Our Parish History

Honoring The Past

St. Mary’s Orthodox Church was incorporated in 1914, begun to be built in 1916 and completed in 1917. At that time it was a Greek Catholic Church celebrating its Eastern Rite services and under the jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome. In the late 1930's, however, motivated by a variety of factors, St. Mary’s joined a group of other Greek Catholic Churches and formed a new diocese which returned to their ancestral Orthodox Faith under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

The diocese formed was and is The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.A. The parish was founded by immigrants coming from the Carpatho-Russian Mountain regions of present day Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These Carpatho-Russian faithful began settling in the Corning area circa 1895-1900 coming mainly from the town of Stakcin in what was then Austria-Hungary. These people emigrated, like so many others, from their villages to better themselves economically and avail themselves of the political freedoms enjoyed in the United States. Besides finding employment, one of the first tasks of these immigrants was building a church in which they could worship and pass on their faith to their children. 1910 was a decisive year in the history of the parish. In that year numerous meetings of the church founders occurred in order to plan a church of their own in Corning. At that time services were held in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church hall whenever a Greek Catholic priest was available., but the faithful desired to have their own church. From that desire came sacrifice and a great deal of hard work (ditch digging and the like) to build St. Mary’s Orthodox Church.

Throughout the years, the parish purchased a home for its priests, built a church hall, and purchased a cemetery plot. Since their beginnings, the parish properties have undergone a variety of renovations.

Today, the parish faithful continue to profess their Orthodox Faith in a manner consistent with what has been given over to them from the Orthodox Church's 2000 year history. The faithful celebrate in worship and live out the faith communicated to them by generations of Orthodox faithful. St. Mary’s honors its past and continues to ask God to bless its efforts in the present day. It welcomes all who are seeking faith in God in an often troubling and doubt-producing time. The heritage of our church reveals a firm and fervent faith, and we invite you to visit us so that this faith might be yours as well.