Saints Constantine & Helen Cathedral of Richmond

History

The Greek Orthodox community of Richmond, Virginia was established in 1917, one of the earliest Greek Orthodox communities in the United States. The faithful held their first worship service in a rented room at 309 North Seventh Street in downtown Richmond, and immediately thereafter began the work of building a permanent church. On the eve of the new church's completion, however, fire destroyed the building, leaving the congregation without a home. Undaunted, the community rebuilt, and the original downtown church eventually rose and served the Richmond Greek community for decades. Among the treasures salvaged from that fire was the iconostasis, which survived and was conserved in New York before being reinstalled in the cathedral's present location.

As the twentieth century progressed and the Greek community of Richmond spread westward across the city, the parish relocated to its present site at the corner of Malvern Avenue and Grove Avenue in Richmond's Near West End. The building designed by architects Charles Shifflett and Thomas A. Gresham is recognized as a mid-century modernist gem, its eight bays containing elegantly rendered images of various saints and its interior anchored by the salvaged historic iconostasis. In 1988, Richmond artist Demetrios Mavroudis completed an impressively large mosaic depiction of Jesus and Mary that rises along the apsidal wall, providing the interior's most striking visual highlight.

The annual Richmond Greek Festival, held on the cathedral grounds each year since 1977, has grown from a small weekend fundraiser begun in 1976 with approximately 2,000 attendees into one of the region's most popular annual cultural events, celebrated for its traditional Greek food, dance, and the warmth of a community that has made its presence felt in Richmond for more than a century.

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 30 Malvern Avenue in Richmond serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of central Virginia as a Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.