Parish History

European Roots
The majority of the people that formed St. Michael’s Parish in Old Forge, PA came from the areas of Europe in the late 19th century which were primarily within eastern Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These people are known are the “Little Russians (Malo-Russians)”. They are generally divided into two groups: those under Polish rule known as the Galicians (or Lemko) and those under Austro-Hungarian known as Carpatho-Russians (Uhorschani) from in and around the Carpathian Mountains. They spoke slightly different dialects but shared a similar ethnic culture centered in the life of the Orthodox Church.
Two events, the so called “Union of Brest-Litovsk” in 1595 and the “Union of Uzhorod” in 1645 changed the character of the people’s religious life. These agreements of certain Orthodox bishops with Roman Catholic authorities were political arrangements which forced most of the Orthodox Christians of these regions into union with the Roman Catholic Church. Resisters to this union were subject to various trials and persecutions.
Under the “Unia”, as it is known, a new category of religious identity was created, whereby those formerly Orthodox (Pravoslavnie) came to be known as “Greek Catholics”. This was an artificial term created by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa to designate these new “Uniate” Catholics. Even after the Unia, the Little Russians did not have equal civil rights in the Empire with the Roman Catholic majority and consequently, their church life was less respected and faced many difficulties.
Economic life was hard and at subsistence levels on the rural farms of the mountainous Carpathian and Galician regions. In the time of the great immigration to America in the late 19th century industrial revolution, the opportunity for jobs and a new beginning brought many of the Little Russian people to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. The first immigrants in Old Forge, beginning in 1878, came in principally from the old country villages of Wysova, Chaina, Ustia, Grichova, Leschina, Lossia, Stawisha, Klimkova, Yashkova, and Snitnicha, along with a few from the areas of Great Russia. The men often came first for work in the area coal mines and factories and the families followed their men a few years later. The number of these people settling in Old Forge grew to the point where they realized that this would be their new permanent home.

Early Parish Life
Soon it was time for the local Russian community to think about reorganizing to obtain a property and build a church. The Church was always the center of the people’s cultural life in Europe and it would continue to be so in America. It is worth noting that both groups of Little Russians – the Carpathians and Galicians – were united in their ecclesiastical efforts from the beginning. This was often not the case in other early Russian communities in America. It was the case that several churches in a given region were started based on specific areas of Eastern Europe the people came from.
At the outset, a church “society” known as the “Society of St. Michael the Archangel” was incorporated on October 17, 1890. This was a typical way of preparation towards the founding of a parish. After organizing as a society, they would later petition the bishop to be blessed to form a parish and to receive a priest. We are reminded by this procedure, which our ancestors apparently understood, that without the bishop there is no priest and therefore no real parish or church life, but just a building or corporation. As St. Ignatius of Antioch (yr. 107) said in the earliest times, “Where the Bishop is, there is the Church of Christ.”
On July 14, 1891, St. Michael’s Greek Catholic Congregation was formed. This is the exact date of St. Michael’s beginning. At the start, services were held in the home of a parishioner on Winter Street opposite the present location of the Church. Form 1892 to 1895, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in a new, but unfinished church building. The priests who looked after the spiritual needs of the congregation during these formative years were Fathers Alexander Shereghy, Nicephor Chanat, Valentine Balogh, and John Zaklynsky who were visiting Uniate priests from St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Scanton.
Among the names of parish founders the following names were recorded: Constantine Rusyn, John Kopcho, Gregory Basalyga, Philemon Gambal, Victor Krenitsky, Andrew Durniak, Jacob Korbelak, Mitrofan, Basil and Roman Gambal, Michael Pecuch, Simeon Sorokanich, Peter Jadick, Joseph Stavisky, Harrison Krenitsky, Ignatius Stavisky, Simeon Hubiak, Thomas Dorosh, Andrew Danilo, Gregory and Onuphrey Macheska, Paul Serniak, Leon Pergrim, Constantine Sumple, John Lischinsky, Myron Petrowsky, Gabriel and Gregory Halchak.

ST. MICHAEL’S PARISH HISTORY

A journey of faith, a labor of love – for the Glory of God

THE FIRST 100 YEARS

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