Author: Matthew Namee
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Remembrances of Archbishop Victor Abo-Assaly
From 1895 until his death in 1915, St. Raphael Hawaweeny was the unquestioned leader of the Arab Orthodox in America. He was technically affiliated with the Russian Archdiocese, although he also had strong ties to the Patriarchate of Antioch. When he died, his followers split into two factions. The Russy faction, which ultimately coalesced around…
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Photo of Unidentified San Francisco Priest
I was browsing in the wonderful photo collection at Alaska’s Digital Archives the other day when I ran across the above photo, which was titled, “3/4 length seated portrait of unidentified priest.” Who was he? The bottom of the photo gives us a clue, of course: the name “Weitz” (probably the photographer) and the name…
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The Life of Fr. Joseph Xanthopoulos
NOTE: This is a revised version of my original article. In that article, a central theme was that Fr. Joseph was half Greek and half Lebanese. I have since had the privilege of speaking with his granddaughter, who told me that he was actually 100% Greek, although he was fluent in Arabic (among many other…
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The Birth of Fr. Raphael Morgan
So I think I found something I’ve been looking for for many, many years — the birthdate of Fr. Raphael Morgan, the first black Orthodox priest in America. First, the backstory. Until now, the closest I’ve been able to get to nailing down a birthdate for Fr. Raphael is to say, “circa 1864 to 1871.”…
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Jordanville to host conference on St. Sergius of Radonezh
One of our SOCHA advisory board members is Deacon Andrei Psarev, church history instructor at Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY. He’s asked us to help spread the word about a conference being held at Jordanville on October 10 and 11 to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh. They’re asking…
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Orthodox bishops in 1859
I ran across this the other day — in 1859, there were 278 Orthodox bishops in the world: Church Bishops Constantinople (including Romania, Bulgaria, and part of Serbia) 136 Russia (including Georgia) 65 Greece 24 Antioch 17 Jerusalem 14 Austria (now Serbia, mostly) 11 Alexandria 5 Cyprus 4 Mount Sinai 1 Montenegro 1 TOTAL 278 Source:…
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Today in American Orthodox History: May 13
On May 13, 1888, a diverse group of Orthodox men, mostly from Greece and the Balkans, met in Chicago to discuss the formation of a multiethnic Orthodox parish. That meeting was the topic of one of the very first posts on this blog, back in 2009. And also one of my first podcasts on AFR,…
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New document on life of Fr. Nicola Yanney
Fr. Nicola Yanney is one of my favorite priests in the history of Orthodoxy in America. He immigrated to America at age 19, in 1892-93, with his new wife. They immediately settled in, of all places, Nebraska. Nine years later, she gave birth to their fifth child — and died in childbirth, leaving Nicola as…
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Group photo from the 1910 Convention of the Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society
I recently received the above photo in an email from Deacon Steven Kroll, who offered the following details: Over the past several months I have been traveling up to Hartshorn, OK to serve alongside the priest who is caring for the remainder of the the faithful at Sts. Cyril & Methodius. This month I took…
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Amazing photo collage of Antiochian priests, circa 1920
First of all, I’m really sorry for my extended absence from this website. Beginning in December, my life went pretty crazy — first the end of law school, then studying for the bar exam, and then moving and starting my legal career. Unfortunately, I’ve had no time at all for historical research. Right in the…