Alexis Toth

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Saint Alexis Toth, also known as Alexis of Wilkes-Barre, was a Ruthenian priest who became a Russian Orthodox missionary in the United States. He was born on March 14, 1853, in Kobylnice near Prešov, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and belonged to the Rusyn (Ruthenian) people. He studied in Latin and Greek Catholic seminaries and Prague, and was ordained a Greek Catholic priest in 1878 after marrying Rosalie Mihalics.

After his wife and child died, Toth served in local parishes and as a teacher at the Greek Catholic seminary in Prešov. In 1889, he went to the United States to help Ruthenian Catholics there and began serving at St. Mary’s Greek Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Bishop John Ireland of Saint Paul and Minneapolis opposed Eastern Catholic parishes and refused to recognize Toth’s position, even ordering his parishes not to work with him.

With little guidance from his own bishop, Toth and other Eastern Catholics sought help from the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1892, he formally joined the Russian Orthodox Church, and was followed by 361 Eastern Catholic priests and many more laypeople over the years. As an Orthodox priest, Toth preached tirelessly and helped thousands of Eastern Catholics switch to Orthodoxy, contributing to the growth of Orthodoxy in the United States and helping to shape the later Orthodox Church in America.

Toth died on May 7, 1909, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was glorified as Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre by the Orthodox Church in America in 1994. His major shrine is at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, and his feast day is May 7.