Faiths of our Fathers and Mothers, Part 1. Andy Zett Byzantine/Greek Catholic
As I've learned via my book and podcast, my multi-faith, multi-ethnic family heritage confuses people. A lot!
That prompted me to start writing the religious biographies of some of my ancestors. Religion, place, and time factor heavily into any family history. And I'm talking more about the cultural influence of various religions, not one's personal faith.
So, I'm doing a visual mashup and a bit of writing for each ancestor's religion to see what happens.
I never knew my grandfather, Andy Zett (Andreas Zid), but I sometimes wonder what life would have been like had I been raised in his Greek Catholic/Byzantine Catholic faith. Maybe I would have gone to Byzantine High School in Parma, Ohio, instead of the public school I attended. (BTW: my best friend and I always attended Byzantine's dances because she thought the boys were cuter!)
Born in Olsavica in eastern Slovakia, Andy Zett was a Carpatho-Rusyn, speaking the Rusyn language (along with Slovak and most likely Hungarian). The Rusyn language is often written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which you can see in the photo of his church's cornerstone.
Andy brought his Byzantine religious traditions when he immigrated to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1899 at age 16. He joined St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church in the heart of the Rusyn community in what is known as Cambria City.
In 1906, he married my Slovak Catholic grandmother, Julianna Vrabel, who belonged to nearby St. Stephen's Church. While intermarriage between the Byzantine and Roman Catholics was perhaps uncommon then, it reflected the first of many interweavings of culture and faith in my family.
Though my grandfather remained affiliated with St. Mary's, he and my grandmother mostly raised their 10 children (8 surviving) as Roman Catholics. But hints of his heritage persisted in whispered prayers, icons, phrases, and holidays where the rituals seemed a mix of old and new.
The coal mines exacted a terrible toll, contributing to his untimely death in 1935. Although he is buried near his wife in St. Stephen's Cemetery, he held firm to his original faith.
I know him only through our family's unique blend of various religions and practices of Eastern Slovakia. Still, I wish I could have heard his languages, sang the hymns, and tasted his Easter foods. For now, I can only catch a glimpse of him in archives imagining the immigrant boy he was, bringing the ancient rites of the Carpathians to the fresh soil of a new land.
St. Mary’s Byzantine Church, Johnstown, PA
