The most influential people in American Orthodox history

For a while now, I've had this idea of creating a list of the most influential people in American Orthodox history. Obviously, any such list would be pretty arbitrary, and would undoubtedly leave out many important people about whom I just don't know much. But then it occurred to me...

St. Alexander Hotovitzky on language in the Church

On November 4, 1905, a religious and literary journal entitled The Friend published a letter by St. Alexander Hotovitzky, dean of St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York. Hotovitzky wrote in response to an article in The Friend which claimed, "In this Russian service, of course, no one understood what was...

The Greeks in America, 1873

Editor's note: The following article appeared in the New York Times on August 4, 1873. That's nearly two decades before Greek immigrants began to flood into America. According to the book Race, Ethnicity, and Place in a Changing America, only 217 immigrants came from Greece to the US in the...

Want to write about American Orthodox history?

Dear Readers, Since we started this website last June, we have published around 300 articles. I believe I've written the majority of them, but we've received many outstanding contributions from other SOCHA members and guest authors. Up to now, all of the guest articles have come at my request -- as...

Historical Census Data for Orthodoxy in America

Last week, Alexei Krindatch released his landmark 2010 census of Orthodox churches in the United States. (Also last week, Krindatch was interviewed by Kevin Allen on Ancient Faith Radio. Click here to listen.) Sifting through the census data, I naturally got to thinking about historical censuses. Every ten years, from...

The Life of St. Vasily Martysz

Editor's note: St. Vasily (Basil) Martysz served in America from 1901 to 1912, was martyred in 1945, and was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Poland in 2003. Nevertheless, he remains virtually unknown to the vast majority of American Orthodox Christians. The article that follows is a life of St. Vasily, translated...

Did St. Raphael try to shoot a police officer?

In my last article, I wrote about the "Battle of Pacific Street" -- the gunfight between Syrian Orthodox and Maronites in Brooklyn on the night of September 18, 1905. As I said before, St. Raphael Hawaweeny fled the scene and was chased (and then arrested) by a policeman, Officer Mallon. According...

2010 Census of Orthodox Christian Churches in the USA

Over the past decade, my friend, the incomparable sociologist Alexei Krindatch, has developed a reputation for his remarkable studies of Orthodox Christianity in America. The full collection of his work is housed at www.orthodoxreality.org. Today, Alexei has released the results of his latest and most ambitious project yet -- a census of...

An Antiochian wedding at the St. Louis World’s Fair

Editor's note: 106 years ago tomorrow -- and almost exactly one year before the Battle of Pacific Street -- St. Raphael officiated at a wedding in St. Louis. The English bride and Arab groom had a rather romantic backstory, and the wedding took place at the imitation Holy Sepulchre in the...

The census record of Fr. Misael Karydis

Fr. Misael Karydis is one of many odd, mysterious figures from early American Orthodox history. We've discussed him at length in past articles. He was the longtime pastor of Holy Trinity Church in New Orleans, from 1881 until his suicide in 1901, and besides his pastoral work, he was apparently...