Tag: Nicholas Ziorov

Valerian Gribayedoff, the pioneer of pictorial journalism

As his name suggests, Valerian Gribayedoff was from Russia. He was born in Kronstadt in 1858, the son of a colonel in the Tsarist army. He studied in St. Petersburg and then went to England, where he appears to have been acquainted with the exiled French Emperor Napoleon III (aka...

The World’s Parliament of Religions, 1893

Not long ago, I wrote a pair of articles on the visit of the Greek archbishop Dionysius Latas to the United States. The archbishop came to America in 1893 to attend the "World's Parliament of Religions," which was held in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair. When we last left Abp Dionysius, he...

Orthodoxy in Alaska after 1885 and Protestant Missionaries

The Russian Orthodoxy course I am teaching at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, is drawing to a close.  Since I am the instructor, we devoted part of that course to an introduction to the Russian Mission in North America and another part to Orthodoxy in America more generally.  So, to...

Fr. Kallinikos Kanellas: filling in the gaps

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced Fr. Kallinikos Kanellas, one of the first ethnic Greek priests to serve in America. At the time, I mentioned that Paul Manolis had published a letter -- in Greek -- written by Kanellas to then-Archbishop Meletios Metaxakis in 1918. I asked for help...

Fr. Kallinikos Kanellas: the first Greek priest in America?

According to some sources, Archimandrite Kallinikos Kanellas was the first ethnic Greek priest to serve in America. And those sources may be right, depending on your definition of "Greek." The only other candidates would be from the Greek church in New Orleans. Fr. Stephen Andreades was the priest in the...

Early Orthodoxy in Portland, Oregon

Orthodoxy has been in Portland, Oregon for well over a century, and its history is of particular interest to me, as my in-laws live in the city, and I have visited there many times. Today, we're going to look at the beginnings of organized parish life in Portland. According to Brigit...

The extent of the Russian diocese in the 19th century

Recently, there has been an interesting and lengthy discussion in the comments section on our website, regarding the extent of the territory of the Russian Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska in the 19th century. Let me try to briefly outline my position in this debate. Russia sold Alaska...

The controversial Fr. Basil Bouroff

Yesterday, I wrote about St. John Kochurov's arrival in Chicago, which followed on the heels of Fr. B.A. Bouroff's expulsion by Bishop Nicholas, on the grounds that Bouroff had taken classes at the University of Chicago. But who was this Fr. Bouroff, and what was his story? As it turns...

St. John comes to Chicago, 1895

This past weekend, those of us on the New Calendar celebrated the feast day of St. John Kochurov, the Russian New Martyr and former priest of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Chicago. With that in mind, I thought I'd talk a bit about St. John's arrival in Chicago. John Kochurov was...

Orthodoxy in Chicago, 1888-1892

Back in June, I did one of my first podcasts on an attempt, in 1888, to form a multiethnic parish in Chicago. Here are the basics: By 1888, there were about a thousand Orthodox Christians living in Chicago, most of them Greeks and Serbs / Montenegrins. A few years earlier, they had organized...