www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Hamilton, Ontario churches - need information

Lemko,

My family transferred to St. Mary's when the court closed St. John's in Barnesboro with padlocks. Their original home is still standing there just a block east of St. John's. By the time it re-opened my family was used to St. Mary's and didn't go back. My G-grandparents and grandparents are buried in St. Mary's cemetary in Spangler. This, I believe, gives me rights to use a "Ukrainian" card and go with my Rusyn identity incognito.

Joe

PS: I still don't call Barnesboro-Spangler "North Cambria" out of protest. Much of Spangler was founded on properties belonging to my mother's ancestors. I go by the old names.

Joe, I think it's "Northern Cambria" just like the name of the combined School District. I used to visit St Mary Church in the mid 1980's when Father Paul Guthrie was serving both St. Mary parishes(Pokrov in Altoona, Immaculate Conception
in Spangler/Barnesboro/Northern Cambria). He always pointed out to me the many "Subcarpathian Rusyn" families who never went back to St. John parish when it was re-opened after the Bp. Ortinsky ordeal. It is a beautiful example of Boiko Church architecture even though Fr. Myron always thought it to be Hutsul!

Ung-Certez

Dear LR and JT:
You've piqued my curiosity about the goings on in Barnesboro in the 1910's. How long was St. John's "padlocked" and when was it reopened? My grandparents were married there at that time, so I really am curious.

PS how many syllables in "Barnesboro"?

djs

Djs, as all the "Baba's and Dido's" used to pronounce their po-Anglickij;

BAR-NES-BORO just as

Djs, as all the "Baba's and Dido's" used to pronounce their po-Anglickij;

BAR-NES-BORO just as

VIL-KES-BAR-RE for Wilkes-barre

Ung-Certez

Msgr. John Yurcisin (who served at St. John's in his youth as an altar boy, before the family moved to Roebling, NJ) told me that St. John's was served by a Russian Orthodox priest during the time of interdict, but the articles in the Amerikansky Russky Viestnik do not mention this.

LR:
On what date was the interdict lifted?
Whate were the circumstances of the interdict?

djs

Ung-Certez,

You are correct about the new name. I never really cared to learn it though. My family got tired of church hopping. When they came out to Cleveland they went back to the "Ruthenian" Church. It was during this time that most of my grandmother's siblings and parents went Orthodox.

I remember visiting Fr. Myron and enjoying lengthy conversations with him. His traditional style church was built in honor of Mary for him leaving Communism behind. A beautiful view of "Northern Cambria" with St. Mary's three-domed temple on the one side on top of the hill overlooking former Spangler and St. John's up on the other hill overlooking former Barnesboro.

I also remember a priest with a white beard serving St. Mary's. Was this Fr. Guthrie? He went back to the Ukraine, I believe, when Communism fell to help restore the Church there. He (the white bearded priest) told me that my grandmother spoke a pure Slovak dialect (Sumiac) rarely heard. He was truly impressed by her untainted dialect.

I will try to visit the church in Mississauga, Ontario, this week.

Joe