Saint Raphael of Brooklyn was the first Orthodox bishop consecrated in North America. He’s a hero of the Antiochian tradition, a tireless missionary who traveled from city to city establishing parishes for Arab immigrants in the early 1900s.
Born Rafla Hawaweeny in Beirut in 1860, he came from a family that knew persecution. His parents had fled Damascus as Orthodox Christians, and when they returned a year later, young Rafla grew up in a household where faith mattered enough to suffer for it. Money was tight. But the Patriarch of Antioch noticed something in the boy and accepted him into the patriarchal school to train for priesthood.
He was tonsured a monk at nineteen by Patriarch Hierotheos himself. Then came studies at Halki in Constantinople, ordination as a deacon, more education at the Theological Academy in Kiev, and finally ordination to the priesthood in 1889. By then he was serving as the head of the Antiochian representation church in Moscow. Not bad for a kid from a struggling family.
But God had other plans.
In 1895, the Syrian Orthodox Benevolent Society in New York invited Archimandrite Raphael to come pastor the scattered Arab Orthodox immigrants in America. He arrived on November 2nd and found his people spread out, isolated, vulnerable to Protestant missionaries and Catholic pressure. Many had no priest. Some hadn’t seen a Liturgy in years. He established St. Nicholas Church in New York (later moved to Brooklyn), which is now the cathedral of our Antiochian Archdiocese.
Then he started traveling. And he didn’t stop.
Picture this: a Syrian monk in his black robes, crisscrossing America by train in the early 1900s. He went to over thirty cities, often celebrating Liturgy in people’s homes because there was no church building yet. He preached, baptized, married couples, heard confessions. He ordained priests and founded about thirty parishes. When people ask how Orthodoxy got established among Arabs in America, the answer is simple. Saint Raphael did it, one train ride at a time.
In 1904, the Holy Synod of Russia (which oversaw Orthodox missions in America then) elected him Bishop of Brooklyn. Saint Tikhon, who was leading the Russian mission, consecrated him in New York City on the third Sunday of Lent. First Orthodox bishop consecrated on American soil. It was a huge moment, a sign that Orthodoxy wasn’t just visiting America but putting down roots here.
As a bishop, he worked even harder. He helped establish St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania. He assigned priests to new missions. He wrote pastoral letters warning his flock about groups that looked Christian but lacked apostolic succession. He wasn’t being mean, he was protecting sheep who didn’t always know the difference between Orthodoxy and everything else Americans called “church.”
Saint Raphael died on February 27, 1915, in Brooklyn. He was only fifty-four, worn out from constant travel and work. The Orthodox Church in America glorified him as a saint in 2000, though plenty of people had been venerating him long before that official recognition.
For us in the Antiochian tradition, he’s particularly significant. He was one of ours, a son of Antioch who carried that tradition to a new continent. The cathedral he founded is still our primatial cathedral. The parishes he established are still serving people. And his example of tireless pastoral care, of going wherever the people are rather than waiting for them to come to you, that’s still what we’re called to do.
We celebrate his feast on February 27th. If you’ve never heard of him before, ask around at coffee hour. Somebody will have a story about a parish he founded or a family he baptized. His fingerprints are all over Orthodoxy in America, especially for those of us with roots in the Antiochian tradition. He’s proof that one faithful bishop, willing to get on a train and go where he’s needed, can change everything.
