Category: Orthodoxy in the Americas

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...

NY Times: “When an Arab Enclave Thrived Downtown”

Last week, I was alerted to a recent article in the New York Times, on the subject of New York's long-ago Syrian enclave. The colony, which was located in downtown Manhattan (not far from what became the World Trade Center site) was home to Orthodox Christians, as well as Maronites...

Gelsinger on Sunday Schools, Part 1: Religious Education in Orthodox Parishes

Editor's note: In 1938, Fr. Michael Gelsinger, with his wife Mary, published a Handbook for Orthodox Sunday Schools. Gelsinger was one of the most influential convert clergymen in American Orthodox history. He served in the Antiochian Archdiocese, and this book was published with the blessing of Metropolitan Antony Bashir. Today,...

P.T. Barnum’s widow married in NY Greek church

P.T. Barnum was the greatest showman of the 19th century. Today, he's most closely associated with the circus that bears his name, but in his own day, he was much more than a circus organizer. In an era before blockbuster movies, Barnum was the closest you could get to a...

Fr. Kyrill Johnson: The Prestige of the Oecumenical Patriarchate

Editor's note: On Monday, we introduced Fr. Kyrill Johnson, who converted to Orthodoxy in the 1920s and spent most of his career in the Antiochian Archdiocese. Then, on Tuesday, we presented an article by Johnson reviewing a Protestant translation of the Divine Liturgy. Below, we've published another article by Johnson,...

Fr. Kyrill Johnson, 1897-1947

For a while now, I've been meaning to introduce Fr. Kyrill Johnson, another of the many fascinating early American converts to Orthodoxy. He was born Arthur Warren Johnson in Roxbury, Massachsetts in 1897. I don't know what happened to his parents, but Johnson was adopted by an unmarried aunt, who...

A visit to the New Orleans Greek church in 1885

Editor's note: The following excerpt appeared in the Historical Sketch Book and Guide to New Orleans and Environs, published by Will H. Coleman in 1885. It is a rare firsthand account of Holy Trinity church in New Orleans in the 19th century. The priest at the time was Fr. Misael...

From Harvard MD to Orthodox priest: the Fr. Pythagoras Caravellas story

Editor's note: The following article was written by relatives of Fr. Pythagoras Caravellas, and originally appeared in the 60th anniversary commemorative album for Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in San Francisco, published in 1996. The article has been reprinted at Annunciation Cathedral's website, and we present it here courtesy of the...