The life of St Innocent of Irkutsk
In 1721 he was consecrated a bishop and appointed to lead the Orthodox mission to Peking, but Chinese authorities, put off by an overly grand description of his rank sent ahead by Russian officials, refused to let him enter the country, and he was left waiting near the border for years without a clear post.
In 1727 he was at last named bishop of the newly formed diocese of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk in Siberia, where he worked to build up the young see, overseeing new church construction and extending its pastoral reach across a vast and difficult territory. Worn down by the harsh climate and his own frail health, he died there in 1731, only about fifty one years old. Decades later, during repairs to the monastery church where he was buried, his body was found incorrupt, and in time the Church recognized him formally as a saint, honoring him as the first bishop of Irkutsk and an apostle to the peoples of Siberia. He is a different Innocent from the later, better known missionary bishop of Alaska.
