History

The story of Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Tarpon Springs, Florida is inseparable from the story of the sponge divers who built it. The community's roots trace to 1896, when John Cocoris, a native of Leonidio in Arcadia, Greece, settled in the Tarpon Springs area and established himself as a prosperous sponge diver and trader. His success drew waves of Greek immigrants, both from Greece and from Greek communities elsewhere in the United States, who recognized the extraordinary opportunity the area's sponge beds presented. By 1907, the Greek population of Tarpon Springs had swelled to approximately 1,500, establishing what would become the highest per capita concentration of Greek descendants anywhere in the United States.

With a thriving community came the need for a church. In 1907, under the supervision of Nicholas Peppas, a native of Aegina, the congregation built its first house of worship: a white wood-frame structure erected on land purchased for $300, with construction costs of $3,500. Rev. Stamatis Koutouzis was appointed as the first parish priest. The church was named for Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of Greece and of seafaring people, an entirely fitting dedication for a congregation whose livelihood depended on the sea. A Greek school was added to the parish in 1925.

By 1935, the growing community had outgrown its original building and began raising funds for a new and worthy cathedral. Construction began in 1941 and the magnificent new structure was completed in 1943, consecrated at Epiphany by Archbishop Athenagoras, who would later become the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Designed by the Eugene Brothers of Chicago and modeled in part after the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the building blends Byzantine and Gothic Revival architecture beneath a soaring dome. Among its most treasured features is the 60-ton Pentelic marble altar, originally part of the Greek pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, along with 23 stained glass windows hand-painted by Joseph V. Llorens of Atlanta depicting episodes from the life of Christ and the saints, three grand Czechoslovakian chandeliers suspended within the dome, and a rich collection of icons by Greek iconographer George Saclaridis. On December 4, 1969, the icon of Saint Nicholas was observed to have drops of moisture, and many faithful regard it as a weeping icon.

The Cathedral's Epiphany celebration, held each January 6th at Spring Bayou, has grown into the largest such celebration in the Western Hemisphere. In the tradition that defines Tarpon Springs, Greek Orthodox young men aged 16 to 18 dive into the bayou to retrieve a white wooden cross, with the finder said to receive blessings for the year ahead. In 1975, the Tarpon Springs Board of Commissioners formally designated the city the Epiphany City of the United States. In January 1979, Archbishop Iakovos elevated Saint Nicholas to cathedral status. In January 2006, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I traveled to Tarpon Springs for the 100th annual Epiphany celebration, drawing an attendance of 80,000 people.

Today, Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral stands at 36 North Pinellas Avenue as the first and original Greek Orthodox parish of the Tampa and St. Petersburg area, serving nearly 1,000 families and welcoming pilgrims from around the world who come to venerate the relics of Saint Nicholas of Myra enshrined within its walls.