History

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Chicopee, Massachusetts was founded in 1918 by Greek immigrants who had settled in the Chicopee Falls section of the city, drawn by the industrial and manufacturing economy of the Connecticut River Valley. From those beginnings the parish grew into a beloved and diverse community of faith, serving Greek Orthodox families and Orthodox Christians of many backgrounds from its home at 30 Grattan Street for more than a century.

Through the decades the parish sustained a full parish life of worship, education, and fellowship, carrying the traditions of the Orthodox Christian faith through successive generations of Chicopee families. The community celebrated its centennial in 2018, marking one hundred years of Greek Orthodox witness in the Pioneer Valley.

In 2025, after more than a century of independent parish life, Saints Constantine and Helen united with Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in neighboring Holyoke in a historic merger celebrated with a solemn Presanctified Liturgy and procession. The sacred relics that had resided on the Holy Altar of Saints Constantine and Helen were carried in procession to Holy Trinity, symbolizing the union of two communities whose histories each spanned approximately one hundred years. A generous donation of $50,000 was presented to Metropolitan Methodios of Boston for youth scholarships, ensuring that the legacy of the Chicopee community would live on in the next generation of Orthodox Christians in western Massachusetts.

The history of Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Chicopee stands as a testament to the faith, sacrifice, and endurance of the Greek immigrants who founded it and the generations who sustained it as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.