History

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific holds a distinction shared by no other parish in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America: it is the only Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the Pacific Basin, the spiritual home of Orthodox Christians in the Hawaiian Islands and across the vast Pacific world.

Orthodox Christianity first touched Hawaii long before the Cathedral existed. According to parish tradition, sometime between 1750 and 1793, a Russian Orthodox priest traveling with a trading ship bound from the Far East to Russian America disembarked in Hawaii rather than celebrate Pascha at sea, blessing a temporary altar built of palms and bamboo and adorned with a Znamenny icon of the Mother of God. It was not until 1965, however, that the history of the Cathedral proper began, when Archbishop Iakovos of America held the very first Greek Orthodox church service in Honolulu, planting the seed of what would become a permanent community.

The congregation was formally established in 1969 under the name Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, founded by Father Dean Gigicos at 17 Old Pali Place. The founding faithful included families with roots in the Greek islands of Rhodes and Kefalonia alongside Orthodox Christians of many other backgrounds, reflecting the extraordinary diversity of Hawaii's multicultural society. As the congregation grew through the 1980s it relocated to a larger facility, and the community's growth and significance within the Pacific region led to its elevation to Cathedral status.

The Paschal Resurrection service at Saints Constantine and Helen Cathedral is celebrated in a remarkable number of languages reflecting the parish's Pan-Orthodox character, including English, Greek, Slavonic, Romanian, Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Georgian, Serbian, Italian, Bulgarian, and Spanish, a testament to the universal reach of the ancient faith in one of the world's most diverse island communities.

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific at 930 Lunalilo Street in Honolulu serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Hawaii and the Pacific Basin as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the easternmost and most geographically isolated outpost of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Western Hemisphere.