A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

SA

 

People Directory

Vinka Ellesin

Vinka Ellesin was a folk singer who sang Serbian music in the sevdalinka style. The national Serbian community referred to her as the "Queen of Sevdalinka". She was born to Serbian immigrants, Djoka and Sophia (Soka) Ellesin, in Akron, Ohio around 1921. By the age of 16, she was singing on a nationally broadcast radio show on WADC. Later, she performed at the Black Whale, a well-known club in Cleveland. In 1938, the bandleader Sammy Kaye invited her to audition to be the lead vocalist in his orchestra, but she turned him down, preferring to continue singing Serbian folk music instead. During World War II, Ellesin performed at the Blue Danube and the Russian Samovar in Detroit, Mich. where she lived. Ellesin stayed in the Pittsburgh area for an extended period of time in the early 1950s while she performed nightly at the Sunrise Inn in Monroeville, Pa. During the 1930s through the 1970s, Ellesin toured throughout North America and Australia while returning to Pittsburgh many times to perform at local Serb National Federation events.

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Publishing

History, Truth, Holiness

by Bishop Maxim Vasiljevic

Bishop Maxim’s first book, described by Fr. John Breck as an “exceptionally important collection of essays” contributing to both the theology of being and also contemporary theological questions, is now available! Christos Yannaras describes Bishop Maxim as “a theologian who illumines” and Fr. John McGuckin identifies his work as “deeply biblical and patristic, academically learned yet spiritually rich.” The first half of the book collects papers emphasizing theological ontology and epistemology, reminding us how both the mystery of the Holy Trinity and that of the Incarnation demand that we rethink every philosophical supposition; it includes chapters on holiness as otherness, truth and history, and the biochemistry of freedom. The second half of the book features lectures dedicated to the theological questions posed by modern theology, including studies of Orthodox and Roman Catholic ecclesiology, liturgics, and the theology of icons.