A Spiritual Pilgrimage to...Kearney Nebraska?

This past weekend, October 26-29th, two of my kids and I went on a spiritual pilgrimage to Kearney Nebraska.

What, you will ask, is worthy of a pilgrimage in Kearney?  Well, here we are. Read on.

Kearney is the exact center point of the united states from east to west. It is 1733 miles east or west to the ocean. You might call that the "heart" of the country and the amazing story of Father Nicola Yanney lends a great depth to that statement.

In February of 1873, Nicola Yanney was born in north Lebanon. In 1892 he married Martha George Al-Baik and soon thereafter the couple immigrated from Syria to Omaha Nebraska.  After a couple of years (and children!) there, they moved west to a sod house and took up the life of farmers. In the summer of 1899, there were 6 Yanneys, Nicola, Martha, and their four children, living on the plains just outside Kearney, which had an active Arab community.

There they did well until February of 1902. Martha died while giving birth to the Yanney's fifth child, and second daughter. Nine days later the baby also died. They were buried in a single grave in the Burgess Cemetery, a family cemetery of a neighboring farmer.

A devastated Nicola mourned while family and friends helped him around the homestead.

In late 1903, the faithful Arab Christians of the town had just come together to form the church of Saint George, but they had no priest except the Archimandrite from Brooklyn who would occasionally stop as he traveled from coast to coast. This same archimandrite and the faithful of Kearney encouraged Nicola to head east and study for ordination to the priesthood. He did so and also became a naturalized citizen of the USA in February 1904. In March of 1904, the traveling archimandrite was elevated to "Bishop of Brooklyn." (We now call him "Saint Raphael.") He is the first Bishop consecrated on US soil. Among his first acts as Bishop, he tonsured and ordained Nicola through the ranks of minor clergy and on Palm Sunday of 1904, into the priesthood. The first Orthodox Bishop in the US ordained the first Orthodox Priest in the US.

Today we think of a "parish" as a church building or perhaps in a broader sense, as the group of people that makes up the congregation. Originally the term referred to a geographic area.  Father Nicola's parish was huge, covering North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. He also would answer the call of communities of Syrian Orthodox Christians as far away as Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky.

Among the priestly duties performed by Father Nicola in his first year was the funeral for his first daughter, Anna. She had become deathly ill while he was traveling through his parish, and by the time he returned home, she had lapsed into a coma, and died shortly thereafter, at the age of eight.

In spite of trials and tragedies, Fr. Nicola saw only one course of action. Where another man would easily and understandably say "I think I'll sit this one out," Father Nicola carried on under his yoke and served the flock of his Master with love and dedication that is almost super-human. This was not a restless soul who wanted to travel the countryside.  This was a family man, bereft of his wife and two of his children, yet "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress," so Father Nicola looked to the Lord our God and took care of His beloved.

In 1918, as the Spanish Flu ravaged the country, Nebraska issued a statewide quarantine. Schools were closed, church gatherings and other group assemblies were outlawed for the sake of public health. Father Nicola and his flock obeyed the quarantine and refrained from holding services, but as his members got sick and lay dying, the faithful Priest Nicola could not hold back from his ministry to them. He took the sacraments to their beds and prepared them for their earthly death.  In so doing, Fr. Nicola himself became ill, but would not stop his holy work until, in the course of his ministry, he collapsed. Two hours later late in the night of October 28th, 1918, he reposed in the Lord, faithful to the last moment, and bestowing the love of God on all whom he could reach before it was absolutely physically impossible.

There have been missionaries, bishops, priest who have to be "circuit riders." These things are laudable, but also "typical" in a way. Father Nicola's faithfulness in the face of his personal suffering is what makes him extraordinary. Not only did he suffer the loss of family, and ultimately his own health, but he also suffered political shenanigans and lawsuits after his mentor Bishop Raphael reposed in the Lord. His devotion to the flock of Christ from north to south across the entire heart of the country, despite tremendous personal tragedy, is amazing.

St. George Orthodox Church in Kearney Nebraska, Father Nicola's home church, is the heart of the nation, or at least the entire Midwest region, for Orthodox Christians. From this "New Damascus," like Paul and Barnabas, Fr. Nicola went out to the world with the Gospel of Christ and His life-giving mysteries. St. George is the mother church for the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, which enthroned its first Bishop in only the year 2004.

So this weekend we went on a pilgrimage to Kearney Nebraska. It was the 100th anniversary of the repose of Father Nicola. We prayed and worshipped in the church of Saint George. We saw Fr. Nicola's Baptismal and Wedding record books, his personal devotional bible, and the Book of the Gospels that he used in Liturgy and in his travels. We visited his grave and his wife's grave, we learned about his life, love, and work. We spent time with beloved friends from church. We met and talked with Fr. Nicola's descendants. We were enriched, uplifted, and encouraged. We were more closely united with some heroes of the faith whom we knew little about. We stood on the shoulders of giants. We heard our Father, Bishop Basil preach that the very God we worship is LIFE HIMSELF, and we received life in His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist.

Glory to God!
Holy Father Nicola, pray for us!