Glorification (2000)

Following a three-year study by a Joint Canonization Commission of the Orthodox Church in America and the Antiochian Archdiocese, the OCA’s Holy Synod approved the glorification of Bishop Raphael at its spring session (27–30 March 2000), and the glorification was solemnly celebrated at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, on 28–29 May 2000. His relics rest at the cemetery of the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

Tradition: Antiochian Orthodox (Arab-American diaspora); glorified by the Orthodox Church in America

The Joint Study

The glorification of St. Raphael was the fruit of a deliberate, cooperative inquiry that itself expressed his significance as a figure of unity. It was prepared by a Joint Canonization Commission composed of representatives of both the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America — the two Churches that between them are the heirs of Raphael’s Syro-Arab mission — which conducted an intensive three-year study of his life, works, and ministry (Orthodox Church in America, The Proclamation of the Holy Synod of Bishops on the Glorification of Saint Raphael of Brooklyn, 2000, oca.org; OCA news report, “Thousands Attend Glorification of Saint Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn,” 2000, oca.org). That the OCA and the Antiochians studied and glorified him together is itself a witness: the saint of the undivided Church was raised to the altars by the cooperation of the divided one.

The Synodal Decision and Its Grounds

The decision to glorify Raphael was taken by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America at its Spring 2000 Session, held 27–30 March 2000 (OCA news report, 2000, oca.org). The Synod’s proclamation set out the grounds. It judged it “fitting that the Orthodox Church in America should glorify Bishop Raphael” precisely because “his greatest labors took place in America and bore fruit here” — the ground being not merely his personal holiness in the abstract but his historic and formative labor for the Church on this continent (OCA, Proclamation, 2000, oca.org). The proclamation noted that he had served as a vicar bishop in the Orthodox Diocese, assisting St. Tikhon, among the diverse ethnic communities of the pre-revolutionary American Church — situating his glorification squarely within the memory of the unified mission (OCA, Proclamation, 2000, oca.org; see The Russian Mission and the Many Nationalities).

This reasoning is theologically of a piece with the Orthodox understanding of glorification generally: the Church, in glorifying a saint, ratifies a holiness already manifest and received among the faithful, and here it did so on the ground of a life whose fruits were plainly before it in the Church Raphael had built (on the theology of glorification as the Church’s reception of a holy life, see St. Xenia: Methodology).

The Glorification Rite at St. Tikhon’s Monastery

The solemn rite of glorification was celebrated at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania — the monastery at whose founding Raphael himself had assisted in 1905 (see Good Shepherd of the Lost Sheep) — on the weekend of 28–29 May 2000, before a record throng of pilgrims from across North America (OCA news report, 2000, oca.org). The celebration was presided over by Metropolitan Theodosius, primate of the OCA, together with Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland and a large assembly of hierarchs, clergy, and faithful (OCA news report, 2000, oca.org). That the glorification of the Arab bishop consecrated by St. Tikhon should take place at the monastery bearing St. Tikhon’s name, which Raphael had helped to found, is one of the providential symmetries the tradition savors.

[Corrected: the date of the glorification is sometimes given as a single day (e.g. “29 May 2000”) or, in some summaries, erroneously as “30 April 2000.” The record distinguishes two acts: the Holy Synod’s decision to glorify, taken at its spring session of 27–30 March 2000, and the solemn rite of glorification, celebrated at St. Tikhon’s Monastery on the weekend of 28–29 May 2000 (OCA, Proclamation, 2000, and OCA news report, 2000, oca.org). The proper form is “glorified in 2000,” with the decision in March and the celebration on 28–29 May; the “April” form found in some accounts is an error.]

The Relics at Antiochian Village

St. Raphael’s relics rest at the cemetery of the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, Pennsylvania — the retreat and conference center of the Antiochian Archdiocese — where his remains had been translated and where they are permanently housed; portions of the relics were brought to St. Tikhon’s Monastery for the glorification and are venerated by the faithful (OCA news report, 2000, oca.org; OrthodoxWiki, “Raphael of Brooklyn,” on the tomb at Antiochian Village, Ligonier, PA). The location is itself resonant: Ligonier lends its name to the 1994 meeting of the Orthodox bishops of America that became the great modern symbol of the aspiration to American Orthodox unity (see Legacy; Orthodoxy in America: Ligonier 1994) — so that the relics of the saint of the undivided Church rest at the place that gave its name to the modern hope of restoring that unity.

A Glorification for a Divided Church’s Common Saint

The glorification of 2000 is best understood in the light of Raphael’s whole significance. He was glorified by the OCA, on the ground of his American labors, after a study conducted jointly with the Antiochians, celebrated at a monastery he had helped found and named for his own consecrator, with his relics resting at a pan-Orthodox center in Ligonier. Every feature of the act points beyond the divisions of American Orthodoxy to the unity Raphael embodied and the reunion the Church hopes for. In raising him to the altars, the American jurisdictions honored not only a holy bishop but their own common origin and their common aspiration — which is why his glorification belongs, in the tradition’s reading, as much to the story of American Orthodox unity as to the story of one saint (see Assessment).

See Also

• Veneration in North America — the feasts, titles, and cross-jurisdictional cult that followed the glorification
• Good Shepherd of the Lost Sheep — his 1905 role at the founding of St. Tikhon’s Monastery, the site of his glorification
• The Fragmentation after 1917 — the divided Church that glorified its common saint
• Legacy — Raphael, Ligonier, and the hope of unity
• Orthodoxy in America: Ligonier 1994 — the unity meeting that shares Ligonier with his relics

References

• Orthodox Church in America. The Proclamation of the Holy Synod of Bishops on the Glorification of Saint Raphael of Brooklyn. 2000. oca.org. (The Joint Canonization Commission’s three-year study; the grounds of glorification — “his greatest labors took place in America and bore fruit here”; his service as vicar bishop assisting St. Tikhon.)
• Orthodox Church in America. “Thousands Attend Glorification of Saint Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn, at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery.” News report, 2000. oca.org. (The Holy Synod’s decision at the Spring 2000 session, 27–30 March 2000; the glorification rite at St. Tikhon’s Monastery on 28–29 May 2000; Metropolitan Theodosius and Metropolitan Sawa of Poland presiding; the relics at Antiochian Village, Ligonier, PA, with portions brought for the glorification.)
• OrthodoxWiki. “Raphael of Brooklyn.” orthodoxwiki.org. (The tomb at Antiochian Village, Ligonier, Pennsylvania; used to locate, per METHODOLOGY not a terminal citation.)