As daylight Savings begins, Divine Liturgy will return to 4:00 PM starting On Saturday, March 15.
This community was formed in 2016 in Fort Mill South Carolina. Fort Mill is minutes from North Carolina and 25 minutes from Downtown Charlotte. Weekly celebration of Divine Liturgy began in 2018 and in 2024 the community became a mission church
We Celebrate The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom - Byzantine (Ruthenian) Rite.
Weekly on Saturdays
During the Great Fast we will celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St Basil.
The mission is on a mission to engage our Facebook audience with more Byzantine sustenance!
Scroll down and "like" our page to help us spread the word!
Follow us for updates!
Bishop Kurt Burnette, has granted our Byzantine community a proper name. We will now be known as the Venerable Petro Oros Mission. Father Oros was a Ukrainian priest martyred in 1953 and recently beatified by Pope Francis. Read about him here
Our community was featured in a recent publication by The Archeparchy of Pittsburgh in the Byzantine Catholic World.
https://archpitt.org/most-recent-issues-of-the-byzantine-catholic-world/
Our community was also featured in a recent publication by The Eparchy of Passaic in the Eastern Catholic Life
Our budding community has already produced one candidate for Seminary. Read more about his journey here.
We invite you to come and see who we are and what we are all about as part of the Eastern half of the Universal Church.
“The Holy Fathers were convinced that the commemoration of the departed by alms and sacrifices (Divine Liturgies) brings great comfort and benefit to them.”
The custom of offering prayers and sacrifices for the departed comes to us from the Old Testament. Holy Scripture praises the custom as holy and wholesome or pious, as is written in the II Book of Maccabees, ch. 12, v. 45: “lt is therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins.”
ln the Byzantine Rite, we commemorate the deceased every day at the Divine Liturgy immediately after the Consecration with the petition: “Remember, O Lord, all those who have departed in the hope of resurrection unto eternal life … N.N. … , and grant them rest where the light of Your face shines.” (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)
The Byzantine Church has, since the ninth century, established a special day of prayer for the departed popularly known as “Za dušna Subota” (Gr. Psycho-sabbaton; psyche-soul) which literally translated means Souls Saturday. Since the Synaxarion calls for the “universal commemoration” and prayer for “all the souls departed in the faith,” fittingly then, in English, we call these Saturdays – All Souls Saturdays.
ln the Byzantine Liturgical Year there are five All Souls Saturdays – namely, Meat Fare Saturday, the Second, Third and Fourth Saturdays of the Great Lent, and Pentecost Saturday. Meat-Fare Saturday as a special day of prayer for the deceased can be traced down to the sixth and seventh century, the time when the Typikon of St. Saba, known as the Jerusalem Typikon, had developed. On Meat-Fare Sunday we liturgically commemorate the Last Judgment (Mt. 25:31-46). Therefore, on the previous day, we, in our charity, intercede with the merciful Judge for the de ceased that they be placed at His right hand when He will come to judge the Living and the dead. During the ninth century, the Second, Third and Fourth Saturdays of Lent were also dedicated to the commemoration of the dead. On Pentecost Saturday we commemorate “all the departed souls since Adam” (cf. Pentecostarion).
Every year, just before Meat-Fare Saturday, the families give the lists of their departed loved ones (Hramoty) to the pastor with the request that they be mentioned at the services held for the deceased on the All Souls Saturday. Members of the family are encouraged to attend these services on the All Souls Saturdays for by their presence and by their personal prayers and receiving Holy Communion they strengthen the bond of love with their departed loved ones and indeed keep their memory everlasting!
PRAYER FOR THE DECEASED (Ascribed to St. John Chrysostom) O God of all spiritual and corporeal beings, You trampled death, broke the power of Satan and granted life to the whole world; now, O Lord, grant also rest to the soul of Your departed servant N. in a place of light, freshness, and peace, where there is no pain, sorrow, or mourning. As a gracious God and loving mankind, forgive him (her) every transgression committed by him (her) in word, deed, or thought, since there is no man alive who has not sinned. You alone are without sin and Your justice is everlasting justice, and Your word is always the truth. For You are the resurrection, the life and the rest of Your departed servant N., O Christ our God, and we render glory to You, together with Your Eternal Father, and Your most Holy, gracious, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
Excerpt from Byzantine Leaflet Series No.6 With Ecclesiastical Approbation March, 1977 BYZANTINE SEMINARY PRESS Pittsburgh, Pa. 15214
In accordance with tradition, Forty days after Christ was born He was presented to God in the Jerusalem Temple. Forty days after Christmas, on the second of February, the Church celebrates the feast of the presentation called the Meeting (or Presentation) of the Lord.
The meeting of Christ by the elder Simeon and the prophetess Anna (Lk 2.22–36) is the main event of the feast of Christ’s presentation in the Temple. It was “revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Lk 2.26) and, inspired by the same Spirit, he came to the Temple where he met the new-born Messiah, took Him in his arms and said:
Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Thy people Israel (Lk 2.29–32).
It is customary in many churches to bless candles on the feast of the Meeting of the Lord.
Theophany is the Feast which reveals the Most Holy Trinity to the world through the Baptism of the Lord (Mt.3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22). God the Father spoke from Heaven about the Son, the Son was baptized by Saint John the Forerunner, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Son in the form of a dove.
The origin of the Feast of Theophany goes back to Apostolic times, and it is mentioned in The Apostolic Constitutions (Book V:13). And is mentioned as early as the second century by Saint Clement of Alexandria.
On the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, the Holy Church proclaims our faith in the mystery of one God in three Persons. It teaches us to glorify the Holy Trinity, one in Essence and Undivided.
It is customary to bless Water on this Day.
As daylight Savings begins again on March 10th, we will move Divine Liturgy back to 4:00 PM, starting On Saturday, March 15.
This community is forming with the blessing of Bishop Kurt Burnette of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, New Jersey
Our Celebrant is Fr. Vasyl Sokolovych, Adminstrator of SS Cyril and Methodious church in Cary (Raleigh) North Carolina.
Blessed Peter Oros (1917-1953) was murdered by the Soviet police for his Greek Catholic faith. He was a young priest who cared deeply for his flock and his Church, and may have been secretly consecrated a bishop.
The Byzantine Catholic Church is an Eastern Church in union with Rome; Carpatho-Rusyn in background and is an American Eastern Church. Our Liturgy blends the colors of our many icons with congregational chant and our fragrant incense in prayer.
Check out the Eparchial Newsletter. Available online, or in print for only $15 per year.
https://www.eparchyofpassaic.com/suscribetoeasterncatholiclife
We invite you to come and see who we are and what we are all about as part of the Eastern half of the Universal Church.
All people are welcome to join us. If you are a visiting Roman rite or Latin Rite Catholic, We invite you to come and see who we are and invite you to participate fully with us in Our Liturgy. Attending weekend Divine Liturgy with us does satisfy your weekly obligation to attend Mass, even a Vigil Divine Liturgy will satisfy regardless of the time of the service. For More information about this you may consult your parish priest or see this letter from a local Roman Catholic Priest for cannon law justification of attendance on Saturday.