Month: February 2011


The Kodiak Bell in the LA Times, 1923


Editor's note: The following article appeared in the Los Angeles Times on May 13, 1923, and was entitled, "Tolls Story of Old California." An old and battered bell, hanging in an orange grove where Ramona played in the days of her childhood, rang a new note in the song of...

The Kodiak Bell should be returned to Alaska


  On February 4, I wrote an article on an 18th century Russian bell that currently hangs in an old Roman Catholic mission in California. Thanks to Mr. Clifford Argue, I have since learned a great deal more about the Kodiak Bell, and I am convinced that this bell needs...

Photos of the oldest Orthodox church in Texas


Way back in the summer of 2009, we went down to Houston to visit family, and while there, we made a special trip to the nearby city of Galveston. Really, my family was indulging me -- I wanted to visit Saints Constantine and Helen Serbian Orthodox Church, the first Orthodox...

Iakov Babin & the Il’mena Island Massacre of 1815


Yesterday, we posted the St. Peter the Aleut entry from Richard A. Pierce's Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary. In that excerpt, Pierce offered this theory: "Since the extermination of Indians on 'Il’mena Island' by Aleut hunters led by the Russian Iakov Babin, there with the RAC brig Il’mena, occurred at...

Excerpt: Richard Pierce on St. Peter the Aleut


Editor's note: The late Dr. Richard A. Pierce was among the foremost historians on Russian Alaska, and his many books remain standards in the field. In 1990, he published Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary (Kingston, Ont., Canada: Limestone Press). Among the many entries in the book is one on St....

Three bishops for America in 1870?


This article was originally published on October 30, 2009. On July 19, 1870, a Philadelphia newspaper called the North American and United States Gazette published the following report: The Russian Ambassador has received instructions from his government that three bishoprics of the Greek Church are to be established forthwith in...

Guest article on St. Peter the Aleut


  Editor's note: The following guest article was written by Christopher Orr. Here are a few thoughts on the discussion about the historicity of the martyrdom account of St. Peter the Aleut kicked off by Fr. Oliver Herbel and continued by Matthew Namee on the Society for Orthodox Christian History...

18th century Russian bell in California


Yesterday, Isa Almisry made a great comment full of fascinating links and references. One of the most intriguing is this one, on a Russian bell housed at the Mission of San Fernando el Rey de Espana, located 40 miles from San Pedro (where St. Peter the Aleut was reportedly captured):...