140 YEARS AGO TODAY

Dec 18, 20242 min read

December 18, 1884 was the date of the first Greek Catholic service conducted on American soil in Shenandoah, PA.

Kern Hall on Main Street Shenandoah, PA, site of the first Greek Catholic service and church building. It was demolished in 2016.

On the second story of the Kern Hall, on North Main Street, a group of coal miners with their families gathered for Vespers for the Feast of St. Nicholas, which is celebrated on December 19th on the Julian Calendar.

Leading Vespers was the twenty-seven-year-old Fr. Ivan Voliansky, a native of Yabluniv, Ternopil, Ukraine, who arrived in the United States just three days prior with his wife Pavlina on the S.S. Pennland.

And thus, "Благословен Бог наш всегда, нині і присно, і во віки віков!" "Blessed is our God, always now and forever!" was the the first liturgical acclimation in the new world.

The second-floor chapel, which became the first Greek Catholic Church in America, was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception (December 22nd on the Julian Calendar). Initially Fr. Voliansky had approached a local, predominately Polish Roman Catholic church in Shenandoah for use of their church but was refused. The acceptance of Greek Catholic married clergy by Roman Clergy was in many ways non-existent—and often hostile— for decades which gave rise to several large Orthodox jurisdictions, founded mostly by former Greek Catholics.

The first baptism in the Kern Hall building chapel was celebrated a few days later on December 25th (Julian Calendar Christmas is on January 7th). In January of 1885 the first wedding was celebrated and then the first funeral followed—that of an infant girl.

The Volianskys lived on the third floor of the Kern Building above the second-story chapel.

Site of Kern Hall. Photo taken August 3, 2024 by the author.

Unfortunately, this building demolished in 2016. Land was purchased in 1885 to build a church dedicated to St. Michael.

The first St. Michael's Church, dedicated November 21, 1886.

The second St, Michael's Church. Dedicated on Palm Sunday 1909, destroyed in a fire on Easter Monday, April 7, 1980.

The parish, now in its 4th church building, continues to this day in Shenandoah and is in the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. Patriarch Sviatoslav visited Shenandoah, the birthplace of the Greek Catholic Church on American soil, in November 2015.