Orthodox Christians also sing of the triumph of the cross each September as they celebrate the Sunday of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross. In vespers for that day, ...

Cross explained that the tiny Russian Byzantine Catholic Church was formed by Russian Orthodox who saw the pope, the bishop of Rome, as an essential element for the fullness of orthodoxy.

As a result, thousands of U.S. Byzantine Rite Catholics defected to the Russian Orthodox church. The majority of Cleveland's early Russian Orthodox churches were built by these former Byzantine Rite ...