Ukazanie Puti v Tsarstvie Nebesnoe. Pouchenie na Aleutsko-Lis'evskom jazike, sochinennoe svjaschennikom Ioannom Veniaminovym 1833 goda. [Indication to the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, in Aleut language, composed by Priest Ioann Veniaminov in 1833]

Rare: evangelical text translated into the Aleut language (and printed in Cyrillic), prepared by Ivan Veniaminov-Popov (1797-1879), the great Orthodox missionary to the northern Pacific. Veniaminov was educated in Irkutsk and chose a theological vocation. As a young man he was selected for the Orthodox mission to Unalaska and arrived there in 1822 with his wife and children. While some conversion had been previously successful, it was feared by the Church that Christian and indigenous beliefs had become merged. The scope of the missionary project soon expanded to include the entire Alaskan peninsula and surrounding islands, a vast and often inhospitable geographical area. For ten years Veniaminov was an intrepid traveller, often using small craft and kayaks to visit coastal settlements, and travelling on foot through rugged mountainous regions. In 1832 he was appointed to a relatively sedentary position at Sitka as minister to the Tlingit of the Northwest Coast.

Veniaminov was a skilled linguist fluent in several dialects, he prepared this evangelical text in the Aleut language which was first published by the Moscow Synod in 1840 and later in 1899 (the present edition). Both editions are rare. As a pioneer apostle to the frozen north, Veniaminov was canonized Saint Innocent and holds a cherished place in the history of the Orthodox Church.