History

Following World War I, a handful of Greek immigrants settled in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood and organized themselves into a political club called Pericles. On June 23, 1917, this small group met to discuss starting a new Greek Orthodox community, and from that meeting the parish of St. Spyridon was born, named in honor of the fourth-century Bishop of Trimythous, the great defender of Orthodoxy at the First Ecumenical Council and the beloved patron saint of the island of Corfu.

The young community sustained itself in its early decades through fellowship and fundraising, including its first dinner dance held that December, a tradition of communal gathering that helped the small parish grow steadily over the following half century within the city of Chicago.

In 1975 the community purchased property at its present location in Palos Heights and broke ground on a new community center and gymnasium. The first Divine Liturgy at the new site was celebrated on July 3, 1977. The years that followed brought real setbacks in fundraising, but in 1984 twelve dedicated board members stepped forward with an agreement to loan $5,000 each to the parish, allowing construction to proceed. The hard work and sacrifice paid off, and in 1986 the doors of the new church opened to the faithful, with the Thyranoixia, the Opening of the Doors ceremony, celebrated on April 20, 1986.

On October 15, 2017, St. Spyridon celebrated its centennial with the visit of the Right Hand of St. Spyridon, the saint's holy relic, accompanied by His Eminence Metropolitan Nektarios of Kerkyra, and an overflow crowd of more than 650 parishioners gathered for the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, joined by clergy who had served the parish across its hundred years.

St. Spyridon Hellenic Orthodox Church at 12307 South Ridgeland Avenue in Palos Heights serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Chicago's south suburbs as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community of 350 families whose roots trace directly back to a handful of Pullman neighborhood settlers meeting in 1917.