Southern History and Hospitality at Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana - Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America - Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (original) (raw)

Photos: Orthodox Observer/Brittainy Newman.

This weekend, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America received a taste of true Southern hospitality down in New Orleans, Louisiana. While the city calls to mind images of jambalaya, beignets, jazz, and the storied French Quarter, another story continues in the heart of the Big Easy: that of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the first Greek Orthodox church in the Americas.

Welcomed by renowned Greek American philanthropist and Louisiana businessman John Georges, the Archbishop began his time in New Orleans with a visit to Notre Dame Seminary, where he met with Roman Catholic seminarians and Archbishop Aymond. Offering a prayer for the wellbeing of Pope Francis, His Eminence stressed our “mutual calling in Christ.”

His Eminence also spent time gaining familiarity with the city, sharing a lunch at Antoine’s - complete with a jazz welcome - and taking a humid afternoon drive through the Spanish moss-covered campuses of Tulane and Loyola Universities. Trees bore beaded necklaces, wearing reminders of the city’s recent Mardi Gras festivities and its penchant for celebration.

Alongside this liveliness, however, the city also shows the scars of tragedy; as one Holy Trinity parishioner mentioned, “the history of New Orleans is rich, sad, and nuanced.” In recognition of this complexity, His Eminence spent the morning of Saturday, March 15, 2025 at the National WWII Museum, where he offered a memorial prayer for those departed.

As wind, rain, and a tornado watch swept through Louisiana on Saturday afternoon, many also recalled another storm nearly twenty years past: 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, causing 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion. Community members use Katrina as a temporal reference point, and as former Parish Council President Barbara Stavis Wolf stresses, “Katrina changed people’s lives and it changed our community.”

Yet fortunately Holy Trinity was largely spared from the hurricane’s most brutal damage. When parishioners entered the Cathedral after the storm, they marveled that the flooding had miraculously stopped at the solea, with an icon of the Panagia floating on the water as if in protection. The church was able to reopen within just five months, and parishioners mark Hurricane Katrina as a turning point at which the parish recommitted itself to engaging with and leading the larger New Orleans community.

As the oldest Greek Orthodox parish in North and South America, Holy Trinity boasts significant longevity in addition to this resilience. According to Cathedral Dean Fr. George Wilson, the community has retained its Greek language well, while Stavis Wolf adds that they’re able to balance Greek cultural ties with intercultural engagement.

The parish’s 250-year history is documented in an archival collection, which the Archbishop viewed after the Second Salutations to the Theotokos on Friday, March 14, 2025. Curator Magdalene Spirros Maag emphasizes that the archives are a story of “how this community has safeguarded its faith, history, and artifacts” over its many decades.

As Saturday’s afternoon storm faded into a burnt-orange sunset over the Crescent City, His Eminence headed to a fundraiser for the Cathedral Montessori School. The school opened five years after Hurricane Katrina, demonstrating “hope and leadership during a time of rebuilding” as well as a commitment to providing an education of “hope, self-motivation, and discovery.”

The morning of Sunday, March 16, 2025, Holy Trinity once again hosted the Archbishop for the Divine Liturgy, the Cathedral’s pews filled with faithful eager to meet His Eminence. Continuing themes from the previous day’s Doxology service, in his homily His Eminence reflected on how we must “act out of love and care for our fellow human being.” Following the service, the community shared a characteristic meal of New Orleans-style shrimp and rice - happily, many of Louisiana’s most typical dishes are Lenten.

Under a crisp, once-again-sunny sky, the Archbishop closed his trip by offering a memorial prayer at Holy Trinity Cathedral’s Mausoleum in St. Louis #3 Cemetery, honoring the parish’s founders and ancestors and blessing the living. Surrounded by both the parish’s past and present, the cemetery goodbye was a fitting end to an Archpastoral visit full of history and hospitality.