Holy Ascension of our Lord Russian Orthodox Cathedral is the largest cruciform-style church in North America, which houses more than 600 priceless artifacts. The first structure to hosts saints and services was built in 1808 of sod and was replaced several times and the church as it stands today was completed in 1896. The first priest assigned to Unalaska was Father Ioann Veniaminov in 1824 (later canonized as St. Innocent) was the first person to write the Unangan language using the Cyrillic alphabet (which is closely based on the Greek alphabet.)