Fr. Oliver Herbel, Author at Orthodox History

HEOCACNA and Bishop Sophronios(us)

Bishop Sophronios/Sophronius (Beshara) was a bishop for the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church of North America (HEOCACNA), an enterprise started by Bishop Aftimios. For all intents and purposes, the jurisdictional unity attempt died in 1933. Bishop Sophronius, however, was the last bishop. The date of his death has...

Yet Another Priest is Taken to Court

In the middle of the twentieth century, Fr. Boris Burden (+1973) played important roles in American Orthodoxy. It was he and Fr. Michael Gelsinger who rallied behind the attempt in the late 20s and early 30s to unite Orthodoxy and they were the key players, together with George E. Phillies...

Archimandrite Arseny’s Civil Suit against the Ruthenian Publishing and Exchange Company

As noted already when discussing the criminal libel suit that then-Archimandrite Arseny (Chahovtsov) instigated against Kirczow and Curkowskyz, he had filed a civil suit as well. The civil suit made the newspapers in April and May of 1909 but nothing was mentioned about it in the New York Times again...

Orthodoxy in Alaska after 1885 and Protestant Missionaries

The Russian Orthodoxy course I am teaching at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, is drawing to a close. Since I am the instructor, we devoted part of that course to an introduction to the Russian Mission in North America and another part to Orthodoxy in America more generally. So, to...

Archbishop Arseny Addendum

As an addendum, I would like to make a couple notes. First, I should state that there are aspects of the case and testimonies that I have not highlighted that may deserve further scrutiny and there are some details I have examined and/or questioned about which I could be wrong. ...

Some Mildly Humorous Quotes from the Criminal Trial

The court transcript includes some mildly humorous lines. Obviously, they're more humorous to those who are reading along through the entire transcript, but they're good enough that I thought maybe after all I've posted, a few lines to lighten things a bit might be acceptable. The first is a zinger...

Archbishop Arseny Post 4: The Defense Completes its Case

First, by way of a quick preface, I want to note the name of Archbishop Arseny's wife: Paraskevya [see the vita by Fr. John Hainsworth, also available in hard copy through Alexander Press]. I noticed I had not mentioned her name and she does have one. Paraskevya is not just...

Archbishop Arseny Post 3: Clarifications and the Defense Begins its Case

Before I continue, I want to add a couple of words of clarification from the last post: First, I suggested that relative to the documents the canonization committee claims it has, Arseny perjured himself. Here is how I came to that conclusion. The documents the canonization committee says it has...

The Criminal Libel Trial and Archbishop Arseny, Part 2

Well, this project has become a little lengthier than I intended, so the number of postings may be increasing. I do sincerely apologize for this. I simply did not want to throw together too long of a post. In this post, I am going to provide an analysis of the...

Archbishop Arseny’s Canonization, Part 1: Introducing His Alleged Rape of Mary Krinitsky and the Subsequent Criminal Libel Case

Dear Readers, This is the first of a three part series looking into a court case that relates to Archbishop Arseny (1866-1945), who is being considered for canonizatiion as an Orthodox saint by the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). Those wanting a bit of a biography may check out the...