Saint Alexis Toth (1854–1909)

1854–1909 · 19th c. · 1 work

St. Alexis Toth (1854–1909) was a Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox priest in the United States and the central figure in the return of tens of thousands of Carpatho-Rusyn and Galician Greek Catholics (Uniates) to the Orthodox Church; he is often called the “Father of Orthodoxy in America.”

Born Aleksij Georgij Tovt in Kobylnice (then in the Kingdom of Hungary, now in Slovakia), he was a married Greek Catholic priest and a widower when he came to the United States in 1889 to serve a Carpatho-Rusyn parish in Minneapolis. After Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul refused to recognize his priesthood, Toth led his Minneapolis parish into the Russian Orthodox Church, being received on 25 March 1891.

From his base in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he became a tireless missionary, writer, and editor, contributing sermons, polemics, and mission reports to the periodicals Свѣтъ (Svit / The Light) and the American Orthodox Messenger (Американский Православный Вестник). By his repose he had brought some twenty-five thousand Uniates into Orthodoxy and founded numerous parishes.

He reposed on 7 May 1909 and was glorified by the Orthodox Church in America in 1994.

Sources: Orthodox Church in America — Saint Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre · Society for Orthodox Christian History — Alexis Toth