We were familiar with St. Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn. We had heard about him as we entered the church as Antiochian Orthodox Christians. Then, we celebrated him on the feast of All Saints of North America, the second Sunday after Pentecost, when we attended the Orthodox Church of America. However, we didn’t feel a unique connection with this beloved saint until this past June. It was then that I was attending a writer’s conference at the Antiochian Village in Pennsylvania. We came to meet other Orthodox writers and learn about how to improve our craft. On the last day, my friend Edna called me to visit the museum on the other side of the guest rooms.

“You need to come see this,” she said. “One of your relatives is on display over here.”

“That’s strange?” I said to myself. “What’s a Nasrallah going to discover about one of her relatives in southwestern Pennsylvania?”

After saying goodbye to fellow writers and packing our bags into the car, we walked over to the Antiochian Heritage Museum and there I learned of the beautiful connection our family has with Saint Raphael. Along one of the walls was an exhibit about a parishioner at one of Saint Raphael’s churches in New York, Nicola Nasrallah. Like my husband’s relatives, Nicola was born in Syria and came to the United States looking for a better life and religious freedom. Unfortunately, after a visit to their homeland, Nicola and his wife made the ill-fated decision to buy second-class tickets on the Titanic. According to the article posted at the museum, Nicola perished in the tragic sinking, but his wife, Adele, survived. Adele was able to recover his personal belongings from his body found off the coast of Nova Scotia. Those personal items from his pockets were on display along with photos and a brief article about Nicola’s funeral. Saint Raphael officiated at Nicola’s well-attended funeral on May 3, 1912.

A week after the conference, at the Nasrallah Family Reunion, it was confirmed that Nicola was indeed our distant cousin and a brother in the faith. Immediately, I felt a spiritual connection with our cousin and Saint Raphael. These were our people.

I thought I was going to Pennsylvania to learn how to become a successful writer, but instead, what I learned was more valuable. I discovered an Orthodox relative, a saint that I never paid much attention to, and a family connection that reminds me that we live in a small but connected world. God revealed to me that the loving actions of a single person can ripple many generations into the future, as it did when Saint Raphael traveled through the Americas to gather and minister to his flock. The zeal, love and devotion Saint Raphael practiced among his parishioners blessed a generation of believers who now bless us with those same virtues. May God grant it so with us.

Thankfully, before we left, I was able to see and venerate Saint Raphael at his grave site at the Village, an experience I will not soon forget.

Learn more about St. Raphael