Tag: Saints

Fr. Ilia Zotikov: A Hieromartyr in a File Drawer

One of the little mysteries I’ve been meaning to research for some time has a bit of a family connection.  This past week, I finally had the opportunity to delve into it, and the results were far different than I ever anticipated. My great-grandparents were married on May 2/15, 1908...

Photo of the week: St. John Kochurov preaching in Chicago

Starting up another potentially regular feature here at OrthodoxHistory.org... This photo, dated 1905, shows Fr. John Kochurov preaching from the pulpit in the newly-constructed Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago. It's one of several great shots of Holy Trinity to be found in the Chicago Daily News photo collection,...

In Search Of… Fr. Jacob Korchinsky, Missionary and Martyr

In January 2010, I published an article about Fr. Jacob Korchinsky, who is being considered for canonization by the Russian Orthodox Church. Fr. Jacob spent many years as a priest in the United States and Canada (as well as Mexico and Australia, among other places) before ending his life as a martyr...

Peter the Aleut: the original martyrdom account

Editor's note: Raymond A Bucko, S.J. is a Jesuit Catholic priest, professor of anthropology, chair of the social work, sociology and anthropology department at Creighton University, Omaha Nebraska.  He completed his doctoral work in anthropology at the University of Chicago in 1992.  His dissertation was  "Inipi: Historic Transformation and Contemporary...

Hanna v. Malick: the Russy-Antacky schism in the Michigan Supreme Court

Prior to Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny's death in 1915, pretty much all the Syrian (Antiochian) Orthodox in America recognized his authority. This included St. George Syrian Orthodox Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was incorporated in 1910. The parish was under St. Raphael, and all seemed to be well. But in...

Excerpt: Richard Pierce on St. Peter the Aleut

Editor's note: The late Dr. Richard A. Pierce was among the foremost historians on Russian Alaska, and his many books remain standards in the field. In 1990, he published Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary (Kingston, Ont., Canada: Limestone Press). Among the many entries in the book is one on St....

Guest article on St. Peter the Aleut

  Editor's note: The following guest article was written by Christopher Orr. Here are a few thoughts on the discussion about the historicity of the martyrdom account of St. Peter the Aleut kicked off by Fr. Oliver Herbel and continued by Matthew Namee on the Society for Orthodox Christian History...

Primary sources on St. Peter the Aleut

Given the recent discussion about St. Peter the Aleut, I thought it might be worthwhile to publish some of the primary sources we have for his story. As I explained on Monday, there are four main sources: The 1819 transcript from the deposition of Keglii Ivan, the only known eyewitness to St....

Fr. Oliver “reboots” the St. Peter discussion

Over on his blog, Fr. Oliver Herbel has decided to re-frame his presentation of the St. Peter the Aleut question. He's taken down both of his earlier articles on the subject and replaced them with a new one, which you can read by clicking here.

Is the St. Peter the Aleut story true?

Well, this has been interesting. Last week, I posted a link to an article Fr. Oliver Herbel wrote, entitled, "St. Peter the Aleut Did Not Exist." As you can imagine, this sparked a very strong response from many readers, who challenged Fr. Oliver on several points. Some took issue with...