Category: Historiography

Why Fr. Raphael Morgan Should Not Be Venerated or Canonized

On September 3, I published the documents from the divorce of Fr. Raphael Morgan and his wife Charlotte. The documents are tragic and disturbing. Charlotte accused Fr. Raphael of physical abuse, verbal abuse, and infidelity. The Morgans' former landlady corroborated the abuse allegations in her testimony. Fr. Raphael himself was...

The Fr. Raphael Morgan Divorce Documents

Fr. Raphael Morgan was the first black Orthodox priest in American history. He was ordained in Constantinople in 1907 and lived in Philadelphia until his death in 1922. He's an incredibly fascinating historical figure who has captured the imaginations of many people who have learned about him. He's also not...

Met. Leonty: A Life in Moments

As Matthew pointed out in his post yesterday, this week marks the 47th anniversary of the death of one of the truly  great Orthodox churchmen of the 20th century, Metropolitan Leonty Turkevich.  With an ecclesiastical career in the United States spanning from 1906 to 1965, there are few figures in the...

Toward an American Orthodox historical narrative

On December 30, we published an article by Daniel Silliman on the search for a narrative for Orthodoxy in America. As Daniel observed, mainstream religious scholars have paid precious little attention to Orthodoxy, and even we Orthodox haven't done much to flesh out the narratives that shape our history. I've...

Searching for a narrative for Eastern Orthodox in America

Editor's note: The following article was written by Daniel Silliman, who teaches American Religion and Culture at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. The article originally appeared on Mr. Silliman's blog, and I thought our readers here at OrthodoxHistory.org would find it interesting. - Matthew Watch American Religious Studies and...

What is an Armenian parish?

Matthew Namee’s somewhat recent post concerning what constitutes a parish caught me by surprise, as I was preparing a very similar article of my own to illustrate a problem I’ve been having in continuing to tell the story of the Armenian Orthodox Church for SOCHA.  When I agreed to assist...

What is a parish?

In my recent lecture on Orthodoxy in Chicago, given at Holy Apostles Greek Orthodox Church in Westchester, Illinois, I cautiously addressed the still-controversial issue of the 1897 split in Chicago's Greek Orthodox community. Let me go over the basic details very briefly, before moving onto the broader question of what...

On blogging history: a response to some critics

On March 15, I published a short article entitled, "Bishop Joseph Zuk: A brief biographical overview." I opened the article with this paragraph: Joseph A. Zuk was the first Ukrainian Orthodox bishop in America, but little has been written about his life. I don’t know a lot, but from the sources...