St. Nicholas Orthodox Chapel

If you wish to experience the ancient Rites of Christianity, please visit any Orthodox Parish in the St. Louis and Metro East on the Illinois side of the River. Belleville is 12 Miles from St. Louis, Missouri, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. It is difficult for persons in America to realize the Eastern Orthodox Church is the 2nd largest body in Christendom, with about 240 million Orthodox Christians world wide, because in North America there are less than 6.5 million Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox Church is a Church of great antiquity, dating back to the early Churches of Antioch, Jerusalem, Greece, Alexandria and Rome. The Churches St. Paul wrote his letters to (Corinth, Thessalonica, Galatia,etc.) still exist today as the Greek Orthodox Church. It was in the city of Antioch that the term "Christian" was first used. Today the Church of Antioch continues to exist as the Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem still serves as guardian over most of the holy shrines in the Holy Land. Our Orthodox roots were established by Saints Cyril & Methodius in 988 when they carried the gospel from Greece to the Slavic people starting in Kiev as well as from the Old Catholic Church of America.

We are a Western Rite Parish which means we celebrate the Western Rite Mass rather than the Eastern Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Our Services are in English and we follow the teachings and doctrines of the One Holy Catholic and Orthodox Church.


				*St. Thomas the Apostle Orthodox Catholic Community*



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