Tag: Serbian

Independence Day in Chicago, 1892

Back in 2009, I wrote an article about a unique Independence Day church service held in Chicago by Fr. Firmilian Drazich of Serbia. I thought it'd be appropriate to link to it today. If anyone out there has more information about this fascinating event, please email me at mfnamee [at]...

The Dionisije Conundrum and why deference doesn’t work

I'm assuming, in this short article, that you've read about Serbian Diocese v. Milivojevich. But for those who haven't: the Serbian Holy Assembly deposed Bishop Dionisije Milivojevich, and Illinois courts basically overruled the deposition on the grounds that the Holy Assembly hadn't followed its own rules. The US Supreme Court...

Ecumenical Patriarch denied appeal of Bishop Dionisije

Well, this is interesting. Lately, I've been looking at the Supreme Court case Serbian Diocese v. Milivojevich, which pitted the representatives of the Serbian Church against the incumbent American bishop, Dionisije, who had been defrocked by the Serbian Holy Assembly. The big question, which the Court answered in the negative,...

Serbian Diocese v. Milivojevich, Part 1: Justice Brennan’s majority opinion

We've introduced the first major Supreme Court case dealing with Orthodoxy, Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral (1952). Today, we'll begin an analysis of the other landmark case, Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976). Justice Brennan's majority opinion includes a lengthy historical background on the case, and I won't go...

Fr. Sava Matanovich: the first Serbian Orthodox priest in America

Just a brief note today: I had always assumed that Fr. Sebastian Dabovich was the first Serbian Orthodox priest in America, but apparently he wasn't. The first Serbian priest in America -- and probably the first Serbian priest the California-born Dabovich had ever seen -- was Fr. Sava Matanovich. From...

Photos of the oldest Orthodox church in Texas

Way back in the summer of 2009, we went down to Houston to visit family, and while there, we made a special trip to the nearby city of Galveston. Really, my family was indulging me -- I wanted to visit Saints Constantine and Helen Serbian Orthodox Church, the first Orthodox...

1905 photos from Holy Trinity Cathedral in Chicago

The Library of Congress website has all sorts of great resources, including a collection of old photos from the Chicago Daily News. The following five photos are of the newly-built Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago. -- Matthew Namee

An Orthodox saint from Gary, Indiana

The Northwest Indiana Times recently published an article on St. Varnava Nastic, who was born in Gary, Indiana in 1914. St. Varnava was the first person baptized in St. Sava Orthodox Church, which was originally in Gary and is now located in Merrillville. The Nastic family returned to Yugoslavia when...

Fr. Sebastian Dabovich on St. Innocent of Alaska

Editor's note: The following lecture was given by Fr. Sebastian Dabovich on August 15, 1897 to the parish school St. Sergius in San Francisco, in the presence of Bishop Nicholas Ziorov. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the birth of St. Innocent Veniaminov, the great Alaskan missionary and later Metropolitan of...