We have never known of any motion picture footage of St John Maximovitch, or of St Philaret of New York other than that a few brief seconds… until now. This recently discovered silent film footage features three sections:
1. The laying of the foundation of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Protection of the Holy Virgin (Palo Alto, California), which was conducted by St. John of San Francisco.
2. The blessing of the cupola and its installation conducted by various clergy.
3. The consecration of the church conducted by the holy hierarchs Metropolitan St Philaret, Archbishop St John and Bishop Nektary of Seattle, with numerous other clergy.
GOCTV has corrected the speed of the footage so that the motion appears more natural. No other alterations have been made.
When GOCTV wrote to the original publisher of this film and asked if we could share it here on our channel, we also asked where the footage was found. We received the this gracious reply:
“I discovered an old tape recording while helping to clean someone’s garage storage. I restored it and converted it to a digital format. Don’t know the origin of it. And yes, feel free to share it. Thanks.”
The original publisher’s channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQE1_iBiBGg.
