History
edit
The present structure and its status as a cathedral date to 1966; previous to that, Our Lady of the Annunciation Melkite Catholic Church was a parish church in the South End of Boston.
In the 1890s, Christians from Syria and the Levant (now Lebanon) emigrated to the United States in search of better economic opportunity and to escape Ottoman rule in their homelands. Among the immigrants were Melkite Greek Catholics, typically referred to as "Syrian Catholic" at the time, although that name was more properly applied to the faithful of another Catholic Church - those now known as Syriac Catholics. Boston was among the northeastern cities in which the Melkites settled.
As well as a shared religious identity, the majority of the Melkiteimmigrants to Boston originated from in and around Zahle in the Levant. Father Joseph Simon, a hieromonk of the Basilian Salvatorian Order (BSO), which was responsibile for pastoral work in Zahle, arrived in 1896, but settled in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where there was a larger Melkite population. Although both he and his successor, Father Philip Batal, BSO, periodically ministered to those in Boston, the community was anxious to have its own church and assigned priest. Since there was no Melkite hierarch in the United States, they petitioned the Most Reverend John Joseph Williams, Latin Catholic Archbishop of Boston, who had canonical jurisdiction of them, to meet their pastoral needs. The Archbishop, however, was unconvinced that their numbers were sufficient to support a priest or church and declined to act on the request.
A decade later, the then-Archbishop of Zahle (later Melkite Patriarch Cyril IX Moghabghab) conducted a pastoral visit to the emigrant communities of North and South America, including that at Boston. Meeting with the Most Reverend William O'Connell, then coadjutor bishop of the Boston Archdiocese, he obtained agreement that the Melkite congregation would be afforded a church as soon as O'Connell succeeded to the episcopal throne. Two years later, in 1908, then-Archbishop O'Connell approved the purchase of a commercial structure at 178 Harrison Avenue in the South End of Boston, where the majority of the Melkites resided.
Despite remodeling to make the building suitable for use in worship, the interior bore only a superficial resemblence to the traditional style of Byzantine churches, not untypical in an era when such were unfamiliar to Latin Catholics. It was designated as Our Lady of the Annunciation Syrian Catholic Church and the Divine Liturgy was first served there in November 1908, although Archbishop O'Connell did not conduct a formal dedication ceremony until June 27, 1910.
Father Archimandrite Nicholas Ghannam, BSO, Superior of the Salvatorian monastic community in Zahle prior to arriving in Boston to assume the duty of pastor for the newly-constituted community, was named as its first pastor. He fulfilled that role, assisted by his brother, Father Athanasius Ghannam, BSO, for the next seventeen years and was succeeded, in 1923, by Father (later Archimandrite) Peter Abouzeid, BSO. During the latter's decade-long tenure, the mortgage was retired, but it became apparent that the church was not large enough to house a congregation that had grown, as Melkites relocated to the city from elsewhere to pursue better economic opportunities.
In 1933, Father Abouzeid was transferred to St Joseph's Melkite Catholic Church in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and replaced by Father Archimandrite Flavian Zahar, BSO, who had been the pastor in Lawrence. Archimandrite Zahar was frustrated in his efforts to build a new church, initially by the financial constraints of a post-Depression economy and, subsequently, by the entry of the United States into World War II. A vacant Protestant church on nearby Warren Avenue, at the corner of West Canton Street, offered a viable solution to wartime constraints on non-essential civilian construction and the parish purchased it.
The new church was renovated and dedicated on May 3, 1942. Photographs of its interior show a high altar at the rear of the sanctuary, statuary, and an altar railing; there is no iconostasis. The highly latinized appearance offers no suggestion that the parish was anything other than a typical Latin Catholic church. The failure to employ traditional forms of Byzantine church architecture, decor, and furnishings was reflective of prevailing attitudes that Eastern Catholics in the diaspora should largely conform to the styles and customs of their Latin Catholic counterparts.
Parishioners were generous in their response to the parish's financial needs and were able to celebrate by burning the mortgage on the new church three years after its purchase. However, it was only a few months afterwards that they mourned the death of Archimandrite Zahar, who had led them in accomplishing this goal. Father Beshara Thalage, BSO, administered the parish until Protosynchellos Eftimios Saba, BSO, was named as the fourth pastor in the early months of 1946.
Father Saba's appointment continued a history of assigning clergy to the parish of clergy whose prestigious credentials suggest that it was considered among the most important Melkite churches in the United States. Like his three predecessors, Father Saba had a distinguished background, having been both a seminary rector and First Secretary to Patriarch Cyril IX Moghabghab. He was pastor for a ten year period, and died in 1956. Fathers (both later Archimandrites) John Jadaa and Elias Kweiter, Basilian Salvatorian hiermonks, administered the parish until mid-1957, when Archimandrite Nicholas Borkhoche, BSO, assumed office.
Reflective of both the growing parish and added demands on the time of Father Borkhoche as Regional Superior of the Salvatorians, Father (later Archimandrite) Georges Coriarty, BSO, was assigned as his assistant. When Father Borkhoche considered that his responsibilities necessitated relocating to the Salvatorian Monastery in Methuen, Massachusetts, Father Coriaty assumed the pastorate, which he held for three years.
In 1960, after Father Coriaty was transferred to the Melkite Cathedral of Sainte Sauveur in Montreal, Father Archimandrite John Bassoul, BSO, was designated pastor. His term was brief, lasting only two years, but he is credited with initiating the process of relocating the church [1][2]. The Melkite faithful were no longer concentrated in Boston's South End neighborhood and had not been for some time. As early as 1942, a program book produced for a parish celebration had reflected significant dispersion of the parishioners among Boston's neighborhoods and suburbs, particularly those to the south. Almost twenty years later, travel demands, a shortage of parking, neighborhood deterioration, and the need for extensive and expensive repairs, necessitated that an alternative site be identified.
A survey of those registered as parishioners confirmed that there were substantial numbers of Melkites in Boston's West Roxbury neighborhood. Before this information could be acted on, Archimandrite Bassoul was elected by the Holy Synod of the Melkite Church to head the Archeparchy of Homs, Hama, and Yabroud in Syria. Before departing for his new position, he was ordained to the episcopate at Boston's Holy Cross Cathedral on April 28, 1962 at a Divine Liturgy presided by Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, garbed in Byzantine vesture.
Father Archimandrite (later Bishop) John Elya, BSO, briefly administered the parish until the appointment of Father Archimandrite Lucien Malouf, BSO, as pastor on November 1, 1962. Together with his newly-appointed assistant, Father (later Archimandrite) Charles Aboody, the new pastor vigorously began the search for a suitable site on which to build a replacement church. In this, they were encouraged by Cardinal Cushing, who had a history of friendship with and support for the Eastern Catholic parishes and communities that had a presence within the geographic bounds of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
A 4.2 acre property on the VFW Parkway in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood was identified as an ideal site, but it was owned by the City of Boston and designated as conservation land. Added to these potentially complicating factors was that any agreement by the City to sell the parcel had to be approved by the Massachusetts State Legislature under Massachusetts General Law home-rule provisions applicable to the City of Boston. The political negotiations required to obtain approval were successful and the parties agreed to a price that the parish considered that it could afford.