St. Sava Church (Douglas, Alaska)

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Saint Sava Church (also spelled "Savva") was a church of the Russian Mission in Douglas, Alaska. [1] Its construction [2] was due mainly to Fr. Sebastian Dabovich [3] who, in 1902, had been appointed Dean of the Sitka Deanery and the superintendent of Alaskan missions. Although under the Russian Orthodox Church, and a "daughter" parish of St. Nicholas Church in Juneau, Sebastian Dabovich [4] found it important that the Serbians that had come to the area [5] — mostly to work in mining— had a church that was "home" to them. On 23 July 1903, Fr. Sebastian, along with Hieromonk Anthony (Deshkevich-Koribut) and the priest Aleksandar Yaroshevich, consecrated the Church of Saint Sava in Douglas. However, the sparse records that remain of this church indicate that by the 1920s it may have been sitting empty, and in 1937 a fire swept through Douglas, destroying most of the town, including Saint Sava Church. It was not rebuilt. [6] [2]

Contents

History

Among those who had made it to Douglas were a group of Serbians, enough to warrant organizing a church. This makes Saint Sava unusual in that it was an Alaskan church not set up as a mission to minister to Native Alaskan peoples, but rather to a group who were already Orthodox Christians. [7] This is an early example of the attempt of Bishop Tikhon to set up churches that represented other Orthodox nationalities in the diaspora, in particular the Syro-Arab mission (led by Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny), and the Serbian Mission, which Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich would later be named to lead. The land was donated by the Treadwell Gold Mine Company, and though this church was part of the "Russian Mission", a donation for the church's construction was sent from the Council of Bishops in Serbia. The parish members themselves provided funding for various repairs over the years, including a new Church foundation in 1915 and two cemeteries. The building was a fairly simple wooden structure and had a single altar. According to some sources[ which? ], Fr. Sebastian also participated in the actual construction of the building.

Following a devastating fire in the town, Douglas' population also dropped, and the 1920 census recording only 919 people still living there. By some time in the 1920s, the church was not regularly used. In 1937, fire again burned many buildings Douglas, and the St. Sava Church burned to the ground. It was not subsequently rebuilt.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ United States Bureau of the Census (1941). "Religious Bodies, 1936".
  2. 1 2 Vinokouroff, Michael Z. "Exterior view of Church of St. Savva of Serbia (Orthodox) in Douglas". vilda.alaska.edu.
  3. ↑ Dabovich, Sebastian (1899). "Preaching in the Russian Church, or Lectures and Sermons by a Priest of the Holy Orthodox Church".
  4. ↑ Gary (Ind.) St. Sava (Serbian Orthodox Church) (1964). Our Religious Heritage in America, 1914-1964: St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church, Fiftieth Anniversary, November 14, 15, 1964. Palandech Press.
  5. ↑ Rhodes, Ron (January 2005). The Complete Guide to Christian Denominations: Understanding the History, Beliefs, and Differences. ISBN   9780736931373.
  6. ↑ Serb World. Neven Publishing Corporation. 1979.
  7. ↑ Krinka Vidaković Petrov (2009). "An Outline of the Cultural History of the Serbian Community in Chicago". Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies. 1: 33–55. doi: 10.1353/ser.0.0002 . S2CID   144785008.

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