Orthodox Christian dating in Wisconsin
Orthodox dating in Wisconsin: Milwaukee and the lakeshore, Madison, Green Bay and the Rusyn north, and how to find a spouse. Free, no subscription.
Create your profileAn illustration, not a data map.
- Greek
- Serbian
- OCA
- ROCOR
- Antiochian
- Monastery
Short answer
Wisconsin's Church has an old north and a big south. In the north, Rusyn and Galician settlers who had come for the promise of land built churches that still stand and still serve: Holy Trinity in Clayton, founded in 1902, rebuilt in brick after a fire in 1920; Holy Assumption in Lublin, founded in 1908, one of the oldest Orthodox churches in continuous use in the state; St Mary in Cornucopia on Lake Superior, organized in 1906 and built in 1910. In the south, Milwaukee has St Sava, the Serbian cathedral of 1912, the Russian parish of Ss Cyril and Methodius of 1927 that turned to English in the 1980s, and the Annunciation, the church Frank Lloyd Wright drew for the Greeks of the city and did not live to see finished. Down the lakeshore, Kenosha's St Nicholas dates from a meeting on 1 May 1912 and Racine's Kimissis from a first liturgy in a Moose hall in November 1916. Madison, Green Bay, La Crosse and Cedarburg have parishes of their own, and two monasteries stand at the ends of the state's story: the Greek St John Chrysostomos in Pleasant Prairie and the newborn St Paul's in Marietta.
Here is what this page leads to: cana.love, a free site for people who want marriage and not a match, whose form asks what a Wisconsin parish would ask you at coffee hour: which church, how many Sundays a month, what you do with the fasts, which of twelve Orthodox jurisdictions is yours. The Serb from 51st Street and the convert from Ravenswood Drive begin from what they keep.
Not an Orthodox-only site. The section below says who else is here.
Orthodox Christians in Wisconsin
The oldest Orthodox parishes in Wisconsin are in its farm country, not its cities. In 1902 Carpatho-Russian immigrants who had come to Polk County for land built a church in Clayton and dedicated it to St Michael the Archangel; the parish records say of them that "they all believed that one cannot live right without God". The church burned in 1920; a brick one was finished in 1921 and consecrated in 1930 as Holy Trinity, and it was one of its early pastors, Fr Karp Pateyuk, who began serving in English because he wanted to learn the language himself. In 1908 Galician settlers in Taylor County founded Holy Assumption in Lublin, where parishioners still drive over an hour to church; in 1906 Slavic families on the Bayfield peninsula began organizing St Mary in Cornucopia, established it in 1909 and built its church in 1910, and it is served today by the clergy of the deanery.
Milwaukee came next. The Serbs founded St Sava in 1912, and it is the cathedral of their diocese in the city; the Russians established Ss Cyril and Methodius on South 30th Street in 1927, watched their own numbers dwindle, and in the early 1980s made the parish an English-language one that draws, in its own words, people from a very wide area and range of backgrounds. The Greeks of Milwaukee commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Annunciation on West Congress Street, designed in 1956 and completed in 1961 after his death, is on the parish site as a building people ask to tour. Down the shore, a meeting in Kenosha on 1 May 1912 founded St Nicholas, and a mutual-aid brotherhood followed the same month; their second priest was also an architect and drew the church that opened in 1930 and has been a Kenosha landmark since 1987. Racine's Greeks organized in 1916, served their first liturgy in a Moose hall on 19 November that year, opened a church on Grand Avenue in 1925 and a new one in 1966.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; national figures, not Wisconsin's
The rest of the state filled in after 1980. St Matthew was founded in Appleton in 1981 at the request of a group of lay people, became a parish in 2003, and in 2014 bought a former Presbyterian church in Green Bay from which it serves the Fox Valley and Door County. Madison's Assumption keeps a Greek Fest each July; La Crosse's St Elias is the Antiochian parish of the Mississippi; Cedarburg's St Nicholas is the Antiochian parish of Milwaukee's northern suburbs. The Russian Church Abroad has Holy Trinity on Warnimont Avenue in Milwaukee, a parish at Edgar and one at Blue River, and missions in Appleton, Madison and Portage. And in 2026 the OCA listed a new monastery, St Paul's at Marietta, a small brotherhood in the bluffs above the Wisconsin River that says it is bringing the Athonite tradition to life in English.
Who fills the newer parishes? The Orthodox Studies Institute went to twenty parishes in six jurisdictions and fifteen states and reported, of the converts received since 2013, that two thirds were under forty when they came in, that the thirties were the commonest decade, and that 44 percent were single at their reception.
Wisconsin was not a separate line in the study, but you will meet its subject at coffee hour on South 30th Street or Ravenswood Drive: raised Lutheran or Catholic or nothing, received as an adult, not yet married. Two parishes on this page were made for that person, and a third remade itself for them.
Five jurisdictions cover the state. The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago has the Annunciation in Milwaukee, Sts Constantine and Helen in Wauwatosa, Kimissis tis Theotokou in Racine, the Assumption in Madison, St Spyridon in Sheboygan and the monastery of St John Chrysostomos in Pleasant Prairie. The Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of the Midwest has Ss Cyril and Methodius in Milwaukee, St Nicholas in Kenosha, St Matthew in Green Bay, Holy Trinity in Clayton, Holy Assumption in Lublin and St Mary in Cornucopia, with chapels in Plymouth, Waukesha and Waupaca, missions in West Bend, Walworth, Janesville and Gilman, and St Paul's Monastery at Marietta. The Antiochian Archdiocese has St Nicholas in Cedarburg and St Elias in La Crosse. The Serbian Orthodox Church's Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America has St Sava Cathedral in Milwaukee, St Nikola in Cudahy and St George in Racine. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has Holy Trinity in Milwaukee, parishes at Edgar and Blue River, a Western Rite parish in Kenosha and three missions. The directory of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops has the rest.
Where the community gathers
Wisconsin's Church is a lakeshore, a capital, a river and a north.
Milwaukee and its suburbs
Milwaukee and its suburbs hold six of the fourteen parishes on this page. The Annunciation is on West Congress Street on the north-west side, Sts Constantine and Helen on Wauwatosa Avenue in Wauwatosa, St Sava Cathedral on South 51st Street and Ss Cyril and Methodius on South 30th Street on the south side, Holy Trinity on Warnimont Avenue in the south-west, St Nicholas in Cedarburg half an hour north up I-43; St Nikola, the second Serbian parish, is in Cudahy on the lake. Everything inside the county is twenty-five minutes from everything else.
The lakeshore south
The lakeshore south of the city is Racine and Kenosha, thirty and forty minutes down I-94: Kimissis tis Theotokou on South Green Bay Road in Racine, St Nicholas on 18th Avenue in Kenosha, and, ten minutes beyond Kenosha, the monastery of St John Chrysostomos on 93rd Street in Pleasant Prairie, at the Illinois line. Half of these parishes' members have cousins in Chicago's parishes an hour further on.
Madison, the river and Green Bay
Madison and the river: the Assumption is on North 7th Street in Madison, ninety minutes west of Milwaukee; St Elias is on Copeland Avenue in La Crosse, two hours further along I-90 on the Mississippi; St Paul's Monastery is in the bluffs at Marietta between them, and the Russian Church Abroad has a parish at Blue River nearby. Green Bay is two hours north of Milwaukee on I-43, with St Matthew on Ravenswood Drive serving the Fox Valley and Door County.
The north
The north is the oldest ground and the emptiest. Holy Trinity is on 1st Street in Clayton, five hours from Milwaukee; Holy Assumption on County Road F outside Lublin, three hours from Green Bay; St Mary on Erie Avenue in Cornucopia, on the shore of Lake Superior, six and a half hours from Milwaukee. Eau Claire, Wausau and Superior have no parish on this page.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
The church Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Greeks of Milwaukee in 1956 and that was finished in 1961 after his death; the parish takes visitors on tours by request.
9400 West Congress StreetMilwaukee
The Greek parish of Wauwatosa, on the west side of the county.
2160 North Wauwatosa AvenueWauwatosa
Founded in 1912; the cathedral of the Serbian diocese in Milwaukee, with a large congregation on the south side.
3201 South 51st StreetMilwaukee
Established as a Russian parish on its present site in 1927; since the early 1980s an English-language parish with a full liturgical schedule.
2505 South 30th StreetMilwaukee
The parish of the Russian Church Abroad in the south-west of the city.
8635 West Warnimont AvenueMilwaukee
The Antiochian parish of Milwaukee's northern suburbs, half an hour up I-43.
N65 W6503 Cleveland StreetCedarburg
Founded at a meeting on 1 May 1912 with a mutual-aid brotherhood beside it; the church its priest-architect designed opened in 1930 and has been a city landmark since 1987.
4313 18th AvenueKenosha
Organized in 1916 with a first liturgy in a Moose hall; on Grand Avenue from 1925, in the present church since the first liturgy of 30 May 1966.
1335 South Green Bay RoadRacine
The Greek parish of the capital, with its Greek Fest each July.
11 North 7th StreetMadison
Founded in Appleton in 1981, a parish since 2003, in a former Presbyterian church in Green Bay since 2014; serves the Fox Valley and Door County.
607 Ravenswood DriveGreen Bay
The Antiochian parish on the Mississippi, in the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest.
716 Copeland AvenueLa Crosse
Founded by Carpatho-Russian settlers in 1902 as St Michael's; the brick church of 1921 was consecrated as Holy Trinity in 1930; its harvest festival is 20 September 2026.
523 1st StreetClayton
Founded in 1908 by Galician settlers, one of the oldest Orthodox churches in continuous use in Wisconsin; some parishioners drive over an hour.
N1249 County Road FLublin
Organized in 1906, established in 1909, built in 1910 by Slavic settlers on Lake Superior; served by the clergy of the Minneapolis deanery.
88340 Erie AvenueCornucopia
Distances that decide everything
A schematic, not a map. Driving times as given in the text.
Wisconsin is tall. Milwaukee to Kenosha is forty minutes down I-94 and to Racine thirty; to Cedarburg half an hour up I-43; to Madison ninety minutes on I-94; to Green Bay two hours on I-43. Madison to La Crosse is two hours on I-90. Milwaukee to Clayton is five hours, to Cornucopia six and a half; Green Bay to Lublin three. The north is a day's drive from the south, and no one dates across it.
Here is the radius that works: the one you would drive on a Sunday and be home by mid-afternoon. In Wisconsin that means Milwaukee with its suburbs and the lakeshore down to Kenosha, which is one search; Madison, or Green Bay and the Fox Valley, each its own; La Crosse and the river; and the north, where a parish is the only parish for an hour in any direction and the search is the parish. Statewide is I-94 and I-43 before every meeting, and the profile is where to say whether that is fine.
The Orthodox year in Wisconsin
Greek festivals
Madison's Assumption keeps its Greek Fest in July; Milwaukee's Annunciation and Racine's Kimissis keep theirs, with the dates on the parish sites. The festival is the weekend a parish opens its doors to the town, and the easiest weekend to walk in unknown.
Church tours
The Annunciation in Milwaukee takes visitors around Wright's church by request; people come for the architecture and meet the parish.
Harvest and slava
Holy Trinity in Clayton keeps its harvest festival on 20 September 2026; St Sava in Milwaukee keeps its slava on 27 January, the feast of St Sava, and a slava is a family feast kept by a whole parish with a place at the table for a guest.
The monasteries
St John Chrysostomos in Pleasant Prairie receives pilgrims from Milwaukee and Chicago alike; St Paul's at Marietta is a new brotherhood in the bluffs with a schedule on its site. A monastery weekend is where people from different parishes meet without a festival tent.
Sunday of Orthodoxy
On the first Sunday of Great Lent the parishes of Milwaukee serve one Vespers together; the host changes from year to year, and Orthodox Life Wisconsin and the parish sites say where.
Diocesan gatherings
The Metropolis of Chicago, the OCA Diocese of the Midwest with its Chicago and Minneapolis deaneries, the Antiochian Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest and the Serbian diocese each keep assemblies, young-adult retreats and clergy-laity meetings, dated on their sites; those are the days Green Bay and Kenosha sit in one room.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
Two miles of Milwaukee's south side separate the Serbian cathedral on 51st Street from the English-language parish on 30th; five hours separate both from the Rusyn church in Clayton. Here is what the cana.love form does about that.
Practice, not labels
It asks about practice. Your parish; the number of Sundays a month you are actually in it; your fasting; whether marriage is what you came for. An Orthodox member picks one of twelve jurisdictions listed by name, OCA, ROCOR, Greek, Antiochian, Serbian, Romanian and six more; Catechumen is one of the twelve, because the study above says that is where many of the people looking are.
Five languages, Russian included
It runs in five languages. English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian, on every page. In Wisconsin that reaches the Serbian of 51st Street and Cudahy, the Russian of Warnimont Avenue, Edgar and Blue River, and the Spanish of Milwaukee's south side; two members writing in different languages can have an optional AI feature translate between them.
Checked before it is visible
It checks before it shows. A profile and every photograph are reviewed before another member sees them, and what the automatic check cannot settle goes to a person. A member who asks another for money loses the account for good, without a warning first.
Free, with no paid tiers
It charges nothing. No subscription, no paid tier, no fee to see who visited you or who liked you, the two things most sites hold back. The optional AI helpers use credits, 150 at registration, with no way to get more for now. Sign-in is a one-time link or code to your email; there is no password.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Catholics, Protestants and people with no confession who want the same kind of marriage are members, and each member's own filters decide whom they see. In a state where a Russian parish remade itself in English for the people around it and two more were founded by them, anything else would be a pose. Here is the promise the site can keep: jurisdiction, practice and intention are questions on the form, and everyone you meet answered them, as you did. The About page has the whole account.
Meeting safely
- Money goes to no one you have not met in person; on cana.love a request for money is a reason to report, and the one who asked is removed permanently.
- Meet first in a public place, with someone you trust told where you are, and keep the conversation on the site until moving it is your own decision.
Reviews, reports and appeals are described on the guidelines page.
Common questions
Is cana.love available in Wisconsin?
Yes. Adults anywhere can join, Wisconsin included; the site runs in the browser of a phone or a computer with nothing to install, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian.
How far should I search in Wisconsin?
Your corner: Milwaukee with the lakeshore to Kenosha, Madison, Green Bay and the Fox Valley, La Crosse, or the north where the parish is the search. Statewide means I-94 or I-43 before every meeting; widen only if you mean it.
Which Orthodox parishes in Wisconsin serve in English?
Most of them now. Ss Cyril and Methodius in Milwaukee made English its language in the early 1980s; St Matthew in Green Bay and the missions of the OCA were founded in it; Holy Trinity in Clayton began serving in English under a pastor who wanted to learn the language himself. The Greek and Serbian parishes serve in Greek or Serbian and English.
Is there an Orthodox monastery in Wisconsin?
Two: the Greek monastery of St John Chrysostomos on 93rd Street in Pleasant Prairie, by the Illinois line, and St Paul the Apostle Monastery of the OCA at Marietta, a small brotherhood listed in 2026.
Where is the oldest Orthodox parish in Wisconsin?
Holy Trinity in Clayton, founded in 1902 by Carpatho-Russian settlers; St Mary in Cornucopia followed in 1906 and Holy Assumption in Lublin in 1908. Milwaukee's St Sava and Kenosha's St Nicholas both date from 1912.
Where can I find every Orthodox parish in Wisconsin?
The directory of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, then the diocesan lists: the Greek Metropolis of Chicago, the OCA Diocese of the Midwest, the Antiochian Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest, the Serbian Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America, the ROCOR Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America; the Orthodox Life Wisconsin site keeps a parish directory for the whole state.
Next steps
Create a profile on cana.love; read the community guidelines before your first message and the About page for who runs the site. Then your corner of Wisconsin, its festival or its slava, and the person.
Reviewed on September 20, 2026.
Photographs, all Wikimedia Commons: The doors of Frank Lloyd Wright's Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Milwaukee — Bmzuckerman, CC BY 4.0 · St Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral on South 51st Street, Milwaukee — Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain · The eave of the dome of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Milwaukee — Bmzuckerman, CC BY 4.0 · St Nicholas Orthodox Church on 18th Avenue, Kenosha — Twinferry, CC BY 4.0 · Holy Assumption Orthodox Church outside Lublin, Taylor County — Jeff the quiet, CC0