Category: Religion

ST. PETER CHURCH, the first GERMAN congregation formed in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, maintained the diocese's oldest church building in continuous use (1995), at 1533 E. 17th St. at Superior Ave. The parish originated in 1853, when Fr. John H. Luhr began to minister to the Germans who met at ST. MARY'S ON-THE-FLATS.

ST. ROCCO PARISH, Cleveland's first west side ITALIAN parish, officially organized in 1922, evolving out of celebrations of St. Rocco's Day. Featuring processions, pageants, and sometimes a mass, the celebrations engendered the desire for an Italian church on the west side. An "independent" chapel (without clergy or recognition of the Roman Catholic church) was built on Trent Ave.

The ST. SAVA SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH CONTROVERSY (1963-75) over control of church property and control by a hierarchical form of church government split Cleveland's SERBIAN community.

ST. STANISLAUS CHURCH is the mother parish for Polish Roman Catholics in Cleveland, established in 1873 to serve the growing number of POLES. It evolved into one of the city's largest churches, in what was for a time Cleveland's major Polish settlement, Warszawa. The parish had no permanent structure until 1881, meeting in either ST.

The parish of ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH at 1930 W. 54th St. in Cleveland was established in 1869. It eventually became the largest GERMAN-speaking Catholic parish in Cleveland. The congregation was using a small brick structure in 1873 when the church that stands today (1994) was begun.

ST. THEODOSIUS RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL (733 Starkweather Ave.) is considered one of the finest examples of Russian church architecture in the U.S. Begun in 1911, the cathedral is the parish's third structure. The St.

ST. VITUS CHURCH, at E. 61st St. and Glass Ave., was the first Catholic church in Cleveland for SLOVENES. Later one of the largest Slovenian churches in America, St. Vitus's first service was on 6 Aug. 1893. The first priest was the newly ordained Vitus Hribar. The first services were held at ST. PETER CHURCH in Cleveland.

ST. WENCESLAS CHURCH was established in 1867, the first parish to serve Bohemian (CZECH) Catholics in Cleveland. Services for the first Bohemian immigrants were held in ST. PETER'S, St. Joseph's, and ST. MARY'S ON-THE-FLATS. Bp.

ST. WENDELIN PARISH, formed in May 1903, was the first Slovak Roman Catholic parish on Cleveland's west side. It was established by Bp. IGNATIUS F. HORSTMANN out of ST. MARTIN OF TOURS parish for SLOVAKS living in the area south of Lorain Ave. and east of W. 25th St.

The SUPERIOR AVE. BAPTIST CHURCH, founded in 1848 as the Cottage Baptist Sunday School on St. Clair, grew to be one of the most prosperous places of worship along old Superior St., called the "street of churches" in the 19th century. The church moved to E. 25th and Superior, where a wooden structure was erected in 1852. By 1878 the name had changed to the Superior Ave. Baptist Church.

SUPERIOR ST. CHURCH. See SUPERIOR ST. TABERNACLE.


The SUPERIOR ST. TABERNACLE, begun as the City Mission in 1852 by Rev. DILLON PROSSER, was noted for its striking octagonal building on Superior St. (opened in 1877) and for the size of its congregation, over 2,000 in the late 1870s. Originally located on St. Clair, the mission changed its name to the Waring St.

SYNAGOGUE OF THE PROVINCE OF GRODNO. See BETH HAKNESSETH ANSHE GRODNO.


TAYLOR ROAD SYNAGOGUE. See OHEB ZEDEK.


TELLO, MANLY (25 Feb. 1842-4 Apr. 1905), lawyer and editor of the Catholic Universe, was born to Don John and Jane (Manly) Tello in Porto Santo, Madeira, Spain. He was educated at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass. and St. Charles Seminary in Maryland, and served in the Confederate Army until his capture by Union forces while carrying secret dispatches.

TELSHE YESHIVA grew from a small rabbinical school, opened in Cleveland in 1941, into an internationally renowned center for traditional Jewish Scholarship and learning. Established in 1875 in the town of Telsiai (also known as Telse), Lithuania, Telshe became one of the three largest yeshivot in Imperial Russia by 1900.

TEMPLE. See TIFERETH ISRAEL.


TEMPLE EMANU EL, organized in 1947, was the third Jewish Reform congregation in Cleveland, formed almost 100 years after ANSHE CHESED and

TIFERETH ISRAEL, also known as the Temple, was established on 26 May 1850 and is Cleveland's second-oldest existing Jewish congregation.

The TETIEVER AHAVATH ACHIM ANSHE SFARD congregation (1909-59), incorporated in Sept. 1910, was founded out of the Tetiever Social & Benevolent Society. Around 1900 a small group of Russian Jews from Tetiev established the Tetiever Verein, later known as the Tetiever Social & Benevolent Society.