The newly constructed St. Sava Cathedral was the centerpiece of the Serbian and Eastern Orthodox community. It boasted a spacious area for worship, welcoming crowds on Sundays and festive holidays, and featured a large hall for gatherings like weddings, festivals, and communal dinners. Its establishment filled a void that the Serbian community felt with their previous church on East 36th Street. Yet, the political upheavals in Yugoslavia soon impacted this harmonious community, leading to the existence of two identically named churches in close proximity. How did this happen? Read on.
Cleveland’s Serbian history traces back to 1893 when Lazar Krivokapic, the first Serb-Montenegrin, arrived. Unlike many other early Serbian immigrants who worked in low-wage, industrial jobs, Krivokapic was a highly educated diplomat stationed in Constantinople, then part of the Ottoman Empire. The Serbian population in Cleveland steadily increased, reaching over 1,000 by 1914. Most of these immigrants lived in extended family units called Zadruge, housing up to sixty members each. The transition to American family structures was often jarring, especially for those from rural Serbia who had little exposure to industrial work environments. Their residential choices were influenced by work, leading to settlements in areas close to their workplaces.
World War I brought devastation to Serbia, claiming approximately 3.1 million lives. Answering the call to defend their homeland, between 400 and 500 Cleveland-based Serbs joined the war effort. The local paper, The Plain Dealer, highlighted the potential for an exodus that could disrupt the city’s industrial and commercial activities. It was important to ensure that southern Slavs, who primarily worked in the industrial sector, were not coerced into striking during the war. Today, the St. Sava Cathedral in Parma displays a plaque honoring those who fought and died in World War I.
As Eastern Orthodox Christians, Serbians’ lives are intertwined with the Church calendar. The absence of a designated church building until 1919, however, left early Serbian settlers without a spiritual home. Instead, they held worship services and celebrations in rental halls and cultural societies. The community eventually purchased a German Lutheran church on East 36th Street in 1919, which became the first St. Sava in Cleveland.
After World War II, another wave of immigration from Yugoslavia to Cleveland ensued. New immigrants, largely comprised of war prisoners, Chetniks loyal to the Serbian monarchy and Church, and those seeking economic opportunities, settled south in Parma and Seven Hills. They chose not to return to Yugoslavia, which had transformed into a communist state. However, the increased influx of new Serbian immigrants strained the resources of the small church on East 36th Street, leading to the purchase of land for a new church in Parma.
In 1963, amid financial problems, disputes arose within the church community. A division was formed when the Holy Synod of Belgrade, under Patriarch German’s leadership, removed Bishop Dionisije as the sole leader of the American-Canadian diocese and created three new dioceses. Some parishioners believed this move indicated communist infiltration of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Two factions emerged, one siding with Father Branko Skaljac and Belgrade, and the other with Bishop Dionisije and Father Branko Kusonjic. Both factions laid claim to the newly constructed St. Sava and its properties.
After twelve years of protracted legal battles, the pro-Belgrade faction was granted St. Sava and half the lot in 1975, while the faction loyal to Bishop Dionisije received the other half and the picnic grounds in Broadview Heights. In 1980, the Bishop Dionisije faction, now recognized as the Free Serbian Orthodox Church, completed another St. Sava in Broadview Heights. It was not until Patriarch Pavle’s intervention in 1992 that the dispute was finally resolved. Today, members from both churches interact during events, religious services, picnics, and soccer tournaments, reflecting a harmony long awaited.
]]>Founded in 1904, St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Church was the first Romanian Orthodox parish established in the United States. Originally located on Detroit Avenue, the parish's development and eventual relocation to Warren Road parallels the story of the Romanian immigrant experience in Cleveland.
The Romanian population of Cleveland primarily emigrated from the province of Transylvania during the first fifteen years of the 20th century. The choice to leave their homeland was influenced by a combination of factors that included an economic depression and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's effort to abolish the culture of other nationalities through restrictive laws governing marriage, work, and land ownership. Most immigrants were drawn to Cleveland by the availability of work, and the promise of one day returning home to purchase land. Viewing their time in America as temporary, there was little to no emphasis placed on creating permanent structures or assimilating into the larger community. The religious needs of the Romanian immigrants were attended to by traveling Orthodox clergy or the Russian Orthodox parish of St. Theodosius in Tremont.
During this first wave of immigration, the Romanians created a network of fraternal organizations that provided assistance such as death benefits and aid for sick or injured workers. Once these organizations were in place, the immigrant community focused on the creation of churches. Announcements were distributed throughout the West Side neighborhood, and in August of 1904, 101 persons attended a constitutional meeting to establish a Romanian church. Divisions quickly formed within this congregation between Romanians of Greek-Catholic and Orthodox faiths, resulting in the founding of both St. Mary's and St. Helena's church. A Romanian Orthodox priest was assigned to the former parish, and plans were made by 1906 for the construction of the church.
At the opening service of St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Church in August of 1908, police stood guard outside and dispersed crowds attempting to interfere with parish members entering the church. Just nights before, vandals had thrown rocks through the stained glass windows. The parish's first pastor had resigned, but was still being served warrants for libel against parish members. Plans for the church's construction had resulted in warring factions within the Romanian parish. The pastor had presented plans for a large church that cost $25,000; leading members of the parish opted for a much smaller design that would only cost $7,500. While the church was an important aspect of life, the congregation opted for the smaller structure. Much of the immigrant community was sending money to family back home, paying dues to fraternal societies, and saving their earnings to purchase land in their birthplace - they saw little need for permanent, grand structures. Supporters of the more elaborate structure desired the church to act as an anchor for the growing, transient Romanian population. Despite its turbulent beginnings, St. Mary's would play a central role within the community; it not only provided for the spiritual needs of it members, but offered a place to congregate, socialize, and develop relationships that aided newcomers to Cleveland in finding work and housing.
Romanian immigration into the United States had peaked by the beginning of World War I. With nearly 12,000 Romanians living and working in Cleveland prior to the Great War, the number would decrease by half in the years that immediately followed its conclusion. As was the case since the beginning of the 20th century, many Romanians left Cleveland once they had saved enough money to return home and purchase land; this task generally took about three years. Previously, new immigrants had replaced those that left. Following the war, however, the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted the annual number of Romanians entering the U.S. to around 600 a year. As the transient population atrophied, the number of Romanians living in Cleveland drastically declined. Additionally, the Paris Peace Treaty designated Transylvania, homeland to a majority of northeast Ohio's Romanian population, a part of Greater Romania. Many who had emigrated to escape persecution by the Austro-Hungarian Empire returned to the land of their birth.
Those remaining in America developed a permanent settlement between West 45th Street and West 65th Street that lasted until the mid century. The predominately transient male population gave way to families of Romanian descent. Even as the immigrant population dwindled, however, the church continued to grow. St. Mary's thrived by shifting its focus to meet the needs of a changing community. While in 1928 the parish had dwindled to 43 paying members, the church sponsored educational and service opportunities for the Romanian settlers and their children, and became active in promoting the preservation of its congregation's Romanian heritage. This change in focus coupled with strong pastoral leadership soon saw the church grow to over 600 members - becoming the largest parish in the Episcopate. With the growth of the church, the restraints of the original structure's size became evident. The parish hall, built in 1926, was enlarged in 1937 to provide space for dances, sports, and church programs. By 1940, planning began for the construction of a new church. Delayed by World War II, a design was finally prepared for a new structure in 1950.
Initially, the church was to be constructed at the Detroit Avenue site; parishioners called a last minute general meeting in 1954 to vote on the location. Younger members of the parish led the movement to relocate their parish to a new site on the outskirts of the city in the Westpark neighborhood. The relocation of the church reflected both the assimilation and exodus of the Romanian community from what is now the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. As with many of Cleveland's immigrant enclaves, the process of acculturation over generations eventually weakened the community's ties to the neighborhood. With the increased prosperity of each consecutive generation, those that could afford to leave the aging city often moved away towards the suburbs. At a special meeting of parishioners called in 1954, it was overwhelmingly voted to sell the Detroit Avenue property and relocate the church at its current location on Warren Road. On August 21, 1960, the new St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Cathedral was consecrated. The cathedral would continue to help preserve the heritage and community of the Romanian immigrants that once lived in the ethnic enclave that is now the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. The parish would also take on new challenges and meaning as Cleveland became home to a new a new wave of Romanian immigrants following World War II.
]]>Like all houses of worship, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church’s spiritual focus was skyward when it opened its doors in 1919. However, the structure’s earthly perspective was quite different from today. Early on, Annunciation Church looked out to a crowded, largely blue-collar neighborhood. Immediately to the south, however, many of West 14th Street’s (formerly Jennings Avenue’s) great estates were still viable and occupied. By the 1960s, the wealthy were largely gone, and Interstate 90 had eviscerated the Tremont neighborhood. Annunciation Church’s neighbors were mostly poor and (instead of densely packed homes) Annunciation Church now had a freeway on-ramp at its front door. Today the freeway is still there but with the advent of a new bridge, the Cleveland Metroparks is building a small (four-acre) public park in front of the church. What a difference a century makes.
The Pan-Hellenic Union, formed in 1910, helped organize members of the Greek Orthodox faith in Cleveland, whose numbers had grown rapidly since the early 1890s. Most Greeks settled in the area around Bolivar Road between Ontario and East 9th Streets. Then known as Greek Town, the district encompassed the Central Market and now is occupied by Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and Progressive Field. Many Greek Town residents eventually crossed the river and settled in Tremont (then known as South Side), the only significant Greek area on Cleveland’s west side.
Prior to the Pan-Hellenic Union's founding, Greek Orthodox worship in the city had been sporadic and decentralized. In 1912, the Union purchased the West 14th Street homes of industrialists Thomas and Isaac Lamson and Samuel Sessions, and held services there for two years before moving to Greek Town's Arch Hall at Bolivar Road and Ontario Street. The first regular service at that location (above a movie house) occurred on Christmas Eve. When a traveling Greek priest was in Cleveland, congregants might also worship periodically at Saint Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church on Starkweather Avenue. When Arch Hall became too small to meet the needs of the growing congregation, the Pan-Hellenic Union (which by then had changed its name to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation) began constructing its own house of worship on the site of the Lamson and Sessions mansions in 1918. In 1919, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church became the first and only Greek Orthodox Church in Cleveland and remained so until 1937, when St. Spyridon was built at 6469 Saint Clair Avenue.
Father John Zografos became the church’s pastor in 1924. During his four-year tenure, he painted all 85 of the icons that still adorn the church’s interior. Father Zografos also helped establish the first Greek school.
Viewed today by tens of thousands of I-90 commuters, the golden domes of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church are Tremont’s most visible sight—a reminder that Tremont is still a hub of spiritual and architectural splendor. Every year, thousands more people experience it up close during the annual Greek Heritage Festival, held each Memorial Day weekend.
For more (including 8 images & 1 audio file) view the original article
]]>Drawn more by economic opportunity than oppression, Arabs from numerous countries in western Asia and northern Africa began arriving in Cleveland in the late 19th century. And although much of the Arab world is Muslim, these early immigrants tended to be Christian, having learned about the United States from Protestant missionaries. The new residents settled primarily in Tremont (South Side) and the Haymarket district (south of what is now Tower City Center). In 1911, they established a congregation that would later become St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church (the principality of Antioch was created during the First Crusade, 1096–1099, and included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria).
Many of these new arrivals, a majority of whom were actually from Lebanon (which was part of Greater Syria at the time), frequented St. Elias Byzantine Catholic Church on Webster Avenue near Carnegie Avenue between East 9th and 14th Streets. Members of St. George used St. Elias because St. George’s only priest had been transferred to another city. In 1926, however, St. George was reestablished by a group of believers. A new pastor arrived in 1927 and held services at a variety of locales, including the billiards room at Gray's Armory.
The congregation purchased the old Lincoln Park Methodist Episcopal Church (built in 1892) on West 14th Street and Starkweather Avenue in 1928. Soon after, fire destroyed nearly all of this building, and church members raised more than $40,000 to rebuild. The rebuilt St. George's was dedicated in 1935. The congregation rebuilt it in the Byzantine style with cupolas on the steeple and an ornate altar screen hand-crafted by Damascus native Dawood Deeb. Details such as a wide front gable, rounded arches above the window openings, and a relatively short, squared-off tower with a conical roof also suggest a Richardsonian Romanesque style. However, the onion-shaped finials at the top of the bell tower are more indicative of the congregation’s unique cultural and religious heritage.
]]>St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral opened in 1913 and cost approximately $70,000 to construct. Most of the land-acquisition and building funds came from parishioners. However, it is believed that Russia's Czar Nicholas II—the one whose entire family was murdered during the Revolution of 1917—also contributed. Cleveland architect Frederick C. Baird designed the church, modeling it after the Church of our Savior Jesus Christ in Moscow. St. Theodosius's thirteen onion-shaped domes–actually one onion dome and 12 cupolas–represent Jesus and the 12 Apostles, and are a prominent part of the Tremont skyline. St. Theodosius was the site for a number of scenes in the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter.
The first Orthodox parish in Cleveland, St. Theodosius was founded in 1896 by a small group of Carpatho-Rusyns whose religion was called Greek Catholic. These people were not Greek, but rather emigrants from Austria-Hungary who changed their religious loyalty from the Pope in Rome to the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church—thus re-aligning themselves with Russian, rather than Rusyn, Orthodox Christianity. In the same year that the parish was founded, the group's religious society, the Russian Saint Michael Rosko Orthodox Society, purchased land at the corner of Literary Road and McKinstry Street (West 6th Street) and constructed a small, wood-framed building on the site that served as the parish's first church. The church's first pastor was Rev. Victor Stepanoff, a Russian priest sent to Cleveland by the Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church of North America.
While the church was founded by Rusyns, St. Theodosius also ministered in the early twentieth century to several other ethnic groups that had not yet established their own ethnic churches. According to a 1901 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, parish membership including several hundred Rusyns, as well as "ten Russians, a few Greeks, and about 30 Syrians." Romanians also worshiped at the original building at Literary and McKinstry prior to the construction of St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Church on Warren Road in 1908.
The move to St. Theodosius's new home in 1913 symbolized the parish's rapid growth at the beginning of the 20th-century. The new cathedral, which has a cornerstone identifying the building as a Greek Catholic Russian Orthodox parish—that is, no longer under the auspices of Rome—was built during the tenure of the church's third pastor, Rev. William Lisenkovsky. The second pastor, who followed Rev. Stepanoff, was Rev. Jason Kappandze, whose grandson with the same name served the church as pastor in the 1990s. The first Rev. Kappandze served the parish from 1902-1908. In 1904, Rev. Kappandze, who was said to have come from a military family in Russia, received permission from the Czar of Russia to serve as a chaplain for Russian troops fighting in the Russo-Japanese War.
For more (including 8 images & 1 audio file) view the original article
]]>