St. Sava Church (Toronto)

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St Sava Church in Toronto

The Church of St. Sava ( Serbian : Црква Светог Саве, Crkva Svetog Save, English : Saint Sava Serbian Eastern Orthodox Church) is a Serbian Orthodox Church in the metropolis of Toronto in southeastern Canada .

The church, built from 1953 to 1955, is dedicated to the Serbian national saint, the first archbishop and the illuminator of the Serbian people, Sava of Serbia . It is the parish church of the Toronto I and IV parishes in the Ontario Dean's Office , the Canada Eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church .

location

The church is at 203 River Street , directly at the junction with Gerrard Street East in the Cabbagetown district in downtown Toronto, the largest Canadian city and capital of the province of Ontario .

history

The entrance to the church

Even before the First World War , a small number of Serbs lived in Toronto . By the end of World War II , most of them assumed they would return to their homeland. On October 3, 1948, the city's various Serbian organizations met in a hotel to decide on the construction of a Serbian house (srpski dom). This was to serve as a place for church services for a time.

With this aim in mind, a committee for the building of the house and the church was formed. The following were elected as president: Božidar Marković, as vice-president: Vasa Volarov, as secretary: Aleksandar Anđelić, as treasurer: Petar Karalejić and as members of the board of directors: Stevan Ćuk, Mihailo Dučić, Marina Selak, Jelka Adamov and Mara Šustran.

With great difficulty, the members of the committee were able to buy land at the intersection of Gerrard Street E and River Street to build the Serbian house and church. The property was purchased by the City of Toronto for $ 5,000.

An immediate deposit of USD 2500 was made and the land was registered on August 24, 1950 under the name "Serbian House and Church in Toronto". At that time, no bank loans could be obtained for any construction until a board of trustees was elected whose members guaranteed that you would pay the debt on the land and construction. The guarantors of the Serbian house and the Serbian church were: Božidar Marković, Petar Karalejić, Vasa Volarov, Nikola Mrkobrada and Stevan Ćuk.

The construction of the Church of St. Sava began on June 10, 1953. And on August 22, 1953, the then bishop of the then America-Canada eparchy Dionisije (Milivojević) consecrated the church foundations. The architect of the house and the church was Petar Popović , and the builder was Velja Relja .

The iconostasis of the St. Sava Church

The Serbian house was opened with the inspection of the Slava of St. Sava on January 30, 1954.

The orlec of the church

At Easter 1954, a Serbian Orthodox church service took place for the first time in the Serbian house. The house was inaugurated on September 3, 1954 by St. Nicholas of Ohrid and Žiča . The building of the church was finished in May 1955. This makes it the first Serbian Orthodox Church in Toronto.

And on May 22, 1955, the church was inaugurated by Bishop Dionisije (Milivojević), with the assistance of the priests: Miodrag Đurić , Justinian Ilkić from Montreal , Nikola Stojsavljević from Niagara Falls , Aleksije Ševčenko from Toronto and Branko Škaljac .

Russian princess Olga Aleksandrovna Romanova (the youngest sister of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II ) attended the inauguration of the church and gave the church a self-painted icon of Prince Aleksandr Nevski .

The Serbian Orthodox Choir St. George from Niagara Falls accompanies the service. The church godfather was Petar Karalejić and the church godmother was Lenka Lalić from Montreal. The couple Mate and Lenka Lalić were the first great benefactors of the Serbian house and the Serbian Church in Toronto.

Priest of the community

From 1955 to 1963, Archpriest Aleksije Ševčenko was the Church's first priest before leaving the parish. After that, Father Simeon Grozdanović took care of the church until 1964, when Nikola Stojsavljević became the permanent priest of the church until 1972.

From 1975 until his death on May 16, 1980, Father Žarko Mitrović took over the parish. After a brief succession of various priests, Father Mihajlo Doder became parish priest in May 1980 , until 1999, when he was appointed high priest of the Cathedral of the Congregation of All Serbian Saints in Mississauga .

Two priests have served in the Church since 1985 and the arrival of Bishop Georgije (Đokić) to head the Canada Eparchy. The priests from this time on are:

The church banner (Horugva) with the icon of St. Sava of Serbia
  • Priest Vasilije Tomić (1985-2010) and Mihajlo Doder (1980-1999)
  • Priest Vasilije Tomić (1985-2010) and Priest Ljubomir Rajić (1999-2010)
  • Priest Milutin Veljko (2010-2017) and Priest Miloš Purić (2010-2018)
  • Priest Milovan Sredojević since 2017.
  • Priest Vladimir Vranić (2018)
  • Priest Dejan Obradović (2018-2019)

Currently, the priests of the church are Milovan Sredojević as chief high priest of the church and, since 2019, priest Prvoslav Purić .

The church newspaper Glasnik appeared from 1964 to 2009 . The Serbian Sunday School was founded in 1956.

architecture

The single-nave church was built in the Serbian-Byzantine style and also adapted to the North American architecture. It has a small semicircular altar - apse in the east and in the west is the main entrance to the church with a small vestibule. On the west side of the church, too, a small round dome rises above the church roof. The church has three church crosses. The Serbian house is attached directly to the north side of the church, through which the church can also be entered on the north side.

In 1956 the iconostasis of the church, the work of Sima Temovski, was consecrated.

supporting documents

Coordinates: 43 ° 39 ′ 50.9 "  N , 79 ° 21 ′ 31.8"  W.