The first recorded Orthodox church in Beaumont dates to 1898. That makes St. Michael one of the oldest Orthodox parishes in Texas and one of the earliest parishes of what became the Antiochian Archdiocese.
The founders were immigrant families from Syria, Lebanon, and Greece. At first they gathered in homes to pray. In 1908 Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny, now venerated as St. Raphael of Brooklyn, consecrated a small church at 1188 Ewing Street, in the middle of the Syrian-Lebanese neighborhood the families called the “hara.”
That building did not have an easy life. A storm destroyed it in 1919, and the parish rebuilt it by 1920. Fr. Nicholas Nahas served the parish in those years and began translating its prayers and services into English. His translations are kept today in the library at the Antiochian Village in Pennsylvania. On Mother’s Day in 1952, fire destroyed the church again.
Rather than rebuild in the old neighborhood, the parish moved. Metropolitan Archbishop Antony Bashir dedicated the present church on November 29, 1953. The women of the parish raised much of the money for it by cooking and selling food, the same dishes the parish still serves at the Mediterranean Festival.
Older accounts do not always agree on dates, and you may find other years given for the founding online. The parish counts from 1898.
The faith has not changed since then, though the parish has. The great majority of the Liturgy is now served in English, and the families whose grandparents spoke Arabic at home stand beside converts who grew up Baptist or Catholic or with no church at all.
St. Michael is at 690 North 15th Street in Beaumont. Vespers is Saturday at 6:00 p.m., and the Divine Liturgy is Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Visitors are welcome at both.
