Tag: 1909


Irvine transferred to St. Raphael’s jurisdiction


The following letter was found in Ingram N.W. Irvine’s file in the OCA Archives in Syosset, New York. The letter is undated (the pre-printed date line “190_” does not have a specific year) and appears under the letterhead of the North American Ecclesiastical Consistory, 15 East 97th Street, New York,...

Today in history: the death of St. Alexis Toth


101 years ago today, May 7, 1909, Archimandrite Alexis Toth died in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Here is the obituary that ran in the evening newspaper, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader: Rt. Rev. Alexis G. Toth, pastor of St. Mary's Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North Main street, this city, died at 2...

The Archbishop Arseny Trial Transcript


Last week, Fr. Oliver Herbel wrote a series of articles on the 1909 criminal libel trial involving Archimandrite (later Archbishop) Arseny Chagovtsov, who is currently being considered for canonization by the OCA. Fr. Oliver's summary may be found at the following links: Part 1 - Introduction Part 2 - the...

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...

Anti-Greek Riots in Omaha


The Greeks first arrived in South Omaha, Nebraska, in 1904, brought in as strikebreakers in the local meat-packing industry. That didn’t exactly endear them to the community, but they settled in, and by 1907, over 2,000 Greeks were reportedly living in the city. It wasn't long before they built a church, dedicated to St....