Sacral Submergence Resurrects a Century-Old Downtown Tradition
As the temperature hovered just above freezing at midday on Sunday, January 12, and a breeze made the Lower Manhattan air feel even colder, it seemed like a safe bet that nobody on the esplanade was thinking, “what a great day for a swim.” But that would have been a losing wager. For there on a dock in North Cove stood nine brave men in swimsuits. A fleece-and-down-clad audience gathered, some pious, some merely curious.
The men looked to their left in unison, watching a robed priest on the dock raise a large ornate cross. Prayers were recited; the crowd and the water were blessed in words heard more often on the waterfront of Mykonos than Manhattan. Then the priest launched the jeweled cross through the air and into the frigid Hudson water. Without hesitation, the nine men dove in after it. Seconds later, Logan Triantafillou surfaced, grinning and holding the crucifix high.
Recalling the scene a day later, Father Andreas Vithoulkas, presiding priest of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine (also Reverend Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne, and a Lower Manhattan resident), chuckled. “Logan got the cross and was celebrating in the water, but the other guys were saying, ‘okay, okay, let’s get out now,’” he said.
In the days when the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church held services in a tiny, 22-foot-wide building in a parking lot next to the World Trade Center, church officials would host a cross-throwing procession to the Hudson River every year in January. Marking Theophany in the Greek Orthodox calendar (also known as Epiphany), crosses are thrown into the water and retrieved to commemorate the baptism of Jesus and to symbolize renewal. The ritual began in Lower Manhattan when Greek immigrants established the church on Cedar Street in 1916. “It’s a tradition that all Orthodox practice throughout the world,” Father Andreas said.
When the World Trade Center towers fell on September 11, 2001, St. Nicholas Church was crushed. Miraculously, no one from the clergy, staff, or congregation was killed. The church reopened two years ago as a glowing, domed cathedral in Liberty Park, the elevated plaza at the World Trade Center site. The cross-throwing ceremony did not restart until this year.
Father Andreas was pleased with the event and its celebratory outcome, having been warned by FDNY officials, who stood by (just in case), to allow only divers under a certain age to participate. All nine men — one with a silvery mane, the rest dark-haired — climbed out of the water in good spirits. “All of us are in the process of renewal and rejuvenation,” Father Andreas said. “Happy New Year.”