Tag: Serbian

St Nikolai Velimirovich on Orthodoxy in America & Its Future

Editor's note: The following homily was delivered by St. Nikolai Velimirovich in America, sometime between his (second) arrival in America in 1946 and his death in 1956. It was published in the journal Orthodox America, volume 19, number 5. Years ago, I received permission from Orthodox America to publish the text of...

Fire Destroys Historic New York Church

Yesterday -- on Pascha, the most joyous and holy day of the year for Orthodox Christians -- St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in New York was destroyed by fire. The cathedral was originally an Episcopalian church, called Trinity Chapel, and it was acquired by the Orthodox in 1942. St. Nicholai Velimirovich...

This week in American Orthodox history (Nov. 5-11)

November 8, 1894: Memorial services for Tsar Alexander III of Russia were held in New York and Washington, DC. The New York memorial was held in Holy Trinity Greek church, because there was no Russian church in the city. In Washington, President Grover Cleveland attended the service, which was led...

Fr. Sebastian Dabovich & the mystery of St. Tikhon’s miter

In 2009, I wrote an article on the miter (crown) which Archbishop Tikhon Bellavin gave to Fr. Sebastian Dabovich at the Dabovich's elevation to archimandrite in 1905, and which Dabovich later auctioned off to raise money for the Serbian war effort in 1912. Today is the anniversary of Dabovich's birth,...

Bogus aristocrats and Orthodox saints

At the very end of the 19th century, a fellow going by the name "Theodor O'Brien MacDonald, Baron de Stuart" appeared in New York City. His second and third names notwithstanding, the "Baron" claimed to be the son of a Russian general. He left Russia, so he said, because he...

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...

This week in American Orthodox history (March 12-18)

This week is a busy one: March 14, 1767: Philip Ludwell III, the first Orthodox convert in American history, died in London. Decades earlier, in 1738, Ludwell had joined the Orthodox Church in London. He was just 22 at the time, and was a rising star in the Virginia aristocracy....

This week in American Orthodox history (February 20-26)

February 20, 1874: The future hieromartyr Vasily Martysz was born in Poland. He served in America -- first in Alaska, and then in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and Canada -- from 1901 to 1912. He died in 1945 and was canonized by the the Orthodox Church of Poland in 2003....

Fr. Theoclitos of Galveston on Charity

Recently, I've been working with a group of researchers to document the life of Fr. Theoclitos Triantafilides, the remarkable priest of Galveston, Texas. Fr. Theoclitos was from Greece -- his father had fought in the Greek Revolution -- and as a young man, Fr. Theoclitos lived on Mount Athos and...

In Search Of… Fr. Philip Sredanovich

I've got several new articles in the works, but law school has been brutal lately, so I haven't been able to finish any of them. In the meantime, I thought I'd republish one of my old articles. This one was originally published on June 1, 2010. Fr. Philip Sredanovich is...