Photo: Tagor Vojnovic
The Cathedral A History of the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection of New York Part I: 1870-1943
by CRAIG TRUGLIA Adapted from the 1993 article “Continuity of Life in Unity of Faith: A History of the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection of New York,” by Fr. Christopher Calin.
L
ocated on East 2nd Street in Manhattan’s East Village, the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection of New York has been the seat of many archbishops and metropolitans since 1870. Its history is not simply that of a building or a singular parish—it is, in many ways, a microcosm of the Orthodox experience in America. One cannot tell this history without surveying how Orthodoxy began in New York, its many hurdles and bumps along the way, its saints and its sinners, and despite it all, the perseverance of New York’s Orthodox Christians. This article will cover the beginnings of New York’s great Orthodox cathedral through 1943. Our next article will span from then up to the present day. Part I: Orthodoxy makes its first in-roads in New York City
Orthodoxy is often viewed as a “missionary religion” in the United States, brought by immigrants from historically Orthodox homelands to new homes throughout the nation. In New York City, however, things began a little differently. Father Nicholas
Bjerring, who founded the city’s first parish in 1870, was in fact a convert to Russian Orthodoxy. Bjerring, who was born in Denmark, taught philosophy at a Roman Catholic seminary in Baltimore before he came to New York. He was first exposed to Orthodoxy by reading a scholarly journal called L’Union Chrétienne, edited by a French Jesuit convert. The catalyst for his conversion was the 1870 Roman Catholic council popularly called “Vatican I,” which officially dogmatized Papal infallibility. In response to the council, Bjerring wrote to Pope Pius IX in 1870, accusing the Roman Catholic Church of lacking true catholicity—in contrast, he said, to the Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Isidore of Saint Petersburg took notice, and about a month later, he ordained Bjerring to the Holy Diaconate and then to the priesthood in quick succession. Bjerring served his first Divine Liturgy in German at a chapel in Russia. At the time, there were only a few Orthodox parishes in the United States outside of Alaska. Bjerring was tasked with opening the first Orthodox chapel in New York City. The Russian Orthodox Church did not have a Patriarch—it was under the firm control of the Imperial Russian state—and the political leaders wanted a church in New York for diplomatic reasons. The goal was to expose Americans and foreign dignitaries visiting New York to Russian culture. 11
jacob's well
