History

Transfiguration of Our Savior Greek Orthodox Church of Lowell, Massachusetts was founded in 1924, when Greek immigrants in the city established a community of Orthodox Christian faithful that would grow across the following century into one of the most distinguished parishes in the Metropolis of Boston. Without a building of their own in those earliest years, the parishioners gathered first at Saint Anne's Episcopal Church on Merrimack Street in downtown Lowell and later in a second-floor hall on the corner of John and Paige Streets, sustained by the hospitality of their neighbors and the determination of a community that knew it deserved a church of its own.

In 1925, under the leadership of the parish's first resident pastor, Father Panos Constantinides, the current site of the church was purchased. A temporary church was erected, and services took place in the basement for many years under the pastoral care of successive clergy until Father John Papadopoulos was installed as permanent pastor in 1951. The following year, 1952, steps were taken to construct the church building that the parish worships in today. Through the generosity of 200 families, all but the interior was completed by 1956, giving the Lowell Greek Orthodox community the permanent and dignified sanctuary it had worked toward for more than three decades.

In December 1986 a decision was made to cover the remaining walls and vaults of the church with mosaic icons, a project that would transform the interior into one of the most visually striking Orthodox sanctuaries in New England. Under the direction of Father Sarantos and the artistry of iconographer Robert J. Andrews, and through the generosity, resourcefulness, and determination of the faithful, the iconography project was completed in 1992. On August 11, 1994, Bishop Methodios of Boston presided over the dedication and blessing of the mosaic iconography, completing a decades-long vision for the beautification of the sanctuary. In 2001 the Transfiguration Family Life Center was added to the campus, expanding the parish's capacity for community, education, and fellowship.

Transfiguration of Our Savior Greek Orthodox Church at its Lowell address serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the greater Lowell area as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community that has carried the ancient Orthodox faith in the Merrimack Valley for a full century.