Russian Orthodoxy in downstate Illinois

The trained eye rarely misses them: three-barred crosses and primitive, colorful icons, occasionally spotted in roadside cemeteries and out-ofthe-way chapels from Chicago to Carbondale. Onion-shaped domes, curious spires and cupolas — the international symbols of Eastern Orthodoxy — still adorn churches in small, former mining communities where Baptists, Methodists and Evangelicals now abound. The Russian Orthodox Church, once the faith community and cultural center for thousands of first- and second-generation Eastern European immigrants, is today a shadow of its former self in downstate Illinois. Its symbolic presence, however, remains a visual reminder of the forces, communities and personalities that still shape our prairie psyche.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Illinois began with a gift and a blessing. The gift came from Czar Alexander III, Emperor of Russia from 1881-1894. In 1892, Alexander commissioned his favorite architect, Petrovo Ropette, to design the Russian Pavilion for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Alexander wanted to memorialize his father, Czar Alexander II, who had been assassinated by revolutionaries in 1881. Ropette, known as the “Father of Russian Revival Architecture,” was the logical choice. He previously had designed pavilions for the Paris (1878) and Copenhagen (1888) world expositions.

The Russian Pavilion for the Columbian Exposition, described as a “massive architectural structure, executed in dark wood” and built in the 17th-century Muscovite style, was said to be similar in design to the palace where Peter the Great was born. The pavilion was constructed in Moscow, disassembled, shipped to Chicago, and rebuilt in the Manufacturers Building at the

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Although the Russian Orthodox Church in Streator closed nearly 100 years ago, the old city cemetery still receives Orthodox burials. The three-barred cross has been a symbol of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries. The bar at the top symbolizes the signboard on which was written, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19); the middle crossbeam represents the bar upon which Jesus’ hands were nailed; and the slanted bar at the bottom represents the beam where his feet were nailed. The beam is slanted upwards and pointing towards Paradise, symbolizing the good thief on Jesus’ right, who repented and went to heaven, and downwards to the left for the thief destined for Hell.