Saint Sevastijan Dabović

Archimandrite Sevastijan (Sebastian, Serbian Cyrillic: Архимандрит Севастијан, secular name John Dabovich or Jovan Dabović; June 9, 1863 – November 30, 1940) was a Serbian-American monk and missionary who became the first Serbian Orthodox monk naturalized in North America. He is canonized as a Serbian Orthodox saint. Sevastijan Dabović was born on 9 July 1863 in San Francisco, California, as the child of Serbian immigrants from the town of Risan in the Bay of Kotor. At his baptism, he was named Jovan. Later, he was ordained as a monk (Sebastijan) during his schooling in Russia and became a hierodeacon in 1887, and a hieromonk on August 16, 1892. In 1892, Sebastian was ordained as the first native-born Orthodox priest in the United States. He was soon sent to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to replace Fr. Alexis Toth as the priest of St. Mary's Church there. The first Serbian Orthodox parish in the United States was founded by Dabović in Jackson, California, in 1892. Dabović soon initiated the construction of the first Serbian Orthodox church in the United States, the Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Jackson, which was consecrated in 1894. Dabović is also credited with founding several additional Serbian Orthodox churches in the United States. Dabović was appointed as a missionary in California and Washington. It is believed that he baptized more people than any priest in the Western Hemisphere. Dabović's friend Nikolaj Velimirović called him the "greatest Serbian missionary of modern times". Some of the places where he did this include Seattle, Washington (the future St. Spiridon Cathedral), where he served as a temporary priest before Fr. Ambrose Vretta's arrival in November 1895; Portland, Oregon; and Butte, Montana (the future Holy Trinity Church). He was known as an apostle to émigré Serbs who settled in America. During the turn of the century, Sebastian corresponded with Rev. Francis J.