Saint Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral

St. Theodosius Cathedral is an Orthodox church located on Starkweather Avenue in the Tremont neighborhood, on the near west side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is considered one of the best examples of Russian church architecture in the U.S. and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The parish is the first Orthodox parish in Cleveland and is currently under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of the Midwest of the Orthodox Church in America.

St. Theodosius is perhaps best known for its appearance in the 1978 film, The Deer Hunter with Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep.

Dedication

Saint Theodosius of Chernigov, the patron saint to which the cathedral is dedicated, was born in the early 1630s in Podolia. The name given to him in baptism is unknown. He was educated at the Brotherhood Monastery in Kiev. He became a monk at the Kiev Caves Monastery and named Theodosius, in honor of Theodosius of Kiev. He was later ordained as a celibate priest at the Saint Nicholas Krupytskyi Monastery near Baturyn.

In 1662, he was appointed hegumen of the Korsun Monastery in Kaniv. In 1664, he was appointed hegumen of the Vydubychi Monastery in Kiev. In 1680, he established a small skete on the island of Mikhailovschino or Mikhailovschina. In 1688, he was appointed archimandrite of the Yeletskyi Dormition Monastery in Chernigov. On September 13, 1692, he was consecrated archbishop in the Dormition Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. In 1694, a skete was founded near Liubech.

Saint Theodosius died on February 5, 1696 and was buried in the Cathedral of Saints Boris and Gleb in Chernigov.

History

The parish was organized, in 1896, when the tide of immigration of Eastern Europeans to the United States was at an all-time high, by Rusyn immigrants (the name for Ukrainians in Austro-Hungarian Empire), living in Tremont, who had immigrated from Galicia and Carpathian Ruthenia part of Ukraine.

The congregation that founded the parish was formed from a group of Greek Catholics (also known as Byzantine Catholics) dissatisfied with being affiliated with the Catholic church. This same situation played out in many Greek Catholic parishes in the US, and the results formed the core group of the present Orthodox (OCA) church in America.

The first church structure was a light-frame construction building, at Literary Rd. and W. 6th St., built in 1896.

The Russian Missionary Fund established by Czar Nicholas II provided financial assistance.

The second church structure was the former Sisters of St. Joseph Convent. In 1902, the parish bought the former Sisters of St. Joseph Convent and sold 80 individual lots from the convent land to parishioners for $125 apiece to raise funds.

In 1909 the parish purchased land in Brooklyn for a cemetery. The property had a wooden barn on it and one of the monks from St. Theodosius used to come out there on Saturdays to teach the Russian language to the children who lived too far away to attend Russian classes at the church.

The current cathedral is the parish's third church structure. It was completed at an estimated cost of $70,000.

The cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Alexander (Nemolovsky) on Sunday, July 20, 1913.

Starting in 1917, world events affected the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Revolution abolished the Most Holy Synod and restored the Patriarchate. The Most Holy Synod administered all church property and controlled the expenditure of churches and monasteries. A new synod elected Tikhon of Moscow patriarch. Russian Civil War violence devastated the Russian Empire. Church publications were prohibited.

February 25–28, 1919, hosted the Second All-American Sobor which set a precedent, by electing Alexander (Nemolovsky) to the rank of Archbishop of the Aleutians and North America, for future elections of the Church's primates by later councils. This made him the first primate to be chosen locally in North America.

The Russian Orthodox Church was weakened again and further dissociated in 1922, when the Living Church, a Soviet government supported movement, dismissed the Patriarch and restored a Synod to power.

The cathedral was rededicated on October 3, 1954.

Since the late 1950s, the clergy celebrated the liturgy in both Church Slavonic and English languages. Today there is only one Sunday liturgy and it is in English and parts in Slavonic.

On January 18, 1974, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a Cleveland Landmark.

In the summer of 1977, St. Theodosius served as the site for the wedding scene in the film The Deer Hunter. According to the film credits, the parish's own Father Stephen Kopestonsky, was cast as the priest in the scene. On June 16, 1961, it also appeared in an episode of the TV series Route 66 ("Incident On a Bridge").

Architecture

The cathedral was built in a recognizable Neo-Byzantine style; a type of Russian church architecture with one large, four medium, and eight small copper onion domes, symbolic of Christ and the twelve apostles. The cathedral is considered one of the best representatives of Russian church architecture in the U.S. with design features, by Cleveland architect Frederick C. Baird, based on photographs of the original Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia.

In 1953 the church commissioned murals by noted Russian fresco painter Andrej Bicenko. Included in a mural is the likeness of an early pastor, Jason Kappanadze.

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