Today, on May 7, the Church honors the holy memory of Saint Alexis Toth (1854-1909), a presbyter, missionary and confessor whose reconciliation of Uniates (Byzantine Rite Roman Catholics) with orthodox Christianity contributed greatly to the growth of the Church in North America.
Alexis was born in 1854 never Preshov, Carpathian Rus' (now Slovakia), then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family was Carpatho-Rusyn (an East Slavic ethnic group from Europe's Carpathian Mountains) and Uniate (Byzantine Rite Roman Catholic). Uniates were one-time orthodox Christians in Eastern Europe who were forced to "unite" (hence the name) with Roman Catholicism when Austrian, Hungarian and Polish rulers took over their lands
in the 16th century. As part of this forced conversion, they were allowed to keep some orthodox Christian forms of worship and practice, such as church services in the language of their choice and married clergy.
Alexis came from a very religious background: there were Uniate clergy in his family, and he followed in their footsteps. Though his family was poor, he received a good education that cultivated his considerable natural-born intelligence. He learned several languages (Biblical Greek, Carpatho-Rusyn, Church Slavonic, German, Hungarian, Latin and Russian) and majored in church
history and canon law in seminary. After graduation, he married a wife, started a family and was ordained a Uniate priest in 1878.
Soon after Alexis' ordination, his wife and only child died. The young widower dealt with this tragic loss by putting all of his time, attention and energy into his religious vocation. Over the next ten years, he served as the local Uniate bishop's secretary, chancellor of his diocese, director of an orphanage and teacher at the seminary in Preshov.
In 1889, Alexis answered a call that would change his life. He took an assignment as priest for a small newborn parish in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded by Uniate immigrants to the United States. When he arrived, he found that the local Roman Catholic bishop, to whom he had to report (as there was no Uniate bishop in America), did not welcome him. Roman Catholics in the United States at the time were eager to Americanize new immigrants and absorb them into their mainstream Latin rite, so different rites, ethnic parishes and married clergy were out of the question. The bishop forbade Alexis to serve as a priest and called for his return to Europe.
This unexpected rebuff drove Alexis and his parishioners to look at their situation in the light of their roots and history. They knew their ancestors had been orthodox Christians, and were aware of an orthodox Christian presence in the United States: the Church of Russia had a North American mission headed by a bishop in San Francisco, California. After both sides met and looked into each other, Alexis and his 361 parishioners unanimously decided to
renounce Uniatism and return to orthodox Christianity. In 1891, Bishop Vladimir of San Francisco received them back into the Church.
The action of Alexis and his parishioners caught the attention of Uniates throughout America, who were experiencing the same difficulties with local Roman Catholics. Many of them were eager to hear him out and consider the same course he and his parishioners had taken. It also garnered a less enthusiastic reaction from the Roman Catholic establishment, which tried to
dissuade the return of Uniates to the Church through innuendo, character assassination and bribery. They spread rumors that Alexis was a greedy, unscrupulous clergyman who "sold out to Moscow" for financial gain and political considerations, defrauded orphanages in Europe and ran away to America to escape prosecution. They sent clergymen to his parishioners to stir up doubts in their minds and hearts. They offered him better parish
assignments, and even a Uniate bishopric, if he would renounce orthodox Christianity and return to Europe. But Alexis stood firm in his faith and withstood the attempts to blackmail, bribe and bear false witness against him.
Despite the rumors and controversy surrounding Alexis, his life in America was far from easy or profitable. Since his parishioners were poor, he had to resort to outside employment and chance charity to support himself. In addition to his priestly ministry, he worked as a grocer and baker when neither his parish nor the North American mission could pay him. But no matter how little he
had for his own upkeep, he never neglected to put the needs of the Church and others before his own. Even in poverty, he was generous and openhanded about giving to others in need and supplying the Church with all it required to remain alive and active.
Alexis not only suffered from the hands of his Roman Catholic detractors; in time, some misguided souls among his fellow orthodox Christians turned against him and mistreated him too. In 1892, while he was away from Minneapolis meeting with other Uniates who wanted to return to the Church, a substitute presbyter unintentionally sparked a misunderstanding about pastoral compensation and honoraria among his parishioners. Not knowing
all the facts, they accused him of being a swindler and demanded that the bishop replace this "Hungarian" presbyter with a "Russian" one. In their shortsightedness and stinginess, they lost their champion who had sacrificed so much himself for them over the years. The bishop transferred him to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he had begun new missionary outreach about Uniate immigrants there.
Minneapolis' loss proved to be all of North America's gain. "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more" (Romans 5:20), because Alexis' reassignment to Wilkes-Barre opened up much vaster missionary fields for him. Looking back, Alexis could have said of his Minneapolis parishioners' shoddy treatment: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20). From his home base in Wilkes-Barre, he was able to reach far more Uniate clergymen and laypeople in the United States and Canada who were
seeking to return to the Church. Through his gifted preaching and writing, he educated people about the differences between orthodox Christianity, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Uniatism. Through those same media, he also taught his new immigrant converts how to adjust to life in America as orthodox Christians, stressing the importance of education, cleanliness, sobriety, honest labor, churchgoing and raising children in the Church.
Alexis was an extremely patient, prudent and conscientious missionary. Wherever he went, he was careful to make sure his converts were making a voluntary, informed decision about converting to orthodox Christianity. He made them test their motivations and think through their intentions before taking the final step of joining the Church. He scrupulously sought unanimity among the Uniate communities that opted for orthodox Christianity, making them reconsider their decision several times before receiving them into the Church. He offered them nothing more than true belief and saving grace when discussing conversion. As a result of his travels and labors, up to 20,000 Uniate Carpatho-Rusyns, Galicians, Slovaks and Ukrainians in America
became orthodox Christians. But the effects of his work were not limited to America: the momentum of the movement he started reached back to Europe, where many Uniate Slavs followed the example of their American kinfolk by embracing orthodox Christianity once again. Today, their descendants number among the ranks of the Church in the Czech Lands, Poland, Slovakia and
Ukraine. Through his own work and his proteges, an estimated 250,000-plus Uniates in America and Europe returned to the Church.
In addition to priestly ministry and missionary outreach, Alexis also worked to consolidate the grassroots "brotherhood" and "mutual aid" movement in America. Both orthodox Christian and Uniate immigrants organized "brotherhoods" and "mutual aid societies" as a means of self-help for themselves in cases of sickness, injury, unemployment or death, since labor laws, insurance plans, job protection and welfare programs were often
lacking for immigrants of that era. These organizations also sponsored religious, educational and charitable activities, many of them becoming the nuclei of full-fledged parishes as time went by. In 1895, Alexis held a meeting, blessed by his bishop, of representatives from eight local brotherhoods. The result was a nationwide orthodox Christian mutual aid society that grew to 18
chapters in the first year, eventually reaching 10,000 members in 224 chapters. This organization also helped foster communication in the young North American Church through its publications, such as its newspaper, "The Light."
Alexis' work did not go unrecognized during his lifetime. He was one of the most valued missionaries of four North American bishops, Vladimir, Nicholas, Saint Tikhon the New Confessor and Platon. He was raised to the rank of mitered archpriest and received a number of church awards for his distinguished service. In 1907, there was talk of consecrating him bishop, but he declined the nomination, humbly pointing out that this ministry should be entrusted to a younger, healthier man.
Indeed, Alexis' life of hard work, far-flung travel and taxing hardships had taken their toll on his health. By 1908, a number of medical complications had set in, forcing him into convalescence in the restfulness of New Jersey's southern seashore. But his health did not improve; when he returned to
Wilkes-Barre, he fell terminally ill and was bedridden for two months. Finally, on 7 May 1909, he fell asleep in the Lord, leaving a last will and testament in which he forgave everybody and asked everybody's forgiveness, commending his soul to God's mercy. His death was mourned by the thousands of spiritual
children he had made and the Church he had so diligently served. He was laid to rest at Saint Tikhon Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. In 1916, when he was reburied in a more prominent grave behind the monastery church, his relics were discovered to be free of decomposition -- a special sign of God's favor in some saints after their deaths. The Church added his name to the calendar of saints in 1994.
Saint Alexis was a true man of God who, as "a stranger in a strange land" (Exodus 2:22), became a new Moses who led his people through the wilderness of religious confusion in the New World into the saving enclosure of the Church in which the fullness of truth and grace rests. He did so through his inspired words, godly example and unflagging insistence on the truth above all. These words of his remain a clarion call to all orthodox
Christians, both in America and abroad: "This is the teaching of the orthodox Christian Church; this is the teaching of your forefathers and your fathers; this is your faith, through which all of us will come to salvation. Hold to it! Amen."
Troparion (Tone 4)
Righteous father Alexis! Our heavenly intercessor and teacher!
Divine adornment of Christ's Church! Beg the Master of all * to
strengthen the orthodox faith in America, grant peace to the
world and great mercy to our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 5)
Let us believers praise the presbyter Alexis -- a bright beacon
of orthodoxy in America; a model of patience and humility; a
worthy shepherd of Christ's flock! He called back the sheep who
had been led astray and, by his preaching, brought them to the
heavenly kingdom!
