Czar Nicholas II, who declared: "Let there be an Orthodox Church in Galveston." From our inception, we have been a diverse and multi-ethnic parish. Our Parish was formally organized with Texas Incorporation on Jan. 13, 1895,
by Risto Vucovich, Christo Chuoke, Arthurs Menutis, Mitchael Mihaloudski &
Milosh Porobich. Eastern Orthodox Christian Serbians (those from Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia & Herceg
novina, Macedonia, Austria, Slovenia & Croatia),
Greeks, Russians, Romainians, Bulgarians, Arabs & even American Orthodox
Christians had been meeting on Church Holidays since 1861 in Galveston at
the Pythious Lodge & were known to others as the "Greek Catholics" & called
themselves the Parish of Saints Constantine & Helen. With the Consecration of
our Church Building in 1896, we became the First Eastern Orthodox Catholic
Church in Texas & at that time only 3 others existed in the lower 48 States
(although there are over 2600 parishes with an estimated 4 million parishioners
today our Church Building is the 2nd oldest structure remaining from the early
days). The Parish appealed to the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church
in St. Petersburg, Russia, & Tsar Nicholas II (now glorified by the Church as a
Martyr) decreed “Let there be an Orthodox Church in Galveston.” He then
personally donated the icons on the Iconostasis, a Gospel book (which
incidentally was printed during the reign of Czar Alexandar Alexandrevich in
Aug. 1892), all the sacred vessels, and also sent the Parish’s first Priest
Archimandrite Fr. Theoclitos Triantafilides who is buried beneath the Alter. Our Church was consecrated the Feast Day of Sts Constantine & Helen,
June 3rd, 1896. After the 1900 Storm, the Church was reconsecrated by
Bishop Tikhon Belavin (Later Patriarch of Moscow, glorified by the Church as
a Confessor). Miraculously, the items donated by Tsar Nicholas all survived. The Church came under Serbian jurisdictionin 1961, due in part to the creation
of separate National Origin Dioceses in America & in a large portion to the
large number of of Unified Serbians remaining in the Parish. A more detailed History of Our Church & the it's Saintly First Priest can be
found at:
https://sites.google.com/site/theoclitostriantafilides/
