Holy Resurrection was originally founded in Mingo Junction, Ohio by Serbian Orthodox Christians who began to arrive in the Upper Ohio Valley in the 1890’s. These immigrants came chiefly from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and what are now the areas of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and belonged to the Serbian jurisdiction of the ancient and world-wide Orthodox Christian Church. Organi
zing in 1906, they formed a congregation and purchased a church building in Mingo Junction from the Methodist Church. They adapted this building for Orthodox worship and it was consecrated in honor of the Resurrection of Christ with great joy in November of that year. During this period, Steubenville became the central location for parishioners, and several lots were obtained in Steubenville including a former funeral home which was used as the parish home and chapel until the end of World War II. As the war ended, plans progressed for the building of a new church, settling on the design of Visoki Decani in Kosovo, one of the most ancient Serbian monasteries. The building was completed, and consecrated on June 6th of 1948, where St. Nikolai Velimirovich presided, the great Serbian bishop canonized in 2003. In 1957 a new parish home and church kitchen facility was built next to the church, and in 1967 the Church’s Steubenville facilities were completed with the building of a spacious two-story structure to house the church school classes, offices and a parish library. Additionally in 1949 over 20 acres were purchased on King’s Creek in neighboring Weirton, West Virginia to be used as the parish picnic grounds. The Serbian Orthodox Picnic Grounds on King’s Creek is now recognized as the finest facility of its type in the area. The location hosts our annual Church Picnic, held near the end of July, which attracts well over a thousand people and is an annual parish reunion for present and former members from all over the country.
