St. Michael’s was founded in 1905 by immigrants from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. That makes us the second-oldest Antiochian Orthodox parish in the United States.
The first church building sat on Ewing Street, right in the heart of what Beaumont’s Syrian-Lebanese community called the “hara.” If you’re from Southeast Texas, you know how tight-knit immigrant communities can be. These folks brought their faith with them across the ocean and planted it here in the Golden Triangle.
For nearly fifty years, that original building served the community. Then on November 29, 1953, Metropolitan Archbishop Antony Bashir dedicated our current church at 690 15th Street. The women of the parish did a lot of the fundraising for that building, mostly by preparing and selling the same Mediterranean foods you can still get at our annual festival today. Kibbeh and baklava built this church, you could say.
Metropolitan Antony was a remarkable figure in American Orthodoxy. He led the Antiochian Archdiocese through some of its most important years, helping these immigrant parishes transition into truly American Orthodox communities while keeping their connection to the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch. That patriarchate goes back to the Apostles Peter and Paul themselves. It’s where believers were first called Christians, according to Acts 11:26.
When you walk into St. Michael’s now, you’re walking into more than a century of history. But it’s not frozen in amber. The parish has changed a lot since 1905. Services are mostly in English now. We’ve got members with Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romanian backgrounds alongside the original Middle Eastern families. Some folks come from Baptist or Catholic backgrounds. Some grew up with no church at all.
That’s what happens when Orthodoxy puts down roots in America. The faith stays the same, same liturgy, same sacraments, same apostolic succession, but the community grows to include whoever God brings through the doors. A Syrian immigrant in 1905 and a refinery worker from Vidor in 2025 are praying the same prayers, venerating the same icons, receiving the same Eucharist.
You might see conflicting dates online. Some sources say 1916. That probably refers to a reorganization or the incorporation of the parish, not the actual founding. Local records and the parish’s own history consistently point to 1905.
If you’re curious about what over a century of Orthodox life in Beaumont looks like, come visit on a Sunday morning. The building from 1953 is still here, still serving the same purpose it always has: gathering God’s people for worship and sending them back out into Southeast Texas to live as Christians.
