Tag: parishes

What was the first Orthodox parish in America?

The question, "What was the first Orthodox parish in America?" is surprisingly difficult to answer. A big part of the problem comes from that word, "parish." What is a parish? When does a collection of Orthodox people become a "parish"? It's a matter of interpretation, and particularly in the early...

This week in American Orthodox history (April 30-May 6)

May 4, 1793: Empress Catherine the Great of Russia granted the Holy Synod permission to establish an Orthodox mission in "Russian America" (Alaska). The following year, the first eight missionaries, including St. Herman, arrived on Kodiak Island. May 3, 1870: Nicholas Bjerring, a convert from Roman Catholicism, was received into...

This week in American Orthodox history (April 23-29)

April 29, 1900: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Lowell, MA split into two factions. Here's what I wrote about that schism in my paper, "The Myth of Past Unity": [O]ne portion of the parish wanted to discharge their priest, Fr. Nathaniel Sideris, and “hire” another. “We have the right...

The Third Greek Church of San Francisco

Jim Lucas is the president of the Greek Historical Society of the San Francisco Bay Area, a non-profit corporation based at Annunciation Cathedral in San Francisco. The organization is dedicated to the preservation of Greek history and culture in the San Francisco area.  Jim has been actively researching the history...

Photo of the week: The funeral of Fr. Theoclitos of Galveston

Continuing with the theme from Wednesday... This photo depicts the burial of Archimandrite Theoclitos Triantafilides, the great priest of Galveston, TX, on October 27, 1916. We actually have several photos of this event -- all courtesy of Ss. Constantine and Helen parish -- but this one particularly interests me because...

The First Antiochian Chapel in America

In the life of St. Raphael Hawaweeny published by Antakya Press (page 24, to be precise), there's a reference to an early Syrian/Antiochian chapel in New York, dating to 1893. The story goes that a visiting Antiochian priest, Archimandrite Christopher Jabara, established the chapel at Cedar and Washington Streets in...

Infant Abandoned in NY Greek Church in 1908

The following remarkable story appeared in the New York Times on May 1, 1908. If anyone can provide more information, please email me at mfnamee [at] gmail [dot] com. BABY LEFT IN CHURCH; SOCIETY TO ADOPT IT Advent of the Little Stranger Caused Flurry Among Women of the Ladies' Aid...

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...

Unsolved mysteries of American Orthodoxy

Yesterday, I published a brief article on Fr. Stephen Andreades, the first resident priest of the first Orthodox parish in the contiguous United States -- Holy Trinity in New Orleans. The entire early history of that parish is something of a mystery. We know who the early priests were --...