12 Facts About Alexis Toth

Alexis Toth was glorified by the Orthodox Church in 1994.

Alexis Georgievich Toth was born to George and Cecilia Toth on March 14,1853, in Kobylnice, near Presov in the Szepes county of Slovakia during the reign of Franz Joseph.

Alexis' bishop received a petition from the Ruthenian Catholic Church in the United States, asking that Toth be sent to them as a priest.

Alexis Toth arrived on November 15,1889, and by the 27th of that month was holding services at St Mary's Greek Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

When speaking of their meeting, Alexis Toth later claimed that Ireland became angry and threw Alexis Toth's priestly credentials onto his table while ardently protesting his presence in the city.

Alexis Toth reported that Ireland said he did not consider Alexis Toth or his bishop to be truly Catholic, in clear contradiction of the Union of Uzhhorod and papal decrees to the contrary.

Alexis Toth reported that the conversation became more heated as it progressed, with both men losing their tempers.

Alexis Toth came to believe that he and other Eastern Rite Catholic priests in North America were to be recalled to Europe, and their parishioners folded into existing Roman Catholic congregations in their respective cities.

Alexis Toth was accompanied by 361 fellow Eastern Rite Catholics; thousands more would follow in the years to come, largely due to his own efforts to evangelize them toward this move.

This, combined with further demands by US Latin bishops against Eastern Rite parishes facilitated the conversion of over 20,000 Eastern-rite Catholics to Russian Orthodoxy by the time Alexis Toth died in 1909.

Alexis Toth was elevated to the rank of protopresbyter later in life, continuing his efforts to convert the Eastern Catholics of North America to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Alexis Toth died on May 7,1909, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and was honored with a special shrine at St Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.