Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena (Johannesburg)

At the end of the 19th century, the Greek diaspora in the territory of the present South African Republic was rapidly expanding, which led to the creation of the first Greek Orthodox community in Johannesburg in 1907 . At the initiative of the faithful in 1912, the construction of the cathedral in the name of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Saints Constantine and Helen was begun. The cathedral was built by the architect Herman Callenbach in southern Hillbrow ^[1] for the Greeks living in this and neighboring areas of Yeovil and Beria. The grand opening of the cathedral took place on January 5, 1913 . The cathedral was built in the Byzantine style, with a roof of three levels and a dome in the middle. It took the Orthodox community six years to raise 3300 pounds for the construction of this temple. Fundraising conducted by the charity association was led by Archimandrite Nicodemus Sarikas and Archimandrite Athanasius Nikolopoulas. The Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helen became the first Orthodox church built in South Africa. In 1928, the Alexandrian Orthodox Church in South Africa opened the vast Johannesburg Metropolis , and the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen became its cathedral ^[2] .

At the church, a center for helping street children and a catechetical school "Patriarch of Alexandria Peter the Great" were created with the parekklision of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irina Lesbosky ^[3] . In the past, the majority of the parishioners were Greeks living in the province of Gauteng , but due to the fact that some parishes do not have their own temples (for example, the parish of blacks - believers from Mamelodi ), representatives of remote regions can be found in the temple.

• Greek Orthodox Church, Hillbrow, 1912
• IOANNOPOLIAN AND PRETORIAN METROPOLY // Orthodox Encyclopedia. Volume XXV. - M .: Church and Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia", 2011. - S. 145-146. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89572-046-2
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