{"id":966,"date":"2011-10-23T01:37:40","date_gmt":"2011-10-23T06:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fortmarinus.com\/blog\/?p=966"},"modified":"2014-06-28T21:30:44","modified_gmt":"2014-06-29T02:30:44","slug":"forgotten-places-st-josephs-byzantine-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fortmarinus.com\/blog\/966\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Places: St. Joseph’s Byzantine Church"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“[C]hurches are not simply gathering places but signify and make visible the Church living in its place, the dwelling of God […]” – CCC 1180.i<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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St. Joseph\u2019s Byzantine Rite Catholic Church was completed in 1933 to serve part of Cleveland\u2019s Carpatho-Rusyn population. The Rusyns are an Eastern Slavic ethnic group originally inhabiting the Carpathian Mountain region; primarily near the borders of modern day Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, and a small part of Poland.ii<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

As the story goes, in the 9th<\/sup> century, Saints Cyril and Methodius brought Christianity to the Slavic peoples.iii<\/a><\/sup> Most of the Rusyns, sometimes called Ruthenians, practiced Orthodox Christianity until the 17th<\/sup>\u00a0century when they became part of the Catholic Church. In the late 1800s, many Rusyns came to Cleveland, establishing several Byzantine Catholic churches in the area.iv<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

St. Joseph’s is the second building to occupy the site, replacing a smaller structure first built in 1913.v<\/a><\/sup> The current building was designed by Polish-American architect Joseph E. Fronczak.[vi<\/a><\/sup> and.vii<\/a><\/sup>]\u00a0By the late 1970s, the congregation relocated to Brecksville, Ohio. They sold the church building to the Zion Baptist Church who used it for a time but ultimately abandoned the structure. As of 2011, the building is in a state of disrepair despite being a one of Cleveland’s 305 Designated Landmarks.viii<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\t\t