Saint Anne Byzantine Catholic Church

Saint Anne Byzantine Catholic Church is a Catholic Christian parish of the Byzantine Ruthenian Tradition located in the City of San Luis Obispo, California. It was founded in 1986. It is a parish of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix.HistoryThe history of the Byzantine Catholic Church on the Central Coast of California began in the early 1950s when the Petrick, Kubek and Bereczky families settled in San Luis Obispo. Father Anthony Kubek maintained his own private chapel, and for many years celebrated the Divine Liturgy for his family and other interested people. Father Eugene Bereczky also celebrated the Divine Liturgy at his own private chapel in San Luis Obispo during this era to support the needs of the small Eastern Catholic community. After the passing of Frs. Kubek and Bereczky, the community was ministered to for its sacramental needs by visiting priests from the former Pittsburgh Greek Catholic Exarchate including Father Joseph Ridella, Father Eugene Chromoga and Father John Lucas.With the close of World War II, Eastern Catholics whose ancestors had settled and helped to establish parishes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and the Northeast were now migrating to the Western States. By the mid 1980s, former parishioners of the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Sherman Oaks and the Church of the Annunciation in Anaheim who had relocated to the Central Coast of California requested a priest from the Eparchy of Van Nuys to serve their spiritual needs. In 1986, Most Reverend Thomas Dolinay, the first Bishop of Van Nuys, sent his secretary, Father Edmund M. Idranyi, to ascertain the feasibility of beginning a new mission on the Central Coast.