St. Nicholas Church celebrates 108th year

CHISHOLM—St. Nicholas Orthodox Church continues a tradition started 108 years ago with the laying of the church cornerstone.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, Divine Liturgy is being held followed by an ethnic lunch.

Services at St. Nicholas were suspended in 2009. Since that time priests from local Serbian Orthodox parishes have served for special occasions, such as the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone in August 2016. Liturgies are held at least once a year.

The plan to build St. Nicholas Orthodox Church was begun in 1915 by the Rusyn Brotherhood which had been established in 1905, according to a history of the church submitted by Mary Kaye Kuzma, a member of the St. Nicholas Preservation Society.

Carpatho-Rusyns, (also spelled Rusin, or called Carpatho-Rusin, Rusnak, or Ruthenian) are an Eastern Slavic group whose homeland is in northeast Slovakia (Presov region), western Ukraine (Transcarpathian region), and southeast Poland (Lemko region) along the Carpathian Mountains.

The first service in the new church was held on September 16, 1917 by the parish’s newest priest, Father Feodore Kreljuk with the baptisms of John Pouchak, son of the Rusyn family Harry and Tekla Pouchak, and of Job Popvic, son of the Serbian family of Luka and Katra Popvic. In March, 1918, 2 bells, weighing 500 pounds each, were installed about the church balcony over the church’s west entrance. From 1917 to 1920, 192 children were baptized at St. Nicholas. The early church priests were quickly called upon to marry, baptize or bury the people in need of these services and to help meet the needs of Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, and other Orthodox immigrants in the area.

One of the first things a visitor notices in an Orthodox church is the Icon Screen called an Iconostas at the eastern end inside the church; it separates the altar, where the priest serves, from the nave where the people worship. The current iconostas was dedicated on July 14, 1940, at the celebration of the church’s 25th anniversary. The icons are in the so-called “academic” type or a “soft” style. The “soft” style is characterized by an emphasis on proportion and more realist technique to depict the human form.

The church is being cared for by the St. Nicholas Preservation Society, a 501c3 dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and the cultural experience of Eastern Orthodox Christians on the Iron Range. The mission of the Preservation Society is three-fold: (1) To play a role in growing and maintaining Orthodoxy on the Iron Range and Northern Minnesota; (2) To maintain the history of the parish for the edification and inspiration of future generations; and (3) To preserve and maintain this distinctive church building not only as an important part of the region’s history but also as a possible home for a future mission parish or monastery church. St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church in America.