St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine was consecrated Monday (July 4) in New York City. The original church, founded in 1916 on nearby Cedar Street in lower Manhattan, was destroyed in the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11. 

“The rebuilding of Saint Nicholas as a Shrine for the Nation is also an act of restoration,” said Archbishop Elpidophoros, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, in an encyclical released on Sunday. 

The restoration had been stalled for many years, due to ongoing issues with funding. Since 2019, the rebuilding project has been funded and overseen by the Friends of Saint Nicholas, a nonprofit group that includes the Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, the former vicar general of the Greek archdiocese who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom later this week.