Saint Sophia Cathedral of Los Angeles

History

The Greek Orthodox community of Los Angeles is older than the Cathedral that now bears its most visible expression. The first church services in Los Angeles were held as early as 1906 in a small warehouse at 730 North Broadway, with visiting Orthodox clergy making the journey from San Francisco to minister to the growing Greek community of Southern California. Services moved to 240 Anderson Street within two years, and on June 14, 1908, the Los Angeles Greek Community was formally incorporated, its charter articulating goals that would shape the community for generations: to build a church for Greek Orthodoxy to thrive, to establish Greek language school programs, to create a Greek Orthodox cemetery, and to propagate the faith and perpetuate Hellenic traditions.

The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary Church, fondly known as San Julian after its address at 1216 San Julian Street, was dedicated in 1912, becoming the first Greek Orthodox church building in Los Angeles. A succession of devoted priests led the San Julian community through the turbulent years of the First World War, the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922, and the arrival of refugees from Smyrna. Under the San Julian church's ministry, Father Kallistos Pappageorgopoulos was elevated in 1926 to become the first Bishop of San Francisco, a distinction that added considerable prestige to the emerging Greek Orthodox Church of the American West.

The culmination of this era arrived through one of the most celebrated vows in the history of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. When Charles Skouras and his brothers Spyros and George came from Greece to seek their fortune in Hollywood, Charles made a solemn promise to God: if he were granted success in the motion picture industry, he would build the most majestic Greek Orthodox Cathedral he could. His prayers were answered when he became head of Fox West Coast Theatres, and he kept his word. Construction of Saint Sophia Cathedral began in 1948 and was completed in 1952, rising in what was then the heart of Los Angeles's Greek neighborhood. The design was inspired by the original Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the great Church of the Holy Wisdom that stood as the mother church of Eastern Christendom for nearly a thousand years. While the exterior is relatively simple, the interior dazzles with colorful paintings covering walls and ceilings, monumental chandeliers, marble flooring and walls, and shrines of onyx framing hand-carved silver icons. Skouras later endowed the Cathedral with offices, classrooms, a nursery, and a community center on the grounds, and was buried in a special crypt on the Cathedral property upon his death. On June 6, 1973, Saint Sophia Cathedral was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, recognizing its significance as an architectural and community landmark.

Over the decades the Cathedral's congregation has drawn Hollywood's Greek-American community into its pews, among them Telly Savalas, whose funeral was held there, George Chakiris, Maria Menounos, Nia Vardalos, and Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. Jennifer Aniston was baptized at the Cathedral by her godfather Telly Savalas. As the surrounding Greek neighborhood evolved into the diverse Byzantine-Latino Quarter, the Cathedral adapted alongside it, introducing Spanish alongside Greek and English in its services and holding the 36th Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America there in 2002, with a liturgy celebrated in all three languages and musical responses provided by children from an Orthodox orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.

Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 1324 South Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of greater Los Angeles and Orange County as the Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the most recognized Greek Orthodox landmark in the American West and a living testament to one man's vow to God on the streets of Hollywood.