Tag: Russian


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 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Editor's note: Over the past several weeks, we have been publishing some historical documents which Nicholas Chapman recently discovered in London.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...

Agapius Honcharenko in defense of himself


Editor's note: Today, we present the second of three historical documents recently discovered by Nicholas Chapman. On August 24, we published Nicholas' introduction to the documents, and last week, we published a letter by St. Philaret of Moscow on the subject of Orthodoxy in America in 1865. Today's document is...

St. Philaret of Moscow on Orthodoxy in America in 1865


Editor's note: Last week, Nicholas Chapman introduced three documents he found in the National Archives in London, under the heading "The Russian Orthodox Church in America and Its Clergy in 1865." Today, we present the first of these documents -- a letter from His Holiness Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, to...

An interview with Patriarch Tikhon in 1923


  Editor's note: The interview that follows originally appeared in a book published by the YMCA in Prague. I found it on the fascinating Alexander Palace Time Machine website (the original is here). Many thanks to Jenny Mosher, who posted a link to this interview on our SOCHA Facebook page....

Orthodoxy and Theosophy: the Vera Johnston story


In the early 1900s, a woman named Vera Johnston was involved with the Russian cathedral in New York and the seminary in Tenafly, New Jersey. With a name like Johnston, you might think that she was a convert, which is exactly what I thought when I first ran across her name. But Vera...

Prayers for the President: an addendum


A few weeks ago, I wrote an article detailing some of the history of prayers for the US President in American Orthodox churches. After I published it, a reader named Andy Romanofsky sent along this excerpt from Chapter 1 of Archbishop Gregory Afonsky's A History of the Orthodox Church in America: 1917-1939: The...

Source of the week: an interview with Fr. Sebastian Dabovich


Editor's note: The following interview, with Fr. Sebastian Dabovich, originally appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and was reprinted in the Macon (GA) Telegraph on July 31, 1903. We're reprinting it here in full. Abbot Sebastian Dabovich, a priest high in the circles of the orthodox Russian church, passed through Seattle...

From Repki to the New World: A Belarusian Priest in America


Editor's note: For quite a while now, I have been corresponding with Ales Simakou of Gomel, Belarus. Ales describes himself as "a researcher of Belarusian-American (especially Indian) contacts," and he has been researching the life of Fr. Nikolai Grinkevich, a Belarusian priest who was ordained in San Francisco and served in...