St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church is a historic

Eastern Catholic The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...

church in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is located in the neighborhood of

Four Mile Run Four Mile Run is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 stream in Northern Virginia that starts near Interstate 66, at Gordon Avenue in Fairfax County and pro ...

, which is an isolated section of Greenfield at the bottom of

Junction Hollow Junction Hollow is a small wooded valley bordering the west flanks of Schenley Park and the campus of Carnegie Mellon University and the southern edge of the University of Pittsburgh's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The valley runs south t ...

. Its address is 506 Saline Street. Today it is best known for having been the family church of the

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

. Because it faces the heavily traveled

Interstate 376 Interstate 376 (I-376) is a major auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Pennsylvania, located within the Allegheny Plateau. It runs from I-80 near Sharon south and east to a junction with the Pennsylvania Tur ...

, or Parkway East, it is an architectural landmark for many commuters who look upon its

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point. It is a ty ...

s and Slavic-style crosses.

History

A parish of the

Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh The Byzantine Catholic Metropolis of Pittsburgh ( la, Pittsburgensis ritus byzantini) is a metropolitan province for Eastern Catholics of the Byzantine Rite in the United States of America, with specific jurisdiction over several communities th ...

, the American branch of the

Ruthenian Catholic Church Ruthenian Catholic Church may refer to: * Ruthenian Uniate Church, a historical Eastern Catholic jurisdiction during the early modern period * Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, representing modern branch of the Ruthenian Uniate Church, in Belarus ...

, St. John Chrysostom Church was established in 1910 by

Rusyn Rusyn may refer to: * Rusyns, Rusyn people, an East Slavic people ** Pannonian Rusyns, Pannonian Rusyn people, a branch of Rusyn people ** Lemkos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people ** Boykos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people * Rusyn l ...

immigrants from the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

. Most came to work in Pittsburgh's steel industry. Large numbers of Rusyns settled in a small valley called

, a part of the Greenfield neighborhood and adjacent to a large

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

of the

Jones and Laughlin Steel Company The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by Bernard Lauth and Benjamin Franklin Jones, a few miles (c 4 km) south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in ...

. Rusyn immigrants themselves dubbed the small settlement "Ruska Dolina", which translates as Rusyn Valley. The church first met there in a hall on Saline Street. Rev. Alexij Petrasovich assumed his duties in August 1910, and the same year the church purchased five lots on Saline Street. The

Greek Catholic Union of the USA The Greek Catholic Union of the USA (GCU) is the oldest continuous fraternal benefit society for Rusyn immigrants and their descendants in the United States. History Founded as the Greek Catholic Union of Rusyn Brotherhoods in the USA (GCU) i ...

helped to finance construction of the first church. By 1931 a larger building was needed to accommodate the growth of the parish. The congregation moved down the street to Saline and Anthony Streets, where the new and present church was completed in 1932. The original church served as a social hall until the 1960s. The Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh's radio ministry began at St. John Chrysostom Church with broadcasts of Sunday

Divine Liturgies Divine Liturgy ( grc-gre, Θεία Λειτουργία, Theia Leitourgia) or Holy Liturgy is the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine Rite, developed from the Antiochene Rite of Christian liturgy which is that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of ...

in 1956. The Rev.

John Bilock John Michael Bilock (June 20, 1916 – September 8, 1994) was a bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as the Auxiliary Bishop of Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh from 1973 to 1994. Early life and education Bo ...

was the celebrant. During the years 1994–1997 a church renovation project added new lighting and new icons by New Guild Studio throughout the church.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was baptized here and the Warhola family worshiped at the church during the artist's formative years (1928–1949) in Pittsburgh. They walked to services each week from their home on Dawson Street in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

. Some art historians speculate about the influence of the church's numerous and repeating

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

s on Andy Warhol's famous Pop Art style.

Sources

* * * *

External links

Saint John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church – Official Web Site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church, Pittsburgh 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Andy Warhol Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh Churches in Pittsburgh Eastern Catholic churches in Pennsylvania Greenfield (Pittsburgh) Roman Catholic churches completed in 1932 Rusyn-American culture in Pennsylvania