History

Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral is the first Greek Orthodox church in Miami, its story beginning with the same wave of early twentieth-century immigration that carried Greeks to communities across the American South. Some of those who made their way to Miami had heard of the warm climate and the citrus fruit that grew there in winter. Henry Flagler's railroad had reached Miami in 1896, making travel to the southernmost city in the continental United States far easier than it had once been. The Greeks who came stayed, liked what they found, and sent for their families, and a Greek community began to emerge in the subtropical city at the edge of Biscayne Bay.

On November 15, 1925, the first group of Greeks met at the home of Stavros Petros to formally establish a Greek Orthodox community, pledging funds that same evening. Under the chairmanship of I.G. Delyanis a constitution was drafted, and in 1927 the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Community was formally organized, with Achileas Zapetis elected as its first president. Before they had a church building, the community worshipped at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Biscayne Bay, whose congregation generously opened its doors for Greek Orthodox services. The parish's first priest was Father Chrysanthos Kaplanis, who began a line of pastoral succession that has continued unbroken to the present.

In 1941 the community made the decision to purchase a new site and build a proper cathedral to meet the needs of the growing parish. The cornerstone of the new Byzantine basilica on Southwest 3rd Avenue was laid on March 7, 1948, and the building along with its Community Center was officially opened in 1950. The cathedral was designed by Greek architect Christoforos P. Kantianis in the Byzantine architectural style. On November 25, 1973, Archbishop Iakovos consecrated Saint Sophia Cathedral with the relics of Saints Andrew, Nestor, and Haralambos, one of the most significant moments in the parish's history.

Among the most consequential of the Cathedral's clergy was Father Demosthenes J. Mekras, who arrived as a deacon in 1944 and assumed spiritual leadership of the congregation in 1946. During his forty-three-year tenure at Saint Sophia, many of the Greek Orthodox churches along Florida's East Coast were established under his guidance, a legacy that spread the seed of Orthodoxy from Tarpon Springs southward throughout a generation of growth.

Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 2401 SW 3rd Avenue in Miami serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Southeast Florida as a Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, its bicultural community of Greek, Hispanic, Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and many other Orthodox Christians reflecting the universality of the ancient faith in one of the world's most diverse cities.