History

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Roanoke, Virginia was founded by a group of Greek immigrants who wanted to establish a house of worship for the Orthodox Christian population of the Star City, which began growing rapidly in the early 1920s due to immigration from Greece and Syria. Between 1924 and 1925 several attempts to organize a church failed, but in November 1928 the first continuous service was held with the Reverend George Vasiliadis officiating over a meat market in downtown Roanoke. Services continued until 1932, when the Great Depression forced their termination. Those were the worst years of the Depression, when unemployment reached 35 percent, and many of the church's parishioners could barely support their families, let alone a church.

By 1938 circumstances had improved, and Father Demitrius Cassis arrived to reactivate the community. An enterprising and energetic man, Father Cassis was largely responsible for restoring the church to life and for the acquisition of its first building. He was resourceful in his fundraising: on Sundays before church he would visit all of the Greek-owned restaurants in Roanoke with a collection box, collecting donations from the owners and employees who kept their establishments open seven days a week and thus could not regularly attend services. The church went to them. The first church building, purchased for $7,000 from a Jewish congregation, was a former synagogue on 700 Franklin Road, remodeled and redecorated according to Orthodox Christian tradition and officially dedicated on July 25, 1937. Father Cassis served until 1944, the first of eighteen priests who have served Holy Trinity.

Through the century that followed, Holy Trinity grew as a community and as a family, hosting events, dances, and concerts, marching in parades, feeding thousands at its Holiday in Athens celebration, and proclaiming the Gospel in as many languages as its diverse congregation brought to its doors, including Greek, English, Arabic, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Latin, Russian, Romanian, Albanian, and Ukrainian.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at 30 Huntington Boulevard NE in Roanoke serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of southwestern Virginia as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a beacon of faith and community for the Orthodox Christians of the Blue Ridge region for nearly a century.