View source for St. Sophia Cathedral (Los Angeles, California)

[[Image:StSophiaLosAngeles.JPG|right|thumb|300px|St. Sophia Cathedral, Los Angeles, California - west and south entrances]]
'''Saint Sophia Cathedral''' (Greek: ''Hagia Sophia'', meaning ''[[Holy Wisdom]]'') in the Byzantine-Latino Quarter of Los Angeles, California, is a [[cathedral]] in the [[Metropolis of San Francisco]] of the [[Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America]]. Having become head of "Fox West Coast" in the Hollywood cinema industry, Charles Skouras built St. Sophia in 1952 to [[Votive Offerings|fulfill a vow to God]] to build a majestic cathedral if he were successful in the show industry.

St. Sophia Cathedral is located in the Pico district in the western part of the city of Los Angeles. Construction of the cathedral began in 1948 and was completed in 1952. The inspiration behind the design of the cathedral was that of the original [[Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)|Hagia Sophia]] in Constantinople. The original design for Los Angeles, however, was scaled back significantly, yet still produced an impressive [[church]]. While the exterior is simple, the interior is full of light, mirroring Orthodox thought that the interior of the human being should be light.

The cathedral has a [[cross|cruciform]] design, built with consideration of the seismic activity in earthquake-prone southern California. A "Hollywood" flair is present in the furnishings of the interior.
[[Image:St. Sophia Los Angeles.jpg|left|thumb|250px|St. Sophia Cathedral, Los Angeles, California]]
When the cathedral was completed in 1952, the area around it was ethnically Greek. Since then, the population of the neighborhood has changed. To accommodate this change, Spanish has been introduced along with Greek and English in the services. The 36th Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, held in 2002, convened at the cathedral under the theme of ''Offering Orthodox Faith to Contemporary America''. It included a liturgy in the three languages, with children from the Orthodox orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, providing musical responses. 

==External links==
*[http://www.stsophia.org/ Official parish site]
*[[w:Saint Sophia (Los Angeles)|''Saint Sophia (Los Angeles)'' at Wikipedia]]
*[http://www.seeing-stars.com/Churches/SaintSophia.shtml Seeing Stars: Churches of the Stars: Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral]
*[http://www.patrides.com/jun03/enstsoph.htm Orthodox Church Changes to Meet Needs] by Maria Fotopoulos
*[http://www.clergylaity.org/archives/2002/ 36th Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress and National Philoptochos Convention, June 30 &ndash; July 4, 2002, Los Angeles, California]

[[Category:Churches|Sophia]]
[[Category:USA Churches|Sophia]]
[[Category:California Churches|Sophia]]