St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church (Southbridge)

St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church is a historic parish at 126 Morris Street in Southbridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1912. According to its own history, it stands as the first church built specifically for the celebration of the Divine services in the Albanian language — a distinction that anchors its place in Albanian-American religious history.

The parish belongs to the Albanian Archdiocese, within the Massachusetts Deanery. Public Orthodox directories list Fr. John G. Daly Jr. as head priest. The phone number on file with local listings is (508) 764-6226, and the parish maintains a website at stnicholasma.org along with a Facebook group used for community updates.

Parish life centers on Orthodox worship: Divine Liturgy, sacraments, and the rhythm of the church year. The community describes itself as believers committed to a shared life, learning to love God, each other, and the world through the practice of their faith. Recorded services posted online, including one from January 2023, document an active liturgical schedule using traditional Orthodox chant.

The parish was formed by Albanian immigrants who settled in south-central Massachusetts in the early twentieth century. The 1960 Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the Albanian Archdiocese preserves photos of the Southbridge Church Committee from 1958 and the First Southbridge Church Choir from 1916, showing organized Albanian-Orthodox communal life in the town for more than a century. Today the church continues to serve Albanian-Americans and their neighbors in Southbridge and the surrounding region.