Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania

Featur
eature e Article
Fifteen years ago the
Orthodox Church in America
glorified Fr. Alexis Toth of Wilkes-
Barre as St. Alexis, Confessor and
Defender of Orthodoxy in
America. We should ask
ourselves, what have we done
with the legacy of this local
saint, local to North America,
and specifically to the Diocese
of Eastern Pennsylvania? To
answer this question requires
some familiarity with what that
legacy is. This requires a
thorough consideration
involving an examination of the
life and work of St. Alexis and
the ongoing effects of his work
in the century following his
repose. While certain aspects
of this legacy have been
examined, and were no doubt
instrumental in his glorification,
much more remains to be done,
and it may be said, needs to be
done. That it has not been done
so far is itself telling. How do
we know where we are, where
we are going if we do not know
how we got here? We should
be honest in recognizing that
the Orthodox Church in America
would not be here were it not
for the work of St. Alexis of
Wilkes-Barre. How many of our
parishes, especially but not
limited to this diocese, are
direct spiritual descendants of
St. Alexis, brought into the
Orthodox Church by him, or
founded with his
encouragement and by his
efforts?
Clearly much of the written
work of St. Alexis was polemical,
directed against the Roman
Church in general, but
specifically the Eastern Catholic
Churches known by some as the
Unia. Nevertheless, it would be
good for us to remember that
the polemic was mutual. It
could be argued that it began
with Archbishop John Ireland of
Minneapolis/St. Paul. The tone and
content of his encounter with St.
Alexis sparked the journey that
brought St. Alexis and, later,
thousands of Eastern Catholics
back to the Orthodox faith of
their fathers. 1 And the
struggle did not end with his
reception into the Orthodox
Church in 1892, but continued
in various ways and in
different places until his
repose in 1909.
Polemic was not the focus
of St. Alexis’ life as an
Orthodox priest, however,
mission was. This is the first
lesson we should learn from his
life. He was a missionary not to
strangers but to his own people,
and that mission involved
education, followed by pastoral care in
the form of sacramental life and spiritual
formation. In this St. Alexis reminds us that
mission begins at home. Mission is never
complete, but ongoing. At no point can
any Christian say they are done, since
our life is to be one of communion
with God who is infinite, beyond the
limits of our existence.
Consequently, every diocese of
our Church is missionary.
Entering into the Church in
whatever form is a beginning,
and to paraphrase St. Basil
the Great in a different
context, the beginning of
the journey is not the
journey. Having
begun, the journey
remains. So, too, the
mission of the
Church remains
until every human
being is an
O r t h o d o x
Christian in the
fullest (Catholic)
sense of the term.
Until every
human being
thinks and acts,
St. Alexis
confessor
and defender
of orthodoxy
in america
14 Alive in Christ www.doepa.org