Month: March 2010


A break for Holy Week


For the remainder of Holy Week, I'm going to take a break from writing new articles. We'll have new material up on Bright Monday, April 5. In the meantime, feel free to check out our many past articles -- we've got almost 200 up so far, and you can navigate...

Fr. Raphael Morgan against Marcus Garvey


Marcus Garvey was a widely influential black nationalist from Jamaica. He promoted black pride and championed the "back to Africa" movement. In 1916, when he was just 29 years old and at the outset of his public career, he visited the United States and embarked on a 38-state speaking tour. Not...

The death of Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople, 1821


Today is both the Feast of the Annunciation (on the New Calendar), and Greek Independence Day. With that in mind, I decided to look in my archives for American accounts of the Greek War of Independence, in 1821. I have quite a few reports from various newspapers and journals, and...

OrthodoxHistory.org User Survey


Dear Friends, Donna Mazziotti, a librarian at The University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is conducting a study about theology and technology. She would love to hear from OrthodoxHistory.org users about how they access the content and use the information contained on OrthodoxHistory.org. As a user of this site and...

Today in history: the first Albanian liturgy


As far as Albanian Orthodox history in America goes, there's no bigger figure than Metropolitan Theophan -- or "Fan" -- Noli. He's best known for his three-plus decades as bishop of the Albanian jurisdiction which ultimately joined the Russian Metropolia (and which is now the Albanian Archdiocese of the OCA)....

Serbs in Chicago


I've recently stumbled onto a really interesting article on the history of Chicago's Serbian community. This paper, written by Krinka Vidaković Petrov, was published in the journal Serbian Studies in 2006. It helps shed further light on the early history of Orthodoxy in Chicago, which we've discussed many times on...

Irvine on St. Patrick’s Day, 1916


Fr. Ingram Nathaniel Irvine has probably had more of his letters published in the New York Times than any other Orthodox clergyman. Just in the period from 1907-1918, the Times published no fewer than six Irvine letters. One of them appeared in their March 17, 1916 issue -- that is, exactly...

Metropolitan Antony Bashir podcast


My latest podcast is up at AFR. I discuss the life of Metropolitan Antony Bashir, basically repeating what I wrote a month ago, on the anniversary of his death.

The Reversal of St. Raphael


Last week, we discussed St. Raphael's involvement with the Episcopal Church -- his role in an Orthodox-Anglican dialogue group, and his June 1910 letter permitting Episcopalian clergy to minister to Syrian Orthodox people in limited circumstances. Later that year, one of St. Raphael's top assistants, Fr. Ingram Nathaniel Irvine, wrote...