Month: September 2010

An Antiochian wedding at the St. Louis World’s Fair

Editor's note: 106 years ago tomorrow -- and almost exactly one year before the Battle of Pacific Street -- St. Raphael officiated at a wedding in St. Louis. The English bride and Arab groom had a rather romantic backstory, and the wedding took place at the imitation Holy Sepulchre in the...

The census record of Fr. Misael Karydis

Fr. Misael Karydis is one of many odd, mysterious figures from early American Orthodox history. We've discussed him at length in past articles. He was the longtime pastor of Holy Trinity Church in New Orleans, from 1881 until his suicide in 1901, and besides his pastoral work, he was apparently...

St. Raphael and the Battle of Pacific Street

As we've seen over the past couple of weeks, in September 1905, New York's Syrian community was on the brink of war. On one side were the Orthodox, who rallied around their bishop, St. Raphael Hawaweeny. The saint himself opposed violence -- both violent acts and violent words -- but...

“New York’s 6,000 Syrians & Their Colony”

Editor's note: The following article appeared in multiple newspapers (including the New York Sun and the Washington Post) on July 30, 1905 -- just a couple of weeks before New York's Syrian community became embroiled in a very public, very messy war between Orthodox and Maronites. In light of that...

Agapius Honcharenko: answers to some questions

Recently, Nicholas Chapman published several newly-discovered documents relating to Agapius Honcharenko here at OH.org. A reader named Reg responded with this comment: This is getting confusing. Matthew since you wrote the original story on Honcharenko, could I ask you to post a timeline on Honcharenko: Date & place of birth...

The Eve of the Battle of Pacific Street

Last week, we left the two New York Syrian camps -- Orthodox and Maronite -- on the brink of war. Each side's partisan newspaper attacked the other, and the Maronites took particular aim at St. Raphael, the Orthodox bishop of Brooklyn, accusing him of all sorts of outlandish offenses. Various...

Gelsinger on Sunday Schools, Part 4: Children and the Church

  Editor’s note: In 1938, Fr. Michael Gelsinger, with his wife Mary, published a Handbook for Orthodox Sunday Schools. Gelsinger was one of the most influential convert clergymen in American Orthodox history. He served in the Antiochian Archdiocese, and this book was published with the blessing of Metropolitan Antony Bashir....

The Case Against Agapius Honcharenko

Editor's note: Over the past several weeks, we have been publishing some historical documents which Nicholas Chapman recently discovered in London. Here are the relevant links: Nicholas’ introduction to the documents A letter by St. Philaret of Moscow on Orthodoxy in America in 1865 A letter by Agapius Honcharenko in...

Trouble in Syrian New York

Way back in January, I began what I intended to be a series on the 1905 arrest and trial of St. Raphael Hawaweeny. I wrote only one article on the subject, though, and even that article was more of a collection of quotations from contemporary newspapers than an actual piece...

Gelsinger on Sunday Schools, Part 3: Teachers and Altar Boys

Editor’s note: In 1938, Fr. Michael Gelsinger, with his wife Mary, published a Handbook for Orthodox Sunday Schools. Gelsinger was one of the most influential convert clergymen in American Orthodox history. He served in the Antiochian Archdiocese, and this book was published with the blessing of Metropolitan Antony Bashir. We've...