St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church Parish History

The Rev. Joseph M. Stanichar first came to Seattle to found a parish in January 1979. On Sunday, July 19, 1981, he formally launched the Seattle Byzantine Catholic Mission of the Ruthenian rite. At the time, Fr. Joseph was founder and pastor of St. Cyril & Methodius Byzantine Catholic Church in Spokane. The inaugural Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Lady Chapel of St. James Roman Catholic Cathedral. About one hundred people attended. An organizational meeting followed in the cathedral hall. Later, Bishop Emil J. Mihalik agreed to name the Mission St. Elias. For five years thereafter, Fr. Joseph traveled from Spokane to Seattle to celebrate Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral Chapel in the evening, first monthly and then weekly.

Prior to 1969, Byzantine Catholics in the West had been under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the Eparchy of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Between 1969 and 1981, they were under the care of the bishop of the Eparchy of Parma, near Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1981, the same year that the St. Elias Mission was launched in Seattle, a new eparchy was formed to specifically serve Byzantine Catholics in the West. The process began when the bishops of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolia in the United States met in Pittsburgh and proposed to create a fourth eparchy to oversee the Western states and Alaska and Hawaii. The Holy See responded favorably to the bishops' request for a new eparchy on December 3, 1981. A few months later, on March 9, 1982, the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys*, California was canonically erected and the Most Reverend Thomas V. Dolinay was formally enthroned as the first Bishop by Metropolitan Stephen Kocisko.

*In February 2010, the Holy Father approved a name change to the Eparchy, from the "Eparchy of Van Nuys" to the "Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix".

Read more about the history of the eparchy at http://www.eparchyofphoenix.org/about-us

In June 1982, Fr. Joseph purchased the house and property at the present location of St. John Chrysostom Church in the Beacon Hill area of Seattle. The site is centrally located near the intersection of Interstate Routes I-5 and I-90, and overlooks Elliot Bay of Puget Sound. The existing house was refurbished. Parishioners did much volunteer work on this project. In 1983 Bishop Thomas appointed Fr. Joseph full-time administrator of the St. Elias Mission.

On January 20, 1984, with the permission of Bishop Thomas, the priest’s residence and the Chapel of the Caves in the basement of the house were blessed by Fr. Joseph. The Right Reverend Adrian Parcher, OSB, Abbott of St. Martin’s Abbey, presided at the Divine Liturgy and Blessing. The little Chapel was filled to capacity for the historic occasion. At the dinner which followed the Blessing, Abbot Adrian in his remarks stressed the vitality of the Byzantine Catholic Community, “Fear not your small numbers and the work ahead, but rejoice in your wealth of spirituality which is so needed by the whole Catholic Community.” As the life of the faith community grew, the parish initiated a fund raising effort for the construction of a temple.

In 1986, Bishop Thomas transferred Fr. Joseph from Spokane to Seattle. Bishop Thomas raised the mission to the status of a parish in 1987 with the name St. John Chrysostom, and the Very Rev. Joseph M. Stanichar was appointed pastor. In 1988, Bishop Thomas granted permission to construct a church and education facility on the property. It was not until 1990, however, that the city of Seattle granted the required building permits so that construction could begin. Also in 1990, Bishop George M. Kuzma was installed as second Bishop of Van Nuys.

On Sunday, August 18, 1991, Bishop George broke ground in the soil of Beacon Hill to formally initiate the construction of a house of God, “Heaven on Earth.” The signatures of the people at the ground-breaking ceremony, medals of St. John Chrysostom, St. Cabrini and John Paul II and a stone from each of two Ruthenian sites, the Castle of Uzhorod and the Monastery of St. Nicholas, were placed in the cornerstone. These geographic sites were sanctified by SS Cyril and Methodius and generations of Byzantine Catholics and Holy Martyrs.

Parishioners and friends of St. John Chrysostom poured out their prayer, time, treasure and talent on the holy temple. Over a period of only a little more than a month, Mila Mina, an iconographer from San Diego, wrote the beautiful icons adorning the walls and ceiling of the temple. While she was working on the icons, Fr. Joseph prayed aloud, beseeching our Lord to bring this holy temple into His Heavenly Kingdom at His Second Coming. Mila rejoined, “All your works go with you!”

Fr. Joseph blessed the newly-constructed temple on December 20, 1992, in time for the parish to celebrate Christmas inside. On August 8, 1993, Bishop George officiated at the solemn consecration of the temple.

While serving as pastor at St. John’s, Fr. Joseph has continued to start new churches. In 1997, Bishop George elevated Fr. Joseph to "Mitred Archpriest" in recognition of his work in starting the four parishes of the Pacific Northwest: St. Cyril & Methodius in Spokane, Washington (1979); St. John Chrysostom in Seattle, Washington (1981); St. Irene in Portland, Oregon (1987); and St. George in Olympia, Washington (1989). Fr. Joseph is currently shepherding the mission outreach in Mt. Vernon, Washington, which was established in January 2006.

These four parishes are not the first Ruthenian presence to have been established in the Pacific Northwest. More than one hundred years ago, several Byzantine Catholic Ruthenian Missions were active in the region. In 1895-1896, Reverend Sebastion Dabovich of Portland, Oregon, traveled to Seattle to service the Greek Catholic Community. Ruthenian Churches were developed in Seattle and Wilkeson, Washington, but parishioners in these communities eventually migrated either to the Roman Catholic or to the Orthodox Community because of the lack of a Byzantine Catholic priest. Some of these parishioners joined the Slovak Roman Catholic Church of St. Joseph in Tacoma. Although the church in Wilkeson is now Orthodox, the parish cemetery there is owned and maintained by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle.

Documents exist from 1960 and 1978 addressed to the Byzantine Church in the Eastern United States requesting the initiation of a Mission. This testifies to the continued presence of Eastern Christians in the Pacific Northwest during this time. Their perseverance in their faith eventually helped create this parish.