Priest wonders who would want to vandalize a Louis Sullivan-designed cathedral, a place devoted to peace and love

Light from the just-risen sun streamed in through the stained glass into the church, illuminating the golden halos of the fourth century bishops, various saints and the Christ figure decorating the walls.

A faint odor of incense lingered.

In the center, stood the Rev. Alexander Koranda, wearing a black cassock and a matching pointed skufia covering his head. A heavy silver cross hung from his neck.

“It is an incredible time because you are really greeting the day. The sun is coming up. It’s piercing through the windows, which is fantastic,” said Koranda, 33, a married father of three small children.

But there was no sunlight at all in the bell tower of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, a 120-year-old jewel of a building in Ukrainian Village designed by Louis Sullivan — one of only two houses of worship the architect designed. Plywood covered the bell tower’s stained-glass windows. On Jan. 26, vandals hurled rocks and broke the glass. Koranda arrived that morning to find shattered glass, twisted lead and crumbled plaster lying in the bell tower.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The cathedral — for which Sullivan, writing in 1900, quoted a $16,000 price tag to build — has recently undergone a series of costly renovations, including work on all of the windows. Koranda said it will likely cost about $5,000 to repair the three windows.

“More frustrating than the amount of time and money we spent on it, is that we do a lot of things here for the community. ... We have a lot of people who love this place,” Koranda said. “It’s disheartening because whoever did that maybe doesn’t realize how much love there is here for people in the community.”

Koranda said the cathedral has no surveillance video, and he’s not hopeful anyone will be arrested for the crime.

He doesn’t know who would want to target the cathedral. The original parishioners were immigrants from Slavic countries. A plaque on the front of the church refers to its founding in 1892 as “St. Vladimir’s Russian Orthodox Church.” Sullivan’s design reflects that heritage, with its gleaming onion domes and octagonal steeple. But the design also blends Byzantine and Celtic-like details.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

At the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, passersby would sometimes yell at Koranda as he was locking up the church for the day, he said. Some came inside the church — sometimes yelling in English, sometimes in Ukrainian.

Some would mention their hatred for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Others would ask why Koranda hadn’t spoken publicly about the church’s opposition to the war.

“Our position is always for peace. So we don’t support war by any means. We have no political agenda here at all,” he said.

The neighborhood has seen lots of ups and downs through the years, he said.

“There has been a carjacking and a couple of muggings just on this street alone,” he said.

Koranda spoke of the 12-step programs the church offers, a weekly hot meal offered to homeless people, prayers his congregation says for people all across the globe and the giant, unlocked chest filled with clothes that sits on the sidewalk outside the church.

On a recent Friday, an elderly woman stood in the snow and pawed through the chest. She was searching for clothing for friends, she said, as well as for herself. At one point, she reached in and pulled out a blue-and-white woolen scarf. She smiled as she whirled the scarf around her neck.

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