An instruction book on the Law of God, for students both children and adults, learning the Orthodox Faith. The Law of God refers to both God’s Divine laws for man, as well as the fundamental principles and subjects which all Orthodox Christians should know, including prayer, the creation of the world and the purpose of man, the holy scriptures, church history, and catechism. In layman’s terms, it can be thought of as “Orthodoxy 101”

What makes this book particularly special is the fact that it’s a literary monument to the age of “American Rus’”, written by one of its greatest representatives.

The author, Protopresbyter Peter Kohanik of Blessed Memory was one of the greatest priests in Americans ecclesiastical history, a member of that great generation which was instrumental in the growth of American Orthodoxy—most importantly and without exaggeration—he literally wrote the book on it, his work “Начало Исторіи Американской Руси / The Beginning of the History of American Rus’” may be considered the first chronicle of Orthodoxy in America. In his work, Fr. Peter rightfully identified St. Alexis Toth as the “Приснопамятный Батько Американской Руси // Ever-Memorable Father of American Orthodoxy” decades before his eventual canonization. Indeed, in many ways his work proved to be prophetic, as St. Alexis was later lauded for his “apostolic labors” by the Orthodox Church in America, cementing the role of the Rusyn saint in the delivery of the Orthodoxy Faith to the American lands, especially the “lower 48 states”. Father Peter himself can be considered both the result of the fruits of Toth’s labors, and a spiritual successor, taking up the torch. Fr. Peter was born in 1880, in Becherov, Slovakia, and later immigrated to the US. He has the interesting distinction of receiving a seminary education in Imperial Russia before being married in his Rusyn homeland and returning to America, where he came to serve in the Russia Metropolia, which became the OCA.

Known for his commanding presence and vision, as well as his Russophile orientation, Fr. Peter was heavily involved in publications of both theological and historical material concerning the Carpatho-Russian peoples and their role in Orthodox Rus’, and served the church good and faithfully. He was notably the long-time pastor of the Church of St. John in Passaic New Jersey. He pioneered writing about Orthodoxy in English for the diaspora, and this bilingual book on the Law of God was one of his many works.