut youth, wearing a traditional gut parka[1]

Cungagnaq (Russian: Чукагнак, romanized: Chukagnak; date of birth unknown - d. 1815) is venerated as a martyr and saint (as Peter the Aleut; Russian: Пётр Алеу́т, romanized: Pyotr Aleút) by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was a native of Kodiak Island (Alutiiq or Sugpiaq), and received the Christian name of Peter when he was baptized into the Orthodox faith by the monks of St Herman's missionaries operating in the north.^[2] He was captured by Spanish soldiers near San Pedro and tortured and killed at the instigation of Roman Catholic priests either there or at a nearby location. At the time identified for his death, California was Spanish territory, and Spain was worried about Russian advances southwards from Alaska.^[3] Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his multi-volume History of California, only notes that, in connection with an incident wherein a Russian fur-hunting expedition was taken into custody after declining to leave San Pedro; one Russian source accused "the Spaniards of cruelty to the captives, stating that according to Kuskof’s^[4] report one Aleut who refused to become a Catholic died from ill-treatment received from the padre at San Francisco."^[5]