Glorified in America: Laborers in the New World

(Orthodox History) - Holy Trinity Publications, out of Jordanville, NY, has just published a book that will surely be of interest to many readers of this website: Glorified in America: Laborers in the New World from Saint Alexis to Elder Ephraim. Originally published in Greek, the book was written by the monks of the Monastery of St John the Forerunner in Mesa Potamos, Cyprus — the same monastery that brought us The Romanov Royal Martyrs: What Silence Could Not Conceal. It was translated by Katherine Psaropoulou-Brits, one of the premier Orthodox translators from Greek.

If you’re familiar with the Romanov book, this one will look familiar: both books are blends of hagiography and scholarship, with edifying portraits of the saints supplemented by well-sourced endnotes. Both books also have loads of colorized photos of the saints. But I must confess my bias: I am friends with the monastery, and for Glorified in America, I provided the introductory chapter and shared a lot of source material with the monastery to help them in the preparation of this book.

After that, there are chapters on the following men:

• Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre
• Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow
• Saint John of Chicago
• Saint Alexander of New York
• Saint Raphael of Brooklyn
• Saint Sebastian of Jackson
• Saint Mardarije of Libertyville
• Saint John Maximovich
• Father Theoklitos of Galveston
• Elder Ephraim of Arizona

This is far from an exhaustive list of Orthodox saints who lived in America; in place of that sort of breadth, the book takes deeper dives into each saint’s story.

If you have any interest in American Orthodox history or the lives of the saints, this is a book you’ll want to own. Retail price is $39.99, but the Holy Trinity Publications website says that if you order before September 19, 2023, you’ll get a 15% discount (so, $5.99 off the cover price). I have a physical copy myself, and it’s a beautiful book that seems like a bargain at $40. (To be clear, regarding that discount: the book was supposed to be available for shipping on Sept. 19, but the printer actually delivered the physical copies ahead of schedule, so if you order now, they’ll ship it to you immediately. But they’ll still give you the 15% preorder discount.)

You can order the book on Holy Trinity’s website and get 15% off by Sept. 19. It’s also available via Amazon, or (if you’re in the UK or Europe), via Oxbow (although those websites don’t offer the discount).