Back then, $1,600 purchased downtown property and 50-cent donations built a church, establishing Greek Orthodoxy in Utah and galvanizing community spirit.

"One of the first things our people did was establish the church," says Father Michael Kouremetis, head priest of the Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Salt Lake. "We were strangers in a strange country and had to gravitate to each other to survive."

One hundred years after the Oct. 29, 1905, consecration of the first Holy Trinity Church, later sold but originally located at 439 W. 400 South, the Greek Orthodox community of the Salt Lake Valley has more than survived. It now has cause to celebrate.

And next weekend - by way of festive meals, music, dance, historical presentations, liturgy and a gala affair - community members, friends and dignitaries will pay tribute to the faith, heritage, language and collective memories that bind them.

"Greek culture, by its nature, is very communal," says Manoli Sargetakis, chairman of the organizing committee. "We're excited to show ourselves what we're capable of."

Thousands of Greek fathers, husbands and sons came to Utah in the early 20th century. They were part of a mass exodus of more than 350,000 Greek men and boys who left the economic depression and political unrest of their homeland to earn a living elsewhere.

Labor agents such as Leonidas Sklirlis, known as the "Czar of the Greeks," beckoned immigrants to the Intermountain West with promises of mining and railroad work. And while many men toiled in these industries, facing discrimination and substandard work conditions, once they began to settle in Utah, they set out to pave their own way. Salt Lake City's Greek Town - then located along 200 South, 300 South and 400 South between 100 West and 600 West - became a bustling center. Greek-owned businesses, which included bakeries, drug stores and saloons, sprouted up in the city.

With the church's establishment came social clubs, dance groups, choirs and educational services. By the mid-1970s, the annual Greek Festival brought the culture's vibrancy to the masses. It now draws about 40,000 visitors a year.

Today, members of the community are represented in all fields, not least the restaurant industry. Estimates of between 40 and 60 restaurants in Salt Lake City alone are Greek-owned. Everything from the state's oldest restaurant, Lamb's Grill Cafe, to Crown Burger.

It's a Friday afternoon at Aristo's, on 1300 East, where Sargetakis, 44, and the owner embrace as old friends. Over heaping plates of dolmas, spanakopita and racks of lamb - "You'll never see a Greek die of anorexia," Sargetakis quips - he talks about the journey that brought him here.

His two grandfathers arrived in 1907, with hopes that they'd be able to support their families. One grandfather, Joseph Sargetakis, was among the 172 miners - 50 were Greek - who died in Carbon County's 1924 Castle Gate No. 2 Mine explosion. His wife, whom he wed in an arranged marriage, wore black the rest of her life.

Manoli Sargetakis grew up in Salt Lake City, regularly going to church and attending evening Greek school in addition to his regular classes. And although his wife is not Greek, the couple plan to give their two young children a similar sense of belonging.

"At one time, we could only associate with our kind. . . . Kids growing up [now] have so many choices," he says. "In Greece, the church is state sponsored. Here, if you want [the connection], you have to make an effort."

From the looks of church attendance, plenty do.

Hundreds of faithful, young and old, flock into Holladay's Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church on a recent Sunday morning. The smell of burning incense and the sounds of Byzantine chants stream from the nave as churchgoers light prayer candles and honor framed icons with kisses.

They've come for the divine liturgy and to receive the Holy Eucharist. The parishioners, including many small children wearing crucifixes, bow their heads and cross themselves as Kouremetis, dressed in elaborate vestments, swings the clanging metal censer toward them. The sweet fragrance of the burning incense is meant to usher their prayers to the heavens.

Cayden Zachary Mudrock, almost 2, munches on his sacred bread and hums along with his grandmother, Liberty Mudrock, who holds him. The towheaded boy points to the candles that glow in the back of the church, repeating the words, "I light, I light." He throws his head back to take in the stain-glassed windows and the icon that looms above.

"That's Jesus," his grandmother whispers.

The Sunday schools at both Greater Salt Lake parish churches - Holy Trinity Cathedral, at 300 South and 300 West, and Prophet Elias - are "bursting at the seams," Kouremetis says. Additionally, about 100 students attend regular Greek school classes, offered three times a week.

Adjacent to Prophet Elias is the Saint Sophia Hellenic Orthodox School, the only parochial school of its kind in Utah. Ninety-six preschool to sixth-grade students - about 75 percent are Greek Orthodox - are enrolled.

A pack of uniformed students belts out a Greek song, rehearsing for "Ochi Day" - the Oct. 28 Greek national day that commemorates Gen. Ioannis Metaxas' refusal to give Italy's Benito Mussolini free access to invade Greece during World War II. "Ochi" means "no" in Greek.

Photographs from Greece, a blown-up image of the blue and white national flag and colorful tip sheets offering Greek words for foods, emotions and body parts decorate Saint Sophia's walls.

"I feel like I've struck gold. My children have so much more opportunity than I had as a child," gushes Andrea Giamalakis, a school parent, the school's development coordinator and a religion teacher who grew up in small-town Montana. "Their education is encompassed in Hellenic Orthodox culture. . . They're going to learn their ABCs, and learn it in Greek, too."

Mike Korologos, 68, reflects on his own Greek school travails. He went to Holy Trinity for classes, two hours, five nights a week. "If you weren't in Greek school, you caught holy hell at home," he laughs.

Korologos' father, Christ Korologos, arrived at Ellis Island in 1916. He was a lone teen, with a simple note - courtesy of a labor agent - pinned to his shirt. It read: "Take me to Bingham County, Utah."

To help honor the courage of immigrants like his father, Korologos co-edited a new book, 100 Years of Faith and Fervor: A History of the Greek Orthodox Church Community Of Greater Salt Lake City, Utah 1905-2005, which will be unveiled next weekend.

Its author, Constantine Skedros, sits in the library of the Hellenic Cultural Association. Behind him are titles that include The Dialogues of Plato, Byzantine Hymnology, The History of Greek Art and Baseball's Golden Greeks. Boxes hold documents he has accumulated. Aged photographs taken in Salt Lake City - documenting funerals, weddings and former Greek businesses - are spread out before him.

Skedros, an 82-year-old retired West High history teacher of more than 30 years, is an avid chronicler of the Greek Orthodox community. He began combing through dusty files and books, collecting minutes from meetings, and clipping relevant obituaries and articles soon after his military service in World War II. The commemorative book is a mere sampling of all he's gathered.

"I used to spend hours and hours in the public library," leafing through old Salt Lake City directories to find Greek names, dating back to 1900, he explains. "I've enjoyed all of this. I have no regrets. . . . I just felt deeply that someone should preserve the past and pass it on."

His parents, both immigrants, taught him to value the Greek Orthodox Church as a link to culture, faith, language and community. His father helped start the first church choir and was a correspondent for Greek-language newspapers. His mother taught at the Greek school, housed in the church.

Skedros passed on the same ethos to his own children - the belief that through the Greek Orthodox Church, Greek-Americans - or American-Greeks - can find the touchstone of their rich heritage and mother tongue.

But he knows that with each passing generation, the tie to what once was may weaken.

"I'm a realist. I can see what's happening," he says. "I can't foretell what my grandchildren will be doing 25 years from now. . . . I don't expect [them] to carry the Greek flag. But I do want them to be good Greek Orthodox."

To appreciate where they come from, at least in some sense. That's what Skedros wants.

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Contact Jessica Ravitz at jravitz@sltrib.com or 801-257-8776. Send comments about this story to religioneditor@sltrib .com.

Experience a Greek Orthodox service, while celebrating the community's milestone

l Hierarchical Divine Liturgy - Oct. 30 at 10 a.m. at Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver will lead the service.

l To learn more, watch "Utah's Greek-Americans," a documentary airing tonight at 8 on KUED Channel 7.

View a photo gallery online

l See http://www.sltrib.com/faith

Celebrating 100 years