Father Michael Oleksa Spoke at Holy Cross:

Alaska: Our North American Orthodox Heritage

Father Michael Oleksa and Father Christopher Foley

Fr. Michael Oleksa spoke movingly and entertainingly about the history of Orthodoxy's beginnings in North America, with many stories of saints and "mountain men" paddling kayaks and hand-made boats of elk and caribou hide in the wintry seas of the North as Russians moved into lands populated by native peoples.