View of St. Spyridon’s Church from Canal Grande
Trieste is one of the oldest cities of northeastern Italy with a history spanning over 2,300 years. In the first centuries after the Birth of Christ, Christian preachers appeared here, bringing the light of truth to the local pagan population. The first Christian community in this city of the Roman Empire (at that time it was called Tergeste) was founded in the third century A.D. As throughout the Empire, Christians lived here from persecution to persecution, but without losing hope for God’s mercy and eternal life, often departing from this earthly and temporary life in agony. St. Justus is the most venerated early martyr of Trieste—he was drowned in the sea for refusing to offer sacrifices to idols (Roman “gods”) during the reign of Diocletian. The saint’s body was washed ashore and buried on an elevated place; now St. Justus’ Basilica stands on this site. The martyr is venerated as the patron saint of Trieste, and his relics rest in the crypt of the basilica on San Giusto Hill.
Trieste
History ordained that this area on the Adriatic coast come under the influence of the Republic of Venice, which actively supported Roman Catholicism. From the Great Schism in the eleventh century and up to the eighteenth century, there was no Orthodox presence in Trieste; at least, there is no reliable historical information about this. The situation began to change only after 1719, when Trieste received the status of a free port in the Austrian Empire, which it was then part of. Greeks and Serbs began to settle in the city; in 1748, they founded the Orthodox community of the Holy Trinity. A few years later, in 1753, the first Orthodox church was built in Trieste, with the joint efforts of Greek and Serbian migrants. The Church of St. Spyridon of Tremithus is situated in the central part of the city, in the Borgo Teresiano neighborhood—this area was named after Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1717–1780). Modest in size and plain in architecture, the church catered to the needs of Orthodox who lived in Trieste in the mid-eighteenth century.
At St. Spyridon’s Church in Trieste
Unfortunately, the Orthodox diaspora of these parts did not escape interethnic tensions, including those related to the liturgical language. In the early 1780s, the Greeks left the Church of St. Spyridon and in 1787 built a new church in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The Greek church stands in the center of Trieste, on the Tri Novembre embankment. Since the second half of the eighteenth century, it has undergone only minor alterations related to the reconstruction of the facade in 1819–1820.
The Greek St. Nicholas Church in Trieste
The external changes at St. Spyridon’s Church turned out to be more significant—by the mid-nineteenth century, the building had become dilapidated, unstable, and had to be dismantled. A new, magnificent neo-Byzantine church was constructed on the site of the old one, which has graced the Trieste streets since 1869. The Byzantine style blends well with icons from Russia, donated to the community in the mid-nineteenth century. The influence of the Latin tradition is present here as well—the church façade is decorated with nine sculptures, among which are St. Spyridon, St. Gregory the Theologian and the Archangel Michael.
On the streets of Trieste
Currently, there are four Orthodox communities in Trieste—Serbian, Greek, Romanian (in honor of the Resurrection of Christ) and Moldovan (St. Paraskeva’s)—but only the first two own their churches. The Romanians have been serving in the premises of the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Rosary on Via Dell’Istria since 2014 (the parish was founded in 2005). According to Priest Valentine, the premises were provided for free use by the Catholic Diocese of Trieste. The Romanian community has renovated it and equipped it with everything necessary for Orthodox worship.
At the Moldovan Church of St. Paraskeva (the feast of the holy Myrrh-Bearing Women)
The Moldovan parish worships at the Church of St. Joseph the Betrothed (on Via Dell’Istria too). It is the youngest parish in Triest, opened in 2019. As Priest Ioan Brasoveanu explains, among its parishioners are not only Moldovans, but also Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians and Italians. They use three languages in services (Moldovan, Church Slavonic, and Italian), and the feasts are celebrated according to the old calendar. St. Paraskeva’s Church is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
St. Joseph’s Church is the place of worship of the Moldovan community in Trieste
During my short trip to Trieste, I only managed to visit the Serbian parish. It is located within walking distance from the bus station (0.3 miles away)—in the city center, by Canal Grande, on Via San Spiridione. Thanks to its architecture and general splendor, the church is one of the city’s major tourist attractions: it is open to visitors during the day.
At the Romanian Church of the Resurrection of Christ
Since 1990, Priest Rasko Radovic has served at the Serbian Church of St. Spyridon. A native of Serbia, he was ordained back in Communist Yugoslavia in 1981. He was born and raised in a religious family; many of his relatives were priests. Thus, choosing the path of the ordained ministry was quite natural for him, despite the tough atmosphere in his motherland, where at that time, religion was not encouraged.
“When I came to Trieste from Yugoslavia, the parishioners were mostly Serbs,” Fr. Rasko recalls. “There weren’t many of them; some were afraid to attend church. Usually between fifty and 100 people attended on the feasts.”
During a service at the Romanian Church of the Resurrection of Christ
The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the USSR, coupled with migration inside Europe, contributed to the fact that in Italy in general and in Trieste in particular there appeared many more immigrants from Orthodox countries. Serbs who had fled the horrors of the Yugoslav wars came, along with Russians who were seeking a better life, and hardworking Moldovans and Romanians (for whom the Italian language is easy to learn). Not all of them were church people; some became church-goers only in this foreign land. It is clear that the Orthodox who had attended church regularly in their homeland joined the community of St. Spyridon’s Church with great enthusiasm. Fewer of them joined St. Nicholas Church though, since the Greeks are rather isolated from the others.
“The Romanians and Moldovans also attended our parish until the Romanian parish was set up,” Fr. Rasko relates. “But even after that, most Moldovans preferred to stay at St. Spyridon’s Church, until the Moldovan parish was opened. Now our parishioners are mostly Serbs, Russians and Ukrainians. The church has a multinational choir consisting of singers from ten different ethnic groups. There are many people at our services: 300–400 come to Communion on Sundays.”
As the choir director Anna Caira (who interpreted from Italian during my conversation with the rector) explained, the burden on the priest’s shoulders is enormous; he serves alone—there are no other priests in the church. It is especially hard for him during the fasting periods when there is a large flow of people for confession and Communion. In this situation, if he has no chance to hear everybody’s confessions before the Liturgy, confessions are heard after Communion. Of course, this approach can only be applied to regular parishioners, not those who come to church off and on.
“I confess people in Serbian, Russian and Italian,” Fr. Rasko notes. “We serve in Serbian and Church Slavonic; we use very little Italian, although our ruling hierarch is determined to use it more widely. I believe that Church Slavonic unites Orthodox Christians of different nationalities, because this language is used by parishes in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, and Poland.”
Priest Rasko Radovic The church tries to maintain a regular liturgical life. As a rule, a short prayer service is held every day, and the Liturgy is celebrated on Sundays and the great feasts. Catholic Italians sometimes come to services: they like Orthodox hymns, and are attracted by the splendor of the church and the prayerful mood of the parishioners. Italians are pleased that at the end of the Liturgy, along with the Orthodox, they are given pieces of antidoron, so they do not feel like complete strangers at services. There are some Italians who have converted to Orthodoxy, and there are those who are planning to do so. At the same time, when such requests are made, the rector takes into account the motivation of those who wish to abandon Catholicism.
“It happens that people want to convert to Orthodoxy because of their family circumstances (marriage to an Orthodox) or disappointment with the Vatican’s policies,” Fr. Rasko explains. “I do not encourage conversions for such reasons, because I believe that a person should have an inner urge, a sincere determination to become Orthodox. For those interested, I would recommend reading the Orthodox Catechism, as well as books by Fr. Alexander Schmemann and Fr. Georges Florovsky—they are available in Italian translation. I talk to these people and explain to them the essence of Orthodoxy so that they can weigh the pros and cons soberly, rather than making emotional decisions.”
However, despite the Italians’ interest in Eastern Christianity, the Orthodox communities of Trieste remain those of the diaspora, although they are more multiethnic. The role of St. Spyridon’s Church as a center of Serbian concentration is no longer as noticeable as it used to be owing to the assimilation of the Serbs and the influx of migrants of other nationalities. The Serbian school, which previously was a full-fledged educational institution, has since 2012 switched to work in the afternoons, offering lessons on Serbian culture, language and the basics of Orthodoxy as additional education. It currently has about 200 students of different ages, but classes are not held every day, and of course, students cannot give as much attention to them as they do to lessons at their main Italian school.
In general, according to the rector, the situation of the parish is stable. There is practically no Government support (except for restoration work), but there is some financial income from the community’s property rentals. Neither are the parishioners indifferent—benefactors support both the church and the school.
Today the Church of St. Spyridon is one of the main attractions of Trieste, and I think it is to some extent a missionary project that enables numerous tourists to touch the beauty and greatness of the Orthodox faith.
