Matthew Namee

Matthew Namee serves as editor of OrthodoxHistory.org. He specializes in the history of Orthodoxy in America from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. He's written a lot about church history, both at this website and elsewhere, and he's spoken at numerous conferences and events. Matthew is the former research assistant to Bill James, the legendary baseball author and Boston Red Sox executive. He went on to earn a J.D. from the University of Kansas and serves as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer for Orthodox Ministry Services. He and his wife Catherine and their children attend Holy Apostles Orthodox Church in Vancouver, WA. Matthew can be contacted at mfnamee [at] gmail [dot] com.

mfnamee@gmail.com

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...

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):...

Primary sources on St. Peter the Aleut

Given the recent discussion about St. Peter the Aleut, I thought it might be worthwhile to publish some of the primary sources we have for his story. As I explained on Monday, there are four main sources: The 1819 transcript from the deposition of Keglii Ivan, the only known eyewitness to St....

Fr. Oliver “reboots” the St. Peter discussion

Over on his blog, Fr. Oliver Herbel has decided to re-frame his presentation of the St. Peter the Aleut question. He's taken down both of his earlier articles on the subject and replaced them with a new one, which you can read by clicking here.

Is the St. Peter the Aleut story true?

Well, this has been interesting. Last week, I posted a link to an article Fr. Oliver Herbel wrote, entitled, "St. Peter the Aleut Did Not Exist." As you can imagine, this sparked a very strong response from many readers, who challenged Fr. Oliver on several points. Some took issue with...

Fr. Oliver Herbel on St. Peter the Aleut

This morning on his Frontier Orthodoxy blog, Fr. Oliver Herbel offered a post with the provocative title, "St. Peter the Aleut Did Not Exist." Fr. Oliver says that he intentionally did not publish the article here at OH.org so as to spare us the inevitable debate; however, I do think it's...

The first Armenian Orthodox churches in America

As far as I can tell, in the year and a half we've been publishing articles here at OH.org, we've never once posted anything on the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The main reason is simply that our authors are all Eastern Orthodox, and really can't speak with any kind of expertise...