History

The first Greeks began arriving in the Springfield, Massachusetts area as early as 1884, finding work in the city's candy industry and other commercial enterprises. With no Orthodox churches anywhere in the region, some worshipped occasionally in Episcopal or Roman Catholic churches, preserving their faith as best they could while building toward something of their own. On November 15, 1907, the community celebrated its first Divine Liturgy in a small rented church, marking the founding of what would become Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the first Greek Orthodox church in western Massachusetts.

The Cathedral's permanent home is a building with a history of its own. Constructed in 1869 as Memorial Church and designed by the celebrated father-and-son architectural firm of Richard Upjohn and Richard M. Upjohn, masters of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture whose work includes Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York, the building was constructed of Monson granite with brownstone trim and stands as one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival church architecture in New England. The Greek Orthodox congregation acquired the structure in 1940, transforming the Gothic granite building into their house of Orthodox Christian worship and giving the Memorial Square neighborhood of Springfield's North End one of its most visually distinctive landmarks.

In a defining moment of the Cathedral's later history, Archbishop Iakovos elevated the parish to Cathedral status and bestowed the rank of Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate upon several of its most devoted lay leaders, the highest honor available to an Orthodox layperson. The City of Springfield honored the Cathedral's decision to remain in its downtown neighborhood by gifting the parish a Carnegie library building constructed in 1905 for the symbolic price of one dollar, a gesture of civic gratitude that gave the Cathedral its Greek Cultural Center.

Over more than a century the community has evolved far beyond its Greek immigrant origins, now welcoming Orthodox Christians from Lebanon, Russia, Georgia, Romania, and many other nations alongside the descendants of the founding Greek families, now baptizing children of the fourth and fifth generation born in this country.

Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 22 Saint George Road in Springfield serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Pioneer Valley as a Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.