#276 Circuit Riders to the and Greeks: Missionary Priests and the Establishment of the Russian Orthodox Church in the American West, 1890-1910 by Brigit Farley

Brigit Farley is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. The author gratefully acknowledges Professors Shirley Glade, Aru< Kleimola, and Michael W. Johnson ~or their many helpful critcisms and suggestions. Their contributions greatly improved this manuscript. Thank you also to the staffs of the Kennan Institute, University of Illinois Summer Slavic Research Lab, the University of .illinois Libra:y, and tl-.e Library of Congress Manuscript Divis: em for their gilts of library time and assistance in assembling all the necessary materials. The Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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In 1795, ten years before the Lewis primate of the North American and and Clark expedition reached the Aleutian diocese in the Russian Ortho­ Pacific, Russian Orthodox Tissionaries dox Church. After reporting the pres­ arrived on the territory of present-day ence of some 1,500 Orthodox believers Alaska. These religious pioneers left a residing in California, Oregon, and the legacy of Orthodox faith, as well as then-territory of Washington, Fr. churches, chapels, schools, and hospi­ Dabovich asked that he be assigned to tals across the western American minister to them. After his request was hemisphere prior to the sale of the granted, Fr. Dabovich set out to visit territory to the United States. By these believers, eventually covering contrast, little is known abot:.t the over 3,000 ::niles. 2 He found poor, church's activities in the lower forty­ alienated Slavic immigrants of many eight states a:~.d western Canada. The nationalities who had come under the peripatetic missionaries who founded influence of Protestant Evangelical the first Orthodox pc:rishes in Oregon, churches, yet welcomed the chance to Washington, Montana, and Alberta, rejoin the church of their youth.3 In Canada, d:xwnentec. the church's some locales lacking both churches progress in the American west. The and clergy, ::-;e met faithful Orthodox written records they left, including believers who told him that they reports to superiors, letters, ledgers, feared losing their religion. The priest and diaries, provide a rare glimpse also found many Uniates, who be­ into the lives of Slavic and Greek longed to a faith born of a 16th-century Orthodox immigrants in the region. compromise between Orthodox clergy illey also offer valuable insight into and their Ca~holic rulers in East Cen­ what the Russian church hoped to tral Europe. While they called them­ accomplis!-. in its north American selves Orthodox, the nonk wrote, they mission at the tum of the last century. had developed what he termed ques­ Jl?oundations of the Western Mission, tionable practices resulting from their i893-1905 p rolonged exposure to Uniate clergy and the Roman Catholic aspects of the Following the sale of Alaska to ::,e United States in 1867, the Russian Uniate faith. As the Uniate church was a major source of concern to the Ortho­ c~lurch :noved its north American dox church leadership, their missionar­ 1-.eaC.quarters to San Francisco, where it was to remain until l904. From there, ies in the new wodd were directed to convince this group to abandon their F.ussian Orthodoxy began a steady centuries-old heresy and return to their e;cpansion north and east through the mother Orthodox church. e;'~orts of Fr. Sebastian Dabovich. Born In the following year, 1893, Fr. Jovan Qohn) Dabovich in Sarc Fran­ Dabovich was hard at work establish­ cisco to Serbian immigrants from :-:ercegovina, Fr. Dabovich was ton­ ing permanent places of worship for SL.red a monk in August 1892, thereby the believers he !"lad met on his trip. In Oregon, he decided that Portland was :om:ng the "black clergy" of the Rus­ 4 sian Orthodox church.1 Shortly after­ the best site for a chapel. While he regretted that there were few Orthodox ward, he set forth his objectives in a in the city itself, the location was ideal ~e:ter ~o Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov), the for believers living nearby.5 For ex- 1 ample, a contingent of Greek fisher­ I-~anford, California, as well as Bisbee, men had settled along the Columbia Arizona, by 1895.13 The presiding river and in the port city of Astoria. bishop of the nor~h American and Moreover, a wealthy Greek had indi­ Aleutian diocese, Nicholas (Ziorov), cated his willingness to donate a parcel saluted the work of the Serbian­ of suitable land in a desirable part of American misswnary during a Serbian Portland.6 gathering in San Francisco in January The picture looked brighter in 1894, declaring that ?r. Dabovich hc.d Seattle, where the construction of a do~1e much to educate California Serbs small church was already underway in about their church history and cul­ 1893.7 The Seattle ch:uch, which would ture.14 Fr. Dabovic~1 ~ad done so well be named for St. Spiridon, "promises among them, in fz.ct, that in late 1896 to be the center of a lively parish," Fr. he received permission to begin a Dabovich noted.8 In part, this was due special ministry among the Serbs in to the dedication and enthusiasm of a Russian Orthodoxy's western mission. core group of parishioners, but the Followi:!1g Fr. Dabovich's assign­ word "center" was equally important. ment to the Serbs, Frs. Amvrosii Vretta Already the priest had discovered and a young reader from southern Orthodox people living in the sur­ Russia, Vladimir Aleksandrov, bega.;.1 rounding communities of Tacoma, Gig work at St. Spiridon's in Seattle.l5 They Harbor, Carbondale, Wilkeson, and would be instrumental in the expan­ Victoria, British Columbia.9 There was sion of Orthodoxy to the north and potential for further growth in the city east. Acknowledging a growing Slavic as well. "Upon the opening of the presence in Montana, Fr. Vretta made Trans-Siberian line," wrote a corre­ the first-ever visit there by a Russiar spondent for the Russian-American Orthodox priest :n the spring of 1896. 16 Orthodox Messenger newspaper in 1897, He began in Anaconda, where he "trade will continue to pass through administered the sacraments of mar­ Sa:-:1 Francisco, but even more so riage and chrismation to several through Seattle, so that there will be Serbian Orthodox believers.17 The more Russian people there than any­ priest moved on to Butte, where he where else in America."10 learned of an Orthodox miner named Fr. Dabovich' s efforts were Mike Gamble, who wished to see a crowned with success by the fall of priest in order to receive Communion. 1895. August saw the completion of the Fr. Vretta finally located Gamble after a Portland chapel, named for the Holy long climb up the side of a mountain, Trinity, and the Seattle church recorded during which he had cLlly the assis­ its ;naugural service on November 19. 11 :ance of dogs and a sleci for his bag­ Meanwhile, Fr. Dabovich had gage. After his meetir.g with the made contact with groups of Serbian ~er, he reported, he managed to Orthodox in Caliiornia, the largest of convince two Uniates to accept union which had settled in the northern with the Orthodox churcl-'.. 18 California town of Jackson. These Fr. Vretta made his way back to believers had already begun building a Seattle in mid-June 1896, stopping church of their own: the Church of St. briefly in the small settiement of Sava, named for the most famous of Wilkeson, where a g:-oup of Uniates Serbian saints.12 Fr. Dabovich had had converted to for!n an Orthodox identified additional Serbian enclaves community in 1896 amo:1g the immi­ in Angel's Camp, Fresno, Visalia, and grant miners there.19 This conversion 2 led to occasional trouble between where these immigrants had settled­ nearby Uniate clergy and the Wilkeson Limestone Lake and Rabbit Hills­ Orthodox believers.20 At the conclusion were difficult to reach from Edmonton, of his account of the Montana trip, Fr. the largest city in the region. Large Vretta noted that his young assistant, families were living in generally poor Aleksandrov, was teaching singing and circumstances, although the priests prayers to the children of St. Spiridon' s reported optimism among the resi­ parish. dents because land was cheap and Ordained a priest in 1898, Fr. plentiful.25 The priests found consider­ Aleksandrov was himself quite busy in able interest in the Orthodox church on the mission. In 1901 he learned of new their visits with families, so they Slavic communities in the central promised another visit soon. Washington mining settlements of Fathers Aleksandrov and Roslyn and Cle Elum and visited Kamenev made a memorable return parishioners there. The upper Kittitas journey to Canada in the spring of valley had become a magnet for Slavic 1898.26 Their first stop was New immigrants owing to the discovery of Westminster, British Columbia, where high quality coal and the planned a contingent of Greek Orthodox be~iev­ construction of a railroad betwee:: Cle ers had somehow learned of their Elum a.'Ld Roslyn.21 Often identified plans and requested a visit. When the simply as "Austrians" in the census priests arrived, they discovered that since they had arrived from the multi­ they had to cross the Fraser river to national Austro-I-Iungarian empire, reach the Greeks in question, where­ these Slavs became an important upon a Chinese boatman appeared and source of unskilled labor in the area. In offered to ferry them c:cross for two turn-of-the-century Roslyn, for ex­ dollars. The three set off across the ample, Slavs numbered 210 out of a swift water and had nearly reachec the total po7ulation of 823 persons.22 The shore when the small craft suddenly presence of this group guaranteed that capsized in the wake of a passing the priests would be making regular steamship. The :nissionaries surfaced visits there. to discover that the water only reached The Seattle missionaries marked their necks, so they gathered them­ an important milestone in the history selves and waded ashore. Chagrined at of the mission when they brought the loss of his boat downstream, the Russian Orthodoxy to western Canada Chinese guide levied a two-dollar in 1898. "Juring his 1892 visit to the surcharge, declaring that if not for the Seattle area, Fr. Dabovich noted a priests, he would still have the craft. contingent of Orthodox believers in Amused at this bit of mercenary logic, Vancouver, British Columbia.23 Mean­ Father Aleksandrov noted wryly, "I while, a group of Ruthene Uniate think he must be a Methodist."27 immigrants farther northeast had Having met with the Greeks, the written to the north American bishop, priests departed for Edmonton, the Nicholas (Ziorov), asking him to administrative center of the province accept them into the Orthodox faith. of Alberta, Canada. Upon their arrival, Fr. Aleksandrov and a colleague at St. they proceeded on horseback twenty Spiridon's, Fr. Dmitrii Kamenev, miles farther south, to the small com­ accordingly made an exploratory visit munity of Rabbit Hills, where several to Alberta in September 1897.24 The trip Orthodox and Uniate families had proved c'ifficult, since the communities settled. The priests gathered the believ- 3 ers for services on May 14; the next day, including a cc:rload of Galiciar immi­ some 200 families converged from grants, two of whom lost the use of miles around to renounce the Uniate their legs.32 The missionaries counted faith and reunite with Orthodoxy themselves fortunate to escape with Following a solemn ceremony of bruises, their car :-,aving come ·:o a reunion, the priests headed northeast teetering halt, suspended precariously for the community of Limestone betweer. tracks and creek. Overcoming Lake.28 There they observed a red-letter these obstacles, Frs. Aleksandcov ard day, a first for Orthodoxy in Canada­ Kamenev had helped to establish the laying of the cornerstone for a Russian Orthodoxy in western .:anada parish ch·Jrch, to be :1.amed the Church by 1899. A year later, in 1900, Li..mestone of the Life-Giving Trinity29 Frs. Lake parishioners welcomed ?r. lakov Aleksandrov and Kamenev began the Kochinskii, the first full-time oriest festivities with regular services, then assigned to the area.33 oversaw the formal protocol for the About once a year, the missionar­ laying of the cornerstone. At the ies visited Montana, where the :Jrtho­ moment the heavy stone was moved dox population wc:.s growing. At the into place, all assembled could read the time of his first visit, Fr. Aleksandrov engraving: "In the name of the Father, wrote, he found 200 Serbs and a hand­ the Son, a.·1d the Holy Spirit, this first ful of Greeks in Butte, and 50 Serbs irt Orthodox church in Canada, the Anaconda. By 1902, Butte had nearly Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, was 400 Serbs, 40 Greeks and not a few founded in the sununer of 1898, on the Ruthenes, while over 100 Serbs :ived in fourth of June, during the reign of Anaconda. In Butte, a Serbian Crtho­ Nicholas II, Tsar of all the and dox brotherhood had formed, and Qceen Alexandra Victoria of Great parishioners had acquired land for an Britain."30 Orthodox cemetery34 By 1906, they had The next spring, the Seattle constructed a church. On December 16, missionaries made a return visit to the 1906, Bishop Nicholas's successor, Canadian faithful. As on their previous Tikhon (Bellavin), consecrated Holy foray into rugged territory, this trip Trinity parish.35 With the arrival of Fr. had its mo::nents of drama. At the Jacob Odzic as Holy Trinity's first full­ outset, Fr. Aleksandrov and Fr. time priest, Orthodoxy had arrived in Kamenev had encountered delays Montana, as it had already done in from heavy rains that rendered their Oregon, Washington, California, and intended route impassable. During the western Canada. second part of their journey, they Fr. Michael Andreades and the found themselves obliged to drive a Western Mission, 1905-06. coach and pair themselves, over Despite the successes they had unfamiliar territory, because they achieved at St. Spiridon's, both Fr. could not afford the services of a Aleksandrov and Fr. Vretta encoun­ 31 coachman. On the way back to tered personal problems that resulted Ednonton sometime later, the mission­ in their departure frorr. the Seattle aries experienced more hardship w hen mission in the first years of the 20th their train suddenly derailed from a century36 bridge and plunged into Black Mud Fr. Michael Ancirec.des replaced creek. "A horrible catastrophe," Fr. them and began serving as pastor of St. Aleksandrov remembered. Many Spiridon's in Jc.ne 1905. 37 Fr. passengers suffered serious injum:s, E.illdreades's tenure at S:. Spiridon's 4 vvas eventful for many reasons, ::10t 1and, :1oslyn, and the other communi­ least because he left behind fragrner.ts des ::-ounded out the schedule in the of a diary describing something of h_',s ~o1.: rth week. ::outine in an ordinary year. Only Wherever they went on their scattered letters and official docume::t:s -::i:rcuits, Fr. Andreades and his col­ survive Frs. Dabovich, Vretta, and lec.g·Jes conducted Divine Litu:-gy, Aleksandrov, but they were able to 2cirrL.nistered the sacraments, officiated demonstrate how the church was c;t ba ~~~isms, weddings, and funerals, established in the west. Througr: his and performed other tasks as needed. diary, Fr. Andreades takes readers Althot:gh they followed a regular beyond a narration of events. In :-totes schedde, the hours and routine were recording part of his activities fo: a ::: ~1.yi:rmg but predictable, as :bs typical year, 1905-1906, he introduces exceP~t makes clear. ~ the Russian church's objectives for its October 23, 1905. Went to WJkesoc mission in America and gives vivid today Almost all Orthodox families witness to the missionaries' attecpts from the surrounding area attended to meet them. service, at which my homily By the time Fr. Andreades arrived concerr.ed finding God's blessing at St. Spiridon's ir June 1905, that even in our most mundane daily church had become a thriving, pros­ a-::tivities. Immediately afterwards, ~ perous parish. In fact, the Russian received word that I was needed in church had designated it the head­ Gig Harbor to administer Holy quarters of the Oregon/Washington/ Commt:nion and hear the confes­ Montana mission. When he came to sion of a 70-year-old Croat from Seattle, therefore, Fr. Andreades be­ Hercegovina, who was dying. came a circuit rider like his predeces­ No trains run in Wilkeson on sors, charged primarily with bringing Sundays, so I decided to go to the church and its sacraments to the Tacoma on horseback and catch a faithful wherever they lived.38 This motorboat from there to Gig Har­ meant that he was responsible not only bor. However, I found I couldn't for regular services at St. Spiridon's, afford the horse--they wanted $20 but also for pastoral visits to communi­ for it-so I had to go on foot, ties whose residents lived too far from through a dense wood in a driving Seattle to attend regular services there. rain, to Buckley, 6.5 miles away As already noted, the communities of During the walk, I slipped and fell Aberdeen, Black Diamond, Renton, in the mud twice, at one ?Oint Carbondale, Gig Harbor, and Tacoma, tearing my cassock. Fortunate' y, Washington and Victoria, British one of the Orthodox families came Columbia, all had significant Orthcdox to my rescue. They took me in, populations in 1905. In addition, the washed my clothes, mended my Seattle priests served the Greek, Slavic, cassock, and fed me supper. I and Syrian parishioners at Holy Tr:..:.Lity managed to get to Tacoma by Chapel in Portland. In 1905-06, Fr. train later that night, and from Andreades was in Seattle on the first there I caught a boat to Gig and third Sunday, while the secane Harbor, where I arrived precisely Sunday was dedicated to Wilkeson, at midnight. Washington, which had parishione:·s The sick man summoned me and sufficient means to help finance a immediately to his bedside, small ch:.:.rch by 1902. Visits to Port- where about thirty c~ose family 5 members kept a vigil. I heard his Missionaries i.'1 the wesc followed corlession and gave him Holy this directive fait~Lfully On o:1e of :heir Communion, after which we trips to weste:-n Canada, Frs. spoke for a long while. He faced Aleksandrov anC. Kamenev bh.mdered death bravely and with hope, as onto the territory of c_r, Indiar reserva­ all good Christians must. tion and found themselves f2,ce to ~ace The old man is married to an with a group of curious tribal elders. Indian woman, whom Although they were cordially received, Archimandrite Sebastian39 bap­ the priests' account of the incident tized during his service in this :c1akes no mention of attempts to mission . He has a large family; interest the Indians in the Orthodox nearly thirty members were church. The Orthodox visitors proved present. They are a very religious far more interested in the inroads well­ group. They live their fai th and financed Jesuit and Dominican mis­ ofte:t come to Seattle for services. sionaries stood :o make among Ortho­ The old man is considered the dox immigrants in the areaY founder of Gig Harbor and is well F:-. Andreades took his predeces­ known among local residents. so::-s' example to heart, as he demon­ I reLuned to Seattle the next day, strated in a meeting with Orthodox not feeL"'lg particularly well. 40 immigrants in Victoria, British Colum­ Fr. Andreades' accounts of circuit bia. In town for a baptism, the priest travel underscore an unusual charge the was surprised to encounter a group of church had nade to its American Greeks who had no religious affiliation: missionaries. In contrast to Protestant September 18, 1905. Today, I and Catholic missionaries in the north­ traveled to Victoria, British Co­ west, OrthoC:ox missionaries did not lumbia, for the baptisrr:. of three seek converts among non-Orthodox newborns. I conducted services in populations. 'T:tis represented a depar­ the home of Mr. Gungranis, wr.o ture from prev ~ ous church policy in had constructed a small chapel for Alaska, where Russian Orthodoxy's the occasion. He is quite religious, north American headquarters was but there is another man in the located in the 18th and 19th centuries. At household, a 70-year-old, who has that time, Russian missionaries divided no religion. their time between serving Russian vVhen I arrived there, I discovered colonists and proselytizing among the that there were some Greeks native Eskimos and Aleuts. A number living in the community who do of schools and churches survive as not believe in anything and hac. proof of these endeavors. After the U.S. never had their children baptized. purchase of the Alaska territory in 1867, I refer particularly to Mr. Bancroft, however, the c:D.urch moved to Califor­ Mr. Vasilatos, and others. Imag­ nia and redefined its mission for the ine, Greek atheists! I never knew "lower forty-eight." From that time, there could be such a thing. I Russian Orthodox missionaries concen­ called on all of them, and they trated their efforts on communities received me pleasantly, but whe!'l where Orthodox people had already I broached the subject of religior., settled. In 1896, church leaders declared they bristled and told me in no this approach official in the pages of the uncertain terms to cease and church's journal, Tserkovnyia desist. Of course, I did not press ViedomosH 41 the matter; I merely suggested 6

------that they come to services, so thac Chur:::h leaders did not specify t~e they could 2t least hear their reasons for the missionaries' limited native language and learn some­ focus, but the great variety of nation­ thing of what was so important to alities within the Orthodox communi­ their fathers and grandfathers. ties surely helps to account for it. By They promised they would come, 1900, the Russian church had become a and so they did. I conducted multinational institution in the UniteC. Sunday services in Greek at 10 am States. As noted, it had previously in the Gungranis household. Afte:!' served Russian colonists and native the Gospel, I said a few words. peoples as a missionary church in Some fifty people attended, Alaska. After transferring church including several Americans and headquarters to the United States, one Creole woman. At b .e e::1d of Russian Orthodox leaders found that the service, I baptized the three their constituency was overwhelm­ newborns, sons of Messrs. ingly non-Russian-Greeks, Serbs, Gungranis, Mitros, and Ruthenes, Poles, and Syrians. Al­ Panagionas. That same da:ft : though there existed autocephalot.:.s visited Mr. Vasilatos and urgeC. Greek, Serbian, and Syrian Orthodox him to give up the burden of sin churches in the 19th centur:Yt the Rus­ he had been carrying and baptize sian church was the only officially his children. With the help o ~ established Orthodox church in the several parishioners, Messrs. United States at the turn of the century: Mitros, Gungranis, and othe:::s, we Russian Orthodox missionaries thus managed to prevail upon him anci fo und themselves in the anomalous found some godparents for the position of serving Orthodox believers baptism. That evening, the from nearly everywhere except Russia. community gathered at the The church leadership in America Vasilatos home and I baptized his attempted to accommodate large three children (the oldest is six), concentrations of national groups taking care to explain the sig:li.fi­ where it could. As a Serbian-American cance of the sacraments and the and founder of the first Serbia!l­ responsibilities of the godparents maj ority parishes in the west, .?r. to the godchildren. Sebastian Dabovich was summoned to The Bancrofts, an uncle and his Chicago in 1904 to head a new Se:::bian nephews, still refused my entreat­ division within the Russian Orthcdox ies, but I hope to convince them church.44 He joined forces in this :o.ew that: the children should be bap­ responsibility with Fr. Raphael tized by my next visit...43 Hawaweeny of Brooklyn, who ~ad The priest was doubtless gratef.J.! agreed to create a Russian Orthodox for the chance to acquaint these Greeks parish exclusively for the large Syrian with the fait:h of their forefathers and Orthodox community or the eas: 45 friends. But these meetings represen~ed coast. Elsewhere, parishes with a the limits of his efforts to proclaim tn.e patchw ork quilt of nationaliEes, such faith; he showed little evidence of as St. Spiridon's in Seattle, copec as contacts outside his regular circuit. !:-.. best they could with the help of the 46 his correspondence as well as his diary, missionaries assigned to them. he indicates that his attention was Fr. Andreades proved better focused on Orthodox believers clready qualified than most for ministering to a living in the ::1orthwest. multi-ethnic flock. Having grown up in 7 a Phanariot Greek family in pulp factory. I visited them all, Constantinople, he had left home to and their joy at seeing a priest in study for the priesthood ir" St. Peters­ their midst who speaks their burg. When he came to America, native language was something to therefore, he spoke fluent :Kussian as behold. Most of them have not well as Greek. He found this ability a spoken Greek with anyone out­ great asset in his work around the side their immediate circle for teP northwest. At St. Spiridon's, he was years or more; they have become able to convince alienated Greek parish­ almost completely Americanized. ioners to return to church thanks to his They implored me to return for ability to conduct services in their Easter services, and I of course language; his predecessor, Fr. promised I would. God willing, I Aleksandrov, had only a rudimentary will be able to keep that promise. krwwledge of Greek. If he did not By 10 o'clock, all Orthodox in the speak perfect Ruthene or Serbian, neighborhood, including severa1 moreover, he could make himself Poles, had arrived at the understood to members of these Khomchik home. I served Matins, groups since those languages have a sit1ce I could not prepare properly common structure with Russian. When to conduct the regular iiturgy In he visited Aberdeen, Wash.ilgton, for a any case, no one there could sing. baptism, Fr. Andreades put his linguis­ After Matins, I baptized tic prowess to maximum advantage in Khomchik' s son. We spent the ~est his meetings with Russians, Poles, of the day visiting with various G:~eeks, and Serbs there: parishioners. A Serb, Mr. August 21, 1905. On Saturday, I Berberovich, :arne to see me and went to Aberdeen for ~he baptism asked me to send him an icon, of the Russian immigrant Stefan which I did upo:-: rr.y return to Khomchik' s son. I arrived late at Seattle.47 night and spent the night at the Despite Fr. Ar.dreacies's abilities hotel, since no one met me at the and commitment, tne C.emands of railroad station, in spite of prom­ serving a multi-ethnic flock certainly ises to the contrary left him and his colleagues little time In the morning, Khomchik came for people outside their regular sched­ to the hotel and we went to visit ule.48 On this day-1ong v:sit alone, the all the Orthodox to urge them to priest had dealings with three different attend the baptism at Khomchik' s groups in three different languages. house. Two of Khomchik's broth­ Besides attending to their highly ers live in Aberdeen. Their w ives diverse believers, Fr. Andreades and are fanatical Catholics-Poles­ his colleagues had a special and par­ and they are heavily influenced ticular responsibility on their travels: by their mothers. But the reuniting Slavic Uniate members of the Khomchik brothers and their immigrant communities with what the sister are fanatical Orthodox and priests believed to be the true church. strongly support their religion. Uniates :onstituted a special concern They :nsisted that Stefan's son be of the R1ssian Orthodox church in baptized in the Orthodox church. north America and around the world. Besides the people mentioned Sometimes called "Byzan~ine rite" or above, there are up to 40 Greeks "Greek" Catholics, most Gf these in Aberdeen, working at the w ood believers had come fro:r:-. contemporary 8 , the Slovak Republic, Hungary, encountered it and re:.mite wayward Moldova, and UK.raine. Most of their Uniates with the mother church.50 lands had once belonged to Russia, In the American west, Jdate where Orthodoxy was the state reli­ immigrants from , , g:on. After the 16th century, however, and other regions of Aus~:-ia-Hungary these regions entered the jurisdiction had settled in the mining towns of o~ Catholic states such as Poland and Wilkeson and Roslyn, Washir..gton, arc. Austria. Aware of the difficulties faced several small agricultural c:reas arounc: by Orthodox believers in a Catholic Edmonton, Alberta. They typicc.lly country, some Orthodox bishops had lived quietly, if not always amicably, agreed in the 1596 Union of Brest to a with their traditional Orthodox neigh­ pragmatic compromise. They con­ bors, so they were not dWicuit f'Jr the sented to recognize the supremacy of priests to locate. Fr. Andreades' :?rede­ the Pope in exchange for the right to cessors, Frs. Aleksandrov 2:c1d -,Iretta, retain the Ort~odox liturgy and certain enjoyed considerable success ;n con­ Orthodox traditions, such as conduct­ vincing Uniate believers to abandon ing services in the local language their heresy, presiding over rr:u:y rather chan and staffing the services of reunion in thei::- te!lure at St. parishes with married clergy Spiridon's. Fr. Andreades, in tt:rn, was Uniates' orientation was thus dedicated to the campaign ~or reunion both O::thodox and Roman Catholic. with Orthodoxy, as he makes clear in They believed themselves to be Ortho­ his description of a meeting in ~oslyn dox, because they had always had the in early 1906: day-to-day essentials of Orthodoxy: March 1906. Last night, I returned clergy had been permitted to marry from Roslyn-Cle Elum, where I and celebrate the liturgy in the local conducted the Great Wednesday language, as did traditional Orthodox service and gave the sacrament to priests. The more controversial theo­ about 25 Ruthenes, Serbs, and logical points of the Union of Brest, Montenegrins. In add:tion, three such as the affirmation of Papal su­ Ruthene Uniates united with the premacy, tended to escape the unso­ Orthodox church: Mi.l.

------let as many people as possible important task. As Fr. Dabovicl: had know about the place and ~ime for done years before in Califor:-.ia and the service. Washington, Fr. Andreades launched a I conducted the service in Greek, fund-raising campaign to ::epair the since the parish there is largely denuded, forlorn-looking ::hapel in Greek and Syrian. When I fin­ Portland. ished, I proceeded with the September 3, 1905. Traveled -~o marriage rite for Darovish' s Portland for the funeral of Mr. daughter and then said a few Dinaris, who had drowned. ~e worc.s to the assembled. entire Orthodox com::mnity At the regular service, we col­ attended the funeral, dt;_ri..'lg lected $10.30, which Mr. Darovish which I said a few worcis a?pro­ quickly pocketed, so as to add it­ priate to the occasion. After or so he said-to the money returning from the cemetery, I already collected and earme::::-ked asked everyone to coDe to Mr. for repairs of the chapel. I to~d Suraia's house. During our meet­ him he had no right to keep the ing, I asked each person to make a money in his possession. If he great effort to raise the necessary wished to collect funds on bs funds ~o put the chapel in work­ own for repairs to the chape1, he ing order. I wrote an appeal to the could do so among the Syrians, Greeks in two copies and gave but he could not hold on to funds them to Messrs. Suraia and belonging to the Seattle Marand for :he collection of mission... Mr. Darovish, however, donations. The lists were :_'11!r,edi­ stubbornly insisted on having his ately covered with signat-.;res own way. He claimed that Fr. from those attending, and some Dabovich and Fr. Aleksandrov $60 was collected. Surc:.ia and had authorized him to look after Marand promised to visit those the chapel and that he was only who were off workirg and collect acting on their instructions. enough money to do be compre­ Taking stock of his stubbornness hensive repair that is so ugently and lies, I returned to Seattle required. 1 surely hope :hat they determined to appoint at my first can manage it. There are holes in opportunity a starosta, or elder, the walls, the iconostasis is ~nade who would put the needs of the of cardboard with only one icon, chapel and fellow worshippers and there are no chalices c::- c-Jtar ahead of his own. This task plates of any kind. It is a depress­ became all the more urgent after I ing atmosphere in which :o learned that no one ir the worship.56 Eparchy-not Fr. Dabovich, nor By February of the foilow:ng year, Father Alexander or anyone 1906, the campaign had made some else-t>ad given him the authority progress: thirty more dollars had 55 he claimed. accumulated, for a total of $90. Fr. Fr. Andreades was as good as ::us Andreades noted that this would not word; not only was Mr. Darovish suffice, because at least $200 was demoted, he had disappeared alto­ required to do all that was necessary to gether by the time of the priest's next complete the repair. For the time being, visit. This development left Fr. he wrote, "we will content ourselves Andreades free to attend to another with making sure that the roof does 11 not leak, and meanwhile see about Of course, it can be said in the collecting more funds."57 missionaries' defense that their work ?r. Andreades's priorities in his in faraway America tended to isolate "extension of brotherly help" focused them from controversies among their on external matters, i.e., irregularities brethren in Imperial Russia. Even if in tr.e co11ection and improvement of they had been encouraged to alleviate physical facilities within the various the poverty within their parishes, it is corr.munities. Some of his fellow not certain that all concerned would priests ir. Imperial Russia felt that his have had the means with which to do efforts would be better directed else­ so. Unlike priests in the Russian whe:-e. By the tum of the century, some empire, who often received no subsi­ of them, such as Archimandrite dies from the churcr., American mis­ Mikhail of St. Petersburg, had publicly sionaries received a salary, but paid declared that the clergy should con­ most expenses, includir.g housing, cern itsel£ with more than conducting travel and even some parish improve­ services and improving facilities: ments, themselves.61 Moreover, in priests should help with the material some parishes, parishio:1ers had cond:tion of their parishioners.58 These forr::1ed church-based fraternal organi­ clerics were responding to the new zations, some of which attempted to legio:1s of urban poor lured to the cities assist those fallen on hard times. by the prospect of employment in new Nonetheless, since the Si:. Spiridon industrial enterprises. parish numbered among the most ?r. Andreades demonstrated an prosperous in the United States, with a awareness of the desperate straits in core group of well-off, contributing which his own immigrant parishioners parishioners, Fr. Andreades might around the northwest often fo und have broadened his definition of themselves. For example, he notes in "brotherly help" to include measures his diary that the above-mentioned for those among his parishioners fund-raisi:l.g campaign came to a hardest hit by the v i cissi~udes of sudden standstill after Easter 1906, immigrant life. 62 because most of the parishioners had The Circuit Riders' Legacy suddenly departed the city, leaving just The lives of Fr. Andreades and his 59 30 Greeks and 3 Syrians. Such sudden fellow missionaries were not easy; the disap?earances were not unusual; road they traveled pl&ced great de­ immigrants went where the jobs were, mands on their stamina and persever­ and when the work shut down, parish­ ance as well as their physical health. ioners would leave for a time, some­ However, the written records of their times never to return. Yet the priest did experiences make their e~forts worth­ not evince concern for their welfare on while, because those records shed new that occasion, nor did he upon a light on the Russian Orthodox Church sudden exodus of parishioners from and its varied cor:stituencies in the the Wilkeson, Washington paris~ ;_r\ American west. The missionaries 1906. In his regular report :o the testify to the existence of a church bishop, he reported only his difficJlLes :nany people associate exclusively in renting out the well-appointed with the eastern United States. Their church building there. He explailed accounts of circuit travel help to ruefully that there were no takers_. ever establish where Orthodox people lived for the rock-bottom rent of $4 per and whence they had come. The vast 60 :monfr. . :majority of the missiOnaries' parishio- 12 ners came from southeastern and church and its adherents-they ap­ central Europe.63 They generally lived peared to reject the possibilities inher­ in small communities within 50 to 100 ent in attracting the peoples of the new miles of Seattle or Portland, working in w orld. Moreover, confronted with occupations that would have been evidence of poverty arr.ong their familiar to their grandfathers: fishing, immigrant populations, the missionar­ mining, woodcutting, and farming. ies seemed to interpret their charge to In recounting the challenges of "extend brotherly help" to the needy serving predominantly non-Russian in terms of repairs to their chapels and Orthodox, the missionaries demon­ churches-an approach more reminis­ strate that the Russian Orthodox cent of the old Russian church than of church in the United States was Rus­ its more recent practices. sian in name only. As the only official On the othe ;- hand, the Orthodox representative of Orthodoxy in turn-of­ missionaries displayed exemplary the-century America, it served pre­ commitment and energy in embracing dominately believers who would have a responsibility they had perhaps not attended Serbian, Greek, Syrian, or anticipated when embarking on their other Orthodox churches in their missionary careers. When they found respective .1.omelands. Fr. Andreades themselves ministering to the non­ and his colleagues reinforce this point Russian Ortr.odox believers on their constantly in reports, letters, and circuits, they were assisting Russian diaries. The overwhelming majority­ Orthodoxy in an important transition Ruthenes, Serbs, Poles, Croats, and from missionary institution to immi­ Greeks-came from Austria-Hungary grant church. Seeking out converts to and the independent states of Serbia, the faith could not, after all, be the Bulgaria, and Greece. 64 It may surprise highest priority where there were those who equate "Slav" with "Rus­ legions of needy Orthodox immigrants sian" that Russians were numerically from many countries. Perhaps the best insignificant in the west in 1905, "just measure of the missionaries' efforts here and there," as a priest visiting St. here is the success they enjoyed in Spiridon's put it. 65 Only the 1917 revo­ helping the church refocus its mission lution and its attendant upheavals in the early 20th century. St. Spiridon' s w ould result in substantial numbers of church in Seattle, Wilkeson's Holy Russian emigres in the western states. Trinity parish, and St. Nicholas church Finally, the missionaries' experi­ in Portland, all of which were founded ences here underscore the contradic­ and nurtured by Fr. Andreades and his tory character of the Russian Orthodox fellow missionaries, remain vibrant, mission in the United States. Unlike active, multi-ethnic centers of Ortho­ their predecessors in Alaska and their doxy after a century of revolution, Protestant and Catholic contemporar­ division, and schism in the church. The ies, Russian Orthodox missionaries parishes-and the letters, reports, and declined the opportunity to proclaim diary entries-represent the best and propagate their faith along the evidence of the missionaries' largely new frontiers of the United States. In unheralded dedication to the cause of their fixation on a centuries-old schism Orthodoxy and its singular p-:esence in from the old country-the Uniate the United States nearly a cect....;. ry ago.

13 Holy Trimty Russian Orthodox Churck Wtlkeson Washington. Photo: Photographs Department/ Oregon Historical Society.

Father Michael Andreadis/ 1905-07 Russian Orthodox Priest/ St. Nicholas & Holy Trimty. Photo: Photographs Depart­ ment/ Oregon Histori­ cal Society

14 Endnotes 1. The-o:e are two classifications of clergy in the Orthodox church. The white clergy, who may marry, are rypically parish priests. The black, or monastic, clergy must re~ain celibate. Frorr~ the ranks of the black clergy come the highest-ranking members of the church hierarchy, i.e., bishops, me ~ ropolitans, and patriarchs. For more information, consult Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (London: Penguin Books, 1993), 290-291. 2. "Jabovich-Bishop Nicholas (San Francisco), Novemver 17, 1892, Alaskan-Russian Church Archives (hereafter ARCA), Records ofthe Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church ofNorth America- Diocese ofAlaska (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, 1984), co!ltainer D511/13, reel520. 3. ibid. 4. There is evidence of Orthodox activity in Portla.r.d predating Fr. Dabovich' s journey. Church records show that Fr. Vladimir Vechtomov had visited the Lavrentii Chemov family in the fail of 1881 in order to anoint and bury Nataliic:. Chemov. Vechtomov-Bishop Nestor (San Francisco), October 14, 1881, ARCA, D511/5~3, ::eel 320.

5. Dabovich-Bishop Nicholas (Port!and), November 6, 1893, ARCA, B6, Tee~ 10.

6. Dabovich-Bishop N~cholas (Portland), November 17, 1893, ARCA, B6, reellO. No one mentions the reason for which the church was named for St. Spiridon, but it is likely the name honored by a high percentage of Greeks and other immigrants from southeastern Europe in the new parish. 7. Irlormation abod St. Spiridon's parish today is available on its web ?age (www.oca.org/OCA/pim/index). 8. St. Spiridon lived in the 4th century in the town of Tremithus, which is located on the is!and of Cyprus. A contemporary of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine I, he became bishop of Tremithus, in which capacity he demonstrated the ability to perform miracles; he is said to have cured Emperor Constantine of a serious illness with the touch of his hand. For more details, see Zhztiia sviatykh na russkom iazyke, vol. 4 (Moskva: Izd-vo Vvedenskoi Optimoi Pustyni, 1993): 330-350. See also Alan E. Mack, ed., St. Spirzdon s CathedraL A Century in Seattle 1895-1995 (Se­ attle, 1995), 62-63.

9. Dabovich-Bis~-wp Nicholas (San Francisco), November 17, 1892, ARCA, D511/ 513, reel 320. 10. "Puteshestvie Ego Preosviashchenstva, Preosviashchennieishago Nikolaia, Episkopa Aleutskago i Aliaskago po Aliaske," American-Russian Orthodox Messen­ ger, September 1, 1897, pp. 24-25. 11. Brief histories of both parishes are availc- 9Je via their web pages. Add::-ess: www.oca.org/P:iM/index. In addit:an, there is the St. Spiridon lOOth anniversary corr:memorative album, edited by Alan E. Mack (see note 8), and a brief article on the Portland parish in Iubz!einyi Sbornik v pamiat' 150-letiia Russkoi Pravoslavnoi tserkvi v severnoiAmerike, vol.2 (New York, 1945): 139-42.

12. The construction of tl'~ e Church of St. Sava, founder of the autocephalous

15 Serbian Orthodox churd-t and its first archbishop in 1219, was com?leted at late 1894. On December 4 of ~hat year, Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov) consecrated the new church. The report on the service described the church, built witl'c the help of collections from Russian churches as well as Serbian parishione ... contributions, as "spacious and graceful/' with a bell tower and a light blue roof. Fr. Sebastian Dabovich was on hand co assist the bishop in the consecration. "Soobshcheniia iz zagranitsy, iz sievernoi Ameriki/' Tserkovnyia Viedomosti 8 (1895): 54-55. 13. Orthodox churches were eventually b:tilt in Angel's Camp (St. Basil of Ostrog), Fresno (St. Peter the Apostle) and Bisbee (St. Stefan Nemanja). Pictures of all thee churches, though as yet no background information, can be found in the Directory section o~ the Serbiaa D~ocese of Western America web page (www.smfa.com). 14. The bishop's topic on this occasion concerned the contribctions of St. Sava to Serbian Orthodoxy and culture. "Father Sebastiar., your brother in flesh and spirit, has already acquainted you with the life and work of St. Sava," the bishop said approvingly. Trzdsat ' riechei i tri poslaniia Preosviashchennieishago Nzko/aia Episkopa Aleutskago iA!iaskinskago (New York, 1896), p. 56. 15. Mr. Vladimir Aleksandrov came to St. Spiridon' s in 1896, shortly after rus arrival in America, with the intent to become a missionary. He began his service at St. Spiridon's as the choi:: director, also serving as a reader prior to his ordination to the priesthood at fne church in 1898. Aleks211drov' s oath of allegiance to Tsar Nicholas II, which was apoarently required of all who aspired to the priesthood, remains in ARCA, B1/2, ::eel7. 16. Father Dabovich noteci this fact in a letter to Bishop Nicholas in the summer of 1896. Dabovich-Bishop Nicholas (Jackson), undated, August 1896, ARCA, B5 / 6, reellO. 17. Vretta-Bishop Nicholas (Seattle), May 8, 1896, ARCA, D467 I 469, reel297. Chrismation is the equivalent in the Orthodox faith of the Roman Catholic sacra­ ment of confirmation. 18. Fr. Sebastian Dabovich visited Butte the following year, becoming the first priest to conduct formal services there on the feast day of the Dormition of the Mother of God in August l897, with 31 Serbs in attendance. For this reason, cr. Dabovich, not Fr. Vretta, is considered the founder of the Holy Trinity Parish. Holy Trinzty Serbian Orthodox Church /897-/997 (Butte, 1997), 8-9. 19. "Soobshcheniia iz zagranitsy/' Tserkovnyia Viedomosti 15 (1902): 1635. In 1896, there was a chapel in Wilkeson, w hich was soon replaced by a church which Bishop Tikhon (3ellavin) dedicated in 1902. Despite early Uniate-Orthodox trouble and continuing difficulties with alcohol abuse in the early years, Holy Trinity­ now Holy Trinity /Holy Resurrection-remains an active Orthodox parish today. A brief history of the church, as well as a profile of its current membership, is available oE the church web page (www.oca.org/PIM/index.html). 20. Some Uniate priests diC. not take kindly to defections among their believers and resorted to questionable tactics to prevent them. One Orthodox r.:lissionary reported, "So as to fish more easily in troubled waters, Uniate priests tell beiievers that it would be better for t~,em to go to a Jewish synagogue than to an Orthodox church, for 'we do not believe in the Virgin Mary'" The gullible readily accept 16 this. Several times Uniates have happened upon our church, looked with wonder a~ the icon of the Mother of God and then naively asked the Orthodox worship­ pers, 'so you. do believe in the Blessed Virgin?'" "Pervye shagi pravoslavnago missionera v sievemoi Amerike," Tserko vnyia Viedomosti15 (1902): 1499. 21. John G. Shideler, Coal Towns in the Cascades: A Centennial Hist01y of Roslyn and Cle Elum, Washington (Spokane: Melior Publ;cc_~ions, 1986), 60-61. 22. Ibid. 23. Dabovich-Bishop Nicholas (Sar. Francisco), November 17,1892,ARCA, 0511/ 513, reel320. 24. "Pravoslavie v Kanade," American-Russian Orthodox Messenger, September 1, 1897, p. 26. 25 . Ibid., p . 27. 26. "Poiezdka v Kanadu. Iz raport3 Seatl'skogc prichta k Ego Preosviashchenstvu," American Russian Orthodox Messenger, June 1, 1898, p . 602. 27. Ibid., p. 6C4 28. On modem maps, Limestone I...ake appears as Wostok, or sometimes Stary Wostok. 29. Bishop Tikhon consecrated this church in August 1901, during a visit to west­ err. Canada. "Soobshcheniia iz zagranitsy, iz sievemoi Ameriki," Tserkovnyia Viedomosti14 (1901): 1557. It continues to serve Alberta Orthodox today, albe~t on a ilr.:Uted ~asis. Sunday Divine Liturgy is currently being held once a month. The Trinity churcb_'s web page can be accessed through the Orthodox Church of An:erica' s online Directory of Parishes, Institutions and Monasteries (www.oca.org/pim/index). 30. "Poiezdka v Kanadu," pp. 619-620. 31. 'The primitive conditions ir. whicn missionaries often found themselves in the new world seldom failed to impress observers. In a 1995 profile of Bishop Tikhon (Bellavi:n), who for a time was Fr. Aleksandrov and Kamenev's superior, Nikolai Novikov unde.,..scored the difficulties of traveling to the faithful on the American con~inent. "In America," he wrote, "Bishop TJ.khon visited the most far-fl-ung outposts, using whatever means of transport available: he would travel by steam­ ship or rowboat, on horseback or even on foot. Parishioners thought it was a miracle to see him in person, all the more so in that he personally baptized, mar­ ried, and buried members of their communities." Nikolai Novikov, "Pochetnyi grazhdanin Ameriki i Iaroslavlia: Novye fakty k biografii sviatitelia Tikhona," Russkaia Amenka 4 (1995): 7. 32. Aieksandrov-Bishop Nicholas (Seattle), July 3, 1899, ARCA, D467 /69, reel297. 33. "Sobshcheniia iz zagranitsy," Tserkovnyia llledomosit'14 (1901):1557. 34. In a 1991 interview, Butte Holy Trinity parishioner William Petrovich noted that some 10,000 Serbs had been buried in that cemetery since the early 1890s. William Petrovich, interview by Fr. Ousan Koprivica, October 10, 1991 , Tape recording. Butte/Silver Bow Archives, Butte, Montana.

17 35. Lawrence F. Small, ed., Religion in Montana: Pathways to the Present, vol. 2 (nelena, Montana: SkyHouse Publishers, 1995): 168. A newer incarnation of Holy Trinity Church continues to serve Serbian Orthodox in Butte today The original structure was replaced by a new church building in 1965. In 1997, the parish cel­ ebrated its centenniat which was also the centennial of Serbian 'Jrthodoxy in Montana. 36. Fr. Vretta had financial problems that made it necessary for him to return to Russia, where he soon died; Fr. Aleksandrov suffered a series of tragedies in 1904- 5, including the destruction of his home by fire and the death of ~Lis young son Nicholas, after which he requested a transfer to an east coast padsi.c to avoid painful memories associated with Seattle. Fr. Aleksandrov's ordeals are described in Captain VM. Iakubovskii, "Iz zhizni Seattl'skoi Pravoslavnoi Missii/' Amencan­ Russian Orthodox Messenger, February 15, 1904, ?P· 68-69. 37. Fr. Andreades seems to have been the only priest at St. Spiridon for much of 1905; there usually were a( least two priests assigned there. In 19C6, a young reader named Tikhomirov a::-rived to take some of the burden from Fr. A:Ldreades, mak­ ing it easier for him to travel his circuit of churches.

38. In 1896, the Holy Synod's official publication, Tserkovnyia Viedomostz~ identified the goals of the church's representatives abroad as follows: "Conducting services, delivering homilies, teaching and administering the sacraments to parishioners near and far, brotherly hel? to the needy and the teaching of c~ildren. These are the main goals of our missionaries. Their efforts should be devoted to the support and strengthening of Orthodoxy where it exists now. Thereafter, sincerity and love dictate that they show love and attention for non-Orthodox seeking reunion with the church." "0 Pravoslavnoi Missii v Amerike/' Tserkovnyia Viedomosti9 (1896): 1030. 39. Reference is to Fr. Sebastian Dabovich, who had been elevateci to the rar.k of Archimandrite in 1904, upon his move to Chicago. 40. "Iz missionerskago dnevnika sviashchennika goroda Seattle, M. Ar.dreades/' Amencan-Russian Orthodox Messenger, April l5, 1906, p. 137. 41. "0 Pravoslavnoi missii v Amerike/' Tserkovnyia Viedomosti9 (1896): 1030. According ~o the statemeni: of missionary objectives in this article, ;nission2ries were to "be devoted to the support and strengthening of Orthodoxy where it exists now."

42. Aleksandrov (Seattle)-Bishop Nicholas, July 3, 1900, ARCA, ~467-69, reel297. 43. "Iz missionerskago dnevnika sviashchennika goroda Seattle/' Amerzcan­ Russian Orthodox Messenger, April 1, 1906, pp. 136-37. 44. Those interested in this Serbian division should consult Fr. Cabovich's Fe'Jru­ ary 1907letter to Bishop Tikhon. Dabovich-Bishop Ttkhon (Chicago), "february 19, 1907, ARCA, 0442-45, reel 83. 45. Bishop Rafael organized Syrians into what would become St. Nicholas Cathe­ ciral in Brooklyn and oversaw the publication of an Arabic-language service "!Jook for the benefit of Syrians around the country. There is a brief biogrz,phica1 sketch of Bishop Rafael in Constance J. Tarasar, ed., Orthodox Amerzca. Development of the

18 Orthodox Church in America /794-/976 (Syosset, New York: Orthodox Church of America, Department of History and Archives), p. 95. 46. Seldom was the multinational character of St. Spiridon's more in evidence than during the Easter vigil service of April l902. The service was co'l.ducted in three languages: Greek, Russian, a:1d English. As midnight approached, "the entire parish, Syrians, Russians, Slavs, Creoles, Greeks and Americans, ail with candles, moved toward the priest so as to light their candles from the candle the priest was holding/' so as to be able to greet Sunday and the resurrection ir_ the proper way "Prazdnik Pask}1j v g. Seattle/' American-Russian Orthodox Messenger, May 15, 1902, p. 204. 47. 11 Iz missionerskago dnevnika sviashchennika goroda Seattle, M. Andreades/' Amen'can-Russian Orthodox Messenger, April1, 1906, p. 134. 48. Occasionally; Americans managed to attract the priests' attention long enough to declare their intent to join the Or~hodox church. A veteran of the Civil War, William Gaskin, contacted Bishop Ttkhon in the late 1890s asking to be received into the church. He had been reading abou t the church for many years, Gaskin explained, and had decided to convert after discovering the existence of Holy 'Trinity Cathedral in his home state of California. Fr. Sebastian Dabovich per­ formed the service of baptism for Gaskin on December 12, 1900. "I am happy beyond words/' the old man said afterward, "that the Lord showed me tPe truth and allowed me to become a member of the Holy Apostolic Church." Amen'can­ Russian Orthodox Messenger, January t 1900, pp. 15-16. 49. The Orthodox church had been conquered by MusEm invaders nearly every­ where except Russia by the end of the year 1453 and would not emerge from its captivity for several centuries. Therefore the Russian Orthodox church viewed itself as the defender of the faith and took seriously its responsibility to deal severely with any perceived heresies. One need only look at the harsh treatment meted out to the so-called "Old Believers," those who refused to acknowledge Patriarch Nikon's controversial church reform of the mid-17th century. 50. A measure of the importance both missionaries and their superiors attached to this task is the detailed listings orinted in the American-Russian Orthodox Messen­ ger of Uniate conversions to Orthodoxy. The following listing of reunions, ove-o which Fr. Aleksandrov presided, appeared in February of 1902. "Fr. Vladimir Aleksandrov united the following individuals with Orthodoxy in the year 1901. From among Uniates: In Wilkeson, Washington, Mikhail Polianskii, 26, his wife Maria, 22, their son, Mikhail, 1; Dmitrii Mitrishin, 26, his wife Anna, 17 (from Roman Cz:tholicism); Ioann Rak, 35, his wife Iulianna, 32, their son Ioann, 1; Petr Gotsko, 24, Iurii Gotsko, 21, Luk Goroshchak, 30, Vasilii Mitiashin, 27, Mariia Timus, 23, Ana Timus, 27. In the city of Cle Elum, Washington: Solomonia Gambal', 23, Pavel Pelik, 41, Filimon Simonchak, 33, Ivan Varga, 28, Mikhail Sabol', 26, his wife Anna, 25, their children Mariia, 7, and Mikhait 3; Lazarii Gambal', 26, Mikhail Opalka, 38 (from Roman Catholicism); Vasilii GambaL 27, Daniil Gavriliak, 37, ills wife Anna, 35, their children Ar:drei, 6, Nikolai, 5, Mikhail, 3 and Ioann, 2.

19 In the city of Victoria, British Columbia: Mrs. Kappa Al'foros (from .?rotestantism). In the city of Seattle, Washington: Miss M. Kanta-George, 23 (frorr. Roman Ca­ tholicism). The following individuais left Roman Catholicism for union with the Orthodox faith at Holy Trinity parish in Wostok (Canadian mission) betweer, November 1, 1901 and January 1, 1902: Ekaterina Gavrilova Bilao, 20, Pavel Petrov Gemchuk, 24, his wife Anr.a, 21, their sons Ioann, 20, Vasilii, 6; Tatiana Iosifovc.. Stuporik, 32." American-Russian Orthodox Messenger, February 15, 1902, pp. 94-95.

5~. "Iz m::ssionerskago dnevnika sviachennika goroda Seattle," Amencan-Russian Orthodox Messenger, April15, 1906, p. 161. 52. Witness some representative titles of articles concerning 0niates in the Amen._ can-Russian Orthodox Messenger. "Down with Uniates" (July ~5, 1909, p. 249) "Lies, EviL Slander-the three foundations of the Uniate Church in America" (February 15, 1908, p. 69); "The Unia~e Faith on its Deathbed" (February l, 1908). 53. Two St. Spiridon priests, Frs. Aleksandrov and Kamenev, both of whom pre­ ceded Fr. Andreades, described the ceremony of reunion as performed in western Canada in June 1898. Those seeking reunion assembled in an open field, because there was as yet no church building. They passed under ar, Orthodox cross and received a sprinkling of holy water. Women received crosses as a remembrance of the ceremony, while men were given icons and books. At the end of the service, all those newly reunited with Orthodoxy wrote a formal request to the north Ameri­ can bishop, N:cholas, that they be accepted into the church. "Poiezdka v Ka:t!adu," Amencan-Russian Orthodox Messenger, June 1, 1898, p. 602. 54. "0 Pravoslavnoi Missii v Amerike/' Tserkovnyia Viedomosti9 (1896): 1030. 55. "Iz missionerskago dnevnika sviashchennika goroda Seattle," Amencan­ Russian Orthodox Messenger, April t 1906, pp. 134-35. 56. Ibid., p. 135. 57. Ibid. 58. For further information, see Gregory Freeze, "Going to the I:r.telligentsia: The Church and its Urban Mission in Post-Reform Russia," in Edith W. ~lowes, Samuel D. Kassow and James L. West, eds., Between Tsar and People: Educated Society and the Quest for Publk !denttty in Late Imperial Russia (Prir.ceton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 215-232. Freeze identifies Fr. Georgii S. Petrov and Archimandrite l'v1ikhail (Semenov) as leaders in the campaign to involve the church in ameliorating the cor:dition of the urban poor. 59. Ibid. 60. "Iz missionerskago dnevnika sviashchennika goroda Seattle, M. Andreades/' Amencan-Russian Orthodox Messenger, April 1, 1906, p. 136. 61. According to the Holy Synod, missionary priests in America received up to 1,800 rubles per year. These higher salaries disappeared quickly, however, since churches tended to receive very little in the way of contributions from parishio­ ners struggling to keep body and soul together in an expensive new country. 62. It should be noted that this had begun to change by 1905, at least in church 20 communities on the east coast, where the church was headquartered after its move from San Francisco to New York in 1904. In his capacity as a founder of the Orthodox Mutual Aid society, Fr. Alexander Kho~ovitskii, one of the pioneers of the Ri.lss!an church in the eastern United States, became an enthusiastic backer of the first Russian Emigrant House in New York. The house was to become a center for Russian newcomers from Russia proper and Austria-Hungary, a clearinghouse for information about finding work, housing and other essentials of life in America, and also a means for Russians to locate wayward relatives in the new country. Noteworthy in this regard also is the Russian Orthodox Christian Immigrant Society of North America. Founded in 1908, the society, which had offices in New York and Washington, assisted needy immigrants wit.!-, food, clothing, and shelter as needed. 63. This dynamic generally held true throughout the United States before !917. The Holy Synod published the following breakdown of nationalities in north America served by the Russian Orthodox Church as of 1901: 725 Russians, 2,448 Galic!ans, 4,450 Ruthenes, 1,420 Serbs and South Slavs, 541 Greeks, 3,596 Arabs, 2,234 Cre­ oles, 2,121 Indians, 3,767 Aleuts, 8,750 Eskimos, 77 others. "Soobshcheniia iz-za granitsei," Tserkovnyia Viedomosti 14 (1901): 289.

64. Typically, the official United States census identified anyone who ca~e from Austria-Hungary as "Austrian," whether he was German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Romanian or any other nationality included within the borders of the Hapsburg monarchy Fr. Andreades' diary indicates exactly who lived where, e.g. Ruthenes and Serbs in Roslyn, Croats and Poles in Black Diamond, and so fotth. 65. ".?o shtatam:. Aliaske," American-Russian Orthodox Messenger, October 10, 1910, p. 301. 66. For up-to-date information on St. Spiridon's and St. Nicholas churches today, consult the articles x1.d books mentioned previously in this text. Despite early struggles with alcoholism and Orthodox-Uniate conflict, the Wilkeson perish has proven to be one of the most resilient in the United States. It has recently changed its nxne to Holy Trinity / Holy Resurrection and moved to Tacoma, where the numbers of Orthodox are currently high and growing, but it has been a fixture of Orthodox church life in the northwest since its founding ir, the 1890s. See the church's web page via the Orthodox Church of America's online Directory of Parishes, Institut~ons and Monasteries (www.oca.org/PIM/ index.html).

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