Saint Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Chapel

Saint Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Chapel, Beaver, Pennsylvania

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Saint Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Chapel

Saint Nicholas Chapel, Beaver, Pennsylvania, was built in 1992, when the Greek Catholic Union of the U.S.A., the largest fraternal benefit society serving Byzantine Catholics, observed the centennial anniversary of its founding.   For several decades GCU members had discussed building a wooden church similar to those structures at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe.  This was the region from which GCU’s founders and most of the early Greek (Byzantine) Catholics came to America.

Saint Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Chapel, Beaver, Pennsylvania

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Over 120 wooden churches were studied from an eight county region of what was formerly the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Studies of the immigration patterns of the earliest GCU members then determined what style would be constructed.  Saint Nicholas Chapel is tripartite, with three adjoining rectangles, each having a domed tower. This particular style was popular in the former counties of Sharish and Zemplin of what was then known as SubCarpathian Rus’, today part of Slovakia.

Saint Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Chapel, Beaver, Pennsylvania

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St. Nicholas Chapel is patterned after three churches in SubCarpathian Rus’: the tower from the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Mikulasova (former Sharish County) and later relocated to the open air museum in Bardejov; the center section from the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Nova Sedlica (former Zemplin County); and the altar area from the Church of St. Nicholas in Zboj (former Zemplin County).  Unique to the chapel are ten icons on the side walls, each depicting scenes from the life of St. Nicholas.

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