Byzantine Eparchy of Van Nuys Founded 1981

Today marks the founding of the Byzantine Eparchy of Van Nuys, California, in 1981. The first Byzantine Catholic parish in the West was founded in 1956 when a request was made for a Byzantine priest in the Los Angeles area. Father Eugene Chromoga was sent, and the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on November 18, 1956 in Van Nuys. St. Mary’s in Van Nuys was the first Byzantine parish in the West. In the next few years, parishes were founded in Anchorage, Fontana and San Diego. Over the succeeding years, Byzantines migrating to the West, along with others seeking to live the Byzantine Catholic Faith, formed communities and parishes in Phoenix (1968), Anaheim and San Mateo (1969), Sacramento (1968), Albuquerque and Denver (1974), Tucson, and Las Vegas (1977), Spokane (1979), San Jose and San Luis Obispo, CA (1986), Seattle (1981), Gilbert, AZ (1982), Los Gatos, CA (1985), Portland, OR (1988) and Olympia, WA (1989) An mission for Italo-Greek Catholics was established in Las Vegas in 1993. From the beginning of the Van Nuys parish in 1956, Byzantine Catholics in the West were shepherded by the Byzantine Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh. In 1969, they became part of the newly formed Eparchy of Parma (Cleveland), OH. In May 1981, the bishops of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolia met in Pittsburgh to discuss the creation of a new eparchy for the western United States. On December 3, 1981, a new eparchy composed of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming was created. The new eparchy was centered in Van Nuys, and its cathedral would be St. Mary’s Church.
(From the Eparchy website)