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Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Cleveland, Ohio
Established 1909
The Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of
Cleveland, Ohio, now located at 6306 Broadview Road, Parma, Ohio, fondly and appreciatively remembers those early Church founders
who 90 years ago organized their first sanctuary in a humble
setting in downtown Cleveland. It is also a tribute to all the
past generations that blended Serbian traditions with freedoms of
America, maintaining the Church as a sacred place of worship and
cherishing high Christian ideals. The current generation has
strengthened the legacy of its founders and has worked long and
hard to protect the Saint Sava Cathedral for future generations.
 It all began in 1902 when a lonesome Serb, +Lazar Krivokapic
from Montenegro, who settled in the Greek neighborhood in downtown
Cleveland, was walking along St. Clair Avenue determined to find
another fellow Serb. He saw a man who looked Serbian and
approached him. To his delight, he met +Petar Grahovac, and the
two Serbs began a search throughout Cleveland for fellow
countrymen. This marked the beginning of the Cleveland Serbian
community. At that time, settlement areas of Serbs were from East
26th to East 40th on Hamilton, St. Clair and
Payne Avenue. The Collinwood area on St. Clair near East 152nd
Street housed many early settlers who found work at the Collinwood
railroad yards. Other Serbs located along Broadway Avenue between
East 30th and East 49th Streets, close to
the steel mills. But the largest group of Serbs came to Cleveland
at the beginning of World War I, and again following World War
II. “Many Serbs arrived with many crosses, many shoulders, many
desires, many decisions namely, many Serbs, many shoulders and one
Cross, one prayer, one desire, one decision and one fulfillment.
Wherever you see a Serbian cross, use your shoulders. Serbian
crosses need Serbian shoulders,” said Father Boro Petrovic many
years ago in his address “Our Church in Cleveland”.
The first concern of the Serbian settlers was to ensure the
health and well being of their families. Thus on February 22 in
the year 1904, they founded the Saint Sava Serbian Benevolent
Society – the first Serbian organization in Cleveland. Through
their efforts, the first Saint Sava Church-School Congregation was
organized and established in 1909. In 1911, the Saint Sava
congregation purchased two small houses on East 33rd
Street, between St. Clair and Superior Avenues, for $2,600. One
was used as a church and the other as a priest’s residence. Proud
of their cultural heritage, Serbs started a Serbian language
school and choir. When the parish outgrew these facilities, all
the Serbs joined together and contributed towards the purchase of
a former Lutheran Protestant Church and parish home at 1565 East
36th Street, which became the Saint Sava Serbian
Eastern Orthodox Church in 1919. The congregation remained at
this location until 1963.
In the following years, our parish grew and
prospered.
 The Church School,
 the Circle of Serbian Sisters “Sveta Petka”
 and the
Serbian Singing Society “Njegos” were founded.
When in the 1930’s
the City of Cleveland established the Cultural Gardens in
Rockefeller Park for local ethnic groups, the Serbian
organizations recognized the need to preserve their Serbian
heritage and contributed a statue of Petar Petrovic Njegos,
Serbian Bishop, poet and statesman to the Cultural Gardens. A
picnic took place to commemorate the event and, ever since, a
“Serbian Day” is held over the Labor Day weekend. This lot in the
Cultural Gardens with the statue of Njegos and a Slovenian poet,
representing the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was given to the Slovenian
community of Cleveland a few years ago. The statue of Njegos is
on the grounds of Saint Sava Church on Wallings Road in Broadview
Heights.
Following World War II, there was a heavy influx of Serbs from
Europe and it soon became apparent that our Church and social
facilities on East 36th Street were inadequate. Since
the traditional picnic was a major social activity during summer
months, in 1952 the Saint Sava congregation purchased 30 acres of
land on Wallings Road as a picnic ground to use the profits from
picnics and rentals for the planning of a new church. In 1958,
another piece of land was purchased on Broadview Road and
Ridgewood Drive in Parma, which today is the site of the Saint
Sava Cathedral.
As some parishioners recall, times were good and
spirits high.
By 1961, a construction of the new complex began.
The new church was completed by 1963 and the Consecration,
scheduled for May 1963 was postponed because of the turmoil within
the parish caused by the May 10, 1963 announcement that the Mother
Church in Belgrade had suspended former Bishop Dionisije, dividing
the former Diocese of the United States and Canada into three new
Dioceses and electing three new Bishops. The Saint Sava parish
was split severely. Bishop Stefan, Bishop Firmilian and Bishop
Gregory consecrated the new Church on June 9, 1963. Shortly
afterward, Bishop Stefan took up residence in Cleveland and our
church became a Cathedral – Saborna Crkva.
The balance of 1963 was marked by strife in the Saint Sava
parish, which finally led to the filing of a lawsuit by the
dissident group to prevent the Pro-Mother Church faction from
holding its annual meeting. This was followed by 12 years of
bitter court battles, which ended in a settlement that gave the
Pro-Mother Church supporters the Saint Sava Cathedral complex
while the dissident group received the Wallings Road picnic
property and a financial settlement. The 12 years of litigation
and the cost of the settlement left our Church deeply in debt.
But with renewed spirits and hard work, all of the debt was paid
off in eight years, which culminated in a mortgage burning
celebration on October 23, 1983. Thanks to a generous donation of
two church members, a piece of property on Ridgewood Drive was
purchased in 1987. Additional contributions helped in the
development and completion of the picnic grove, which started to
function in 1990.
Thanks to the hard work and generous contributions of the
individual members of the church and the church organizations, the
Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral has one of the most
beautiful iconostases in the United States, handcrafted in hard
maple in Serbia over the period of three years. The wood was
donated by two devoted members of the church and the icons by
church organizations and faithful parishioners in memory and in
honor of loved ones or for their slava saint.
 His Holiness
Serbian Patriarch Pavle blessed the iconostas during his first
visit to the United States on October 26, 1992. The monument
dedicated to Petar Petrovic Njegos and the memorial bust of Vuk
Stef. Karadzich were both donated and beautify our Church
grounds. The bust of Vuk Stef. Karadzich, the first in America,
was recently unveiled in April of this year by an affiliated
organization.
Today our Church prospers with approximately 500 members and
parishioners, three major Church organizations – Church School,
Circle of Serbian Sisters “Sveta Petka” and Saint Sava Pensioners
Club; and six Church affiliated organizations –
 the American
Serbian Womens Club, Serbian Singing Society “Njegos”, SNF Saint
Sava Lodge No. 108, SNF Bratska Sloga Lodge No. 15, Movement of
Serbian Chetniks “Ravna Gora” and Serbian National University (SNU)
Vuk Stef. Karadzich.
In 1985, the Very Reverend Vasilije Sokolovic, a graduate of
the Seminary in Belgrade (1952), was assigned to the Saint Sava
Cathedral after serving parishes in Masontown and Steubenville.
He succeeded +Very Reverend Nenad Resanovic (1979-1985) who
revitalized the Church and the Church School after the tragic
internal division.
 +Father Nenad was also the first Serbian
Orthodox priest to be elected as President of the Greater
Cleveland Council of Orthodox Priests during this period and
served as Treasurer of the Eastern Diocese of the S.O.C. Besides
his pastoral duties, Father Vasko has been the administrator of
the Church School and President of the Serbian Clergy Association
of the United States and Canada from 1992 to 1995. With his
parishioners, he is actively involved in raising funds for Saint
Sava Church on Vracar and the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos.
In the past few years, Father Vasko has helped many Serbian
refugee families from the former Yugoslavia to successfully settle
down in the Cleveland area. On June 13, 1999, the Holy Synod of
the Serbian Orthodox Church honored Father Vasko with the Pectoral
Cross, the highest honor for a priest to receive. His Grace, Dr.
Mitrophan, Bishop of the Eastern American Diocese, placed the
Pectoral Cross around his neck during the Hierarchical Liturgy
held at Saint Sava Cathedral that day.
In December of 1997, the congregation elected Robert A.
Jakovich president of Saint Sava Cathedral. With his election,
Bob became the third generation of his family to serve as
President of his parish. His “Deda” Milan Jakovich was President
of the Holy Resurrection Church in Steubenville, Ohio and his
“Dad” Robert E. Jakovich was President of Saint Sava Cathedral.
Besides his involvement in our parish, Bob has been the Treasurer
of the Central Church Council for the past 15 years. He has
served as President of our S.S.S. Njegos as well as President of
the Serbian Singing Federation. He is currently Treasurer of the
newly established Serbian Orthodox Church Office of Public
Outreach in Washington, D.C. Under Bob’s direction, the Executive
Board and parish have undertaken a major project to beautify our
Cathedral. The first step was to clean and reseal the domes and,
upon its completion, replacement of the roof of the Cathedral.
As 1999 drew to a close and our Church completed 90 years of
existence, our parish moved forward with confidence and
determination knowing that with the help of Almighty God and the
blessing of Saint Sava, we would continue to work to the Glory of
God.
More information links:
http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=SSSOCC
http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=S9
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