St. Basil the Great Chapel of Garrison

History

Saint Basil the Great Chapel of Garrison, New York is the chapel of Saint Basil Academy, one of the most distinctive and storied institutions in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The Academy itself was founded in 1944 by Archbishop Athenagoras, of blessed memory, with the essential assistance of the Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society. On March 15, 1944, the Philoptochos purchased the 400-acre Jacob Ruppert estate on the eastern shores of the Hudson River in Garrison, New York, overlooking the United States Military Academy at West Point, for $55,000, a remarkable sum made possible by two years of proceeds from the national Vasilopita celebrations. Jacob Ruppert, the estate's most famous former owner, had been a United States Congressman, a General in the National Guard, and the owner of the New York Yankees. The purchase fulfilled a dream that Archbishop Athenagoras had carried since his arrival in the United States in 1931: the establishment of an orphanage and children's home under the care of the Church.

The Academy bore Saint Basil's name from the beginning, a fitting dedication to the fourth-century Archbishop of Caesarea who was history's first great philanthropist, the founder of orphanages, hospitals, and homes for the elderly in Asia Minor, and the originator of what became the modern concept of the hospital. The campus's original chapel was destroyed by fire in 1983. In 1985, nationally known architect William G. Chirgotis and his wife offered the Academy an entirely new chapel as a memorial to his parents, the late Kyparisia and George Chirgotis. Chirgotis designed the memorial chapel himself, and it was built at a construction cost of $550,000. Bishop Philip Daphmousia, former Director of the Academy, called it the Jewel of the Academy. Chirgotis also established a trust fund for the perpetual care and repair of the chapel.

The Saint Basil the Great Chapel serves each Sunday as a church home to approximately fifty Orthodox faithful from the surrounding Garrison community, who gather for Divine Liturgy and fellowship alongside the children and families of the Academy. The campus also houses the gravesite of Archbishop Michael of blessed memory and holds relics of Saint Dionysios.

Saint Basil the Great Chapel at 79 Saint Basil Road in Garrison serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Hudson Valley as the chapel of Saint Basil Academy, a ministry of the Direct Archdiocesan District of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on one of the most beautiful campuses in the northeastern United States.