The Holy Dormition of the Theotokos Russian Orthodox Parish and Cemetery, Benld IL

I’ve never heard of this until now, so after a little digging, here’s what I came up with. It’s pretty fascinating if you ask me.

“The Holy Dormition of the Theotokos is an Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church started by approximately 40 Russian immigrants who settled in Benld, Illinois.”

“The church was built in 1907, rebuilt after a fire in 1915 and renovated in 1989. The parish has become a historical site because it was the only Russian Orthodox Parish under the Moscow Patriarchate in the state of Illinois.”

The Russian Orthodox church in Benld opened in 1901 “to serve the immigrant mining community,” and was converted to a monastery for the Russian Orthodox church in 2010.

The town itself was only founded in 1903. It’s about an hour North-East of St. Louis along I-55 and has a population of 1,464.

Benld is also famous for being the site of a rare meteorite landing in 1938. The meteorite smashed through the roof of a garage and embed itself in the seat of a 1928 Pontiac coupe; it also happened to be only about 50 feet away from a neighbor who probably pissed his pants.

The meteorite and the seat are on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.