Alexis Toth was born in Slovakia, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the Orthodox faithful had been forced to unite with Rome. As an Eastern Rite Catholic, Alexis longed to be a priest and studied both at seminary and at the University of Presov. He was married and ordained a priest in 1878, but soon afterwards his wife and only child both died. Fr. Alexis immigrated to America in 1889, and was assigned to serve a Slavic community in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Upon his arrival, he reported to the local Roman Catholic bishop, who ultimately protested his non-Roman pastorate and denied him his parish. Because of this, Alexis saw an excellent opportunity to seek formal return to his ancestral Faith. He traveled to San Francisco to meet with the ruling Orthodox hierarch, and in 1891, on the “Sunday of Orthodoxy,” Fr. Alexis and his entire congregation, were received back into the Orthodox Faith. Fr. Alexis later traveled throughout the United States, laboring and encouraging many other Eastern Rite Catholic parishes into reunion with the One True Church. For this reason St. Alexis is given the distinction of “Defender of Orthodoxy in America”.
St. Alexis’ icon shows him as a priest, and in his hand he holds the historic Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in Minneapolis – the first parish to return to Orthodoxy.
