Mar 21, 2011 By Amy Revak 4 min read

A brief encounter nearly eight years ago with a man of God who spent his life trying to bridge a gap between different branches of the same faith left quite an impression with a Bobtown woman.

On May 3, 2003, Ann Toth, who was involved with a historical account of the Darr Mine disaster in Van Meter, Rostraver Township, met Metropolitan Nicholas Smisko at a church rededication in Jacob’s Creek, Westmoreland County.

Also at that meeting was the late Jerry Storey, who was reporting on the event for an area newspaper.

Metropolitan Nicholas died of cancer on March 13 near Johnstown where he served as spiritual leader of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA.

Toth said she felt quite privileged to have an audience with Metropolitan Nicholas, along with Storey. She said both men shared beautiful and patient demeanors.

Metropolitan Nicholas was known for quiet acts of charity and for his efforts to repair the nearly 1,000-year-old schism between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as other divisions among Christian churches.

The church where Toth met Metropolitan Nicholas, named St. Nicholas, had been rebuilt after a fire the year before. The same church is where hundreds of coal miners gathered to worship on Dec. 19, 1907, and survived the mine disaster.

According to reports, the death toll of 239 would have been higher if members of the church had been there that day.

The Monongah Mine exploded on the feast day of St. Nicholas in the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 60 miners, who went to church instead of work because they considered St. Nicholas their patron, were spared that day.

“The reason I went (to the church rededication) was I knew about the church being involved with the Darr Mine disaster,” Toth said. “I was privileged to be right there.”

She said on that day when Jerry Storey interviewed Metropolitan Nicholas, she could see his father, Walter “Buzz” Storey, in him. Buzz Storey was a longtime newsman at the Herald-Standard and Fayette County historian.

She said spending time with both men – Jerry Storey who knew he didn’t have long to live and Metropolitan Nicholas, who had health problems back then – has left quite a memory. She said she thought while seeing the two speak that day that Jerry Storey could have been a bishop if he had so chose.

Jerry Storey died Oct. 3, 2006.

Metropolitan Nicholas was known for co-sponsoring ecumenical services with Bishop Joseph Adamec, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, and Bishop Gregory Pile of the Allegheny Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American. He attended such a service at St. John Gualbert Cathedral in Johnstown as recently as Feb. 13.

“Metropolitan Nicholas made it a point to be there despite being very sick,” said Tony DeGol, a spokesman for the Altoona-Johnstown diocese. “I think that speaks volumes about his commitment to ecumenism and unity.”

Metropolitan Nicholas received a standing ovation when he spoke about church unity at a 2005 memorial Mass for the late Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II.

“John Paul reminded us we are a church of two lungs: East and West. Someday, we will end our division and become one,” Metropolitan Nicholas said at that time.

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches split during a dispute at Constantinople in 1054, and the diocese Metropolitan Nicholas headed also grew out of a smaller schism nearly nine centuries later.

He was born Feb. 23, 1936, in Perth Amboy, N.J. to immigrants from the Carpathian mountains of Eastern Europe. His family had been Eastern Catholic, a branch of the church loyal to the Roman Catholic pope that nonetheless followed some Orthodox practices, including allowing its priests to marry. When the Roman Catholic Church forbade that in 1929, some Catholics left what had been the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh to form the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese that Metropolitan Nicholas would eventually head.

Metropolitan Nicholas graduated from Perth Amboy High School before entering Christ the Savior Seminary in Johnstown. He pastored churches in the Johnstown area and New York City before becoming bishop in 1983. Two years later, he became the ruling bishop in Johnstown and in 1997 was elevated to metropolitan as head of the church’s American branch based in Johnstown.

Metropolitan Nicholas, 75, died at the Windber Hospice, a few miles from Johnstown where he headed the diocese that includes about 10,000 members in 80 congregations nationwide.

Metropolitan Nicholas’ body lied in state Wednesday and Thursday at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Johnstown, where his funeral was held celebrated Friday.

He was buried in Perth Amboy, after viewing and services at St. John’s Orthodox Church on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.