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Nicholas Bjerring was born in 1831 in Vejle, Denmark. His father was an official in the city of Vejle. Bjerring was educated in Vejle and studied philosophy and theology in the University of Breslau. He was active in the Roman Catholic schools in Europe and performed missionary work in Lapland. In 1868, he came to the United States to be a teacher at St. Alphonsus in Baltimore, Maryland. It has been mistakenly thought that he was a professor of philosophy and history at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, but he never actually taught at that seminary. He married while still a Roman Catholic and was the father of three children when he was received into the Orthodox Church.
Bjerring left the Roman Catholic Church in 1870 in protest of the adoption of the [[dogma ]] of papal infallibility, stating his position on a letter of [[January 24]], 1870 to Pope Pius IX. Nicholas Bjerring had become interested in Orthodox Christianity through reading a scholarly journal, ''L'Union Chretienne''. After careful consideration, in early 1870 he petitioned the [[Holy Synod]] of Russia to be received into the Orthodox Church. Receiving his letter, the Synod requested him to appear in person before them. On [[May 3]], 1870, he was received into the Orthodox Church in ceremonies in the [[chapel]] of the St. Petersburg Academy. He was then ordained to the [[diaconate]] on [[May 6]] and to the [[priest]]hood on [[May 9]] by Metr. Isodore of St. Petersburg and [[Novgorod]]. Bjerring served his first [[liturgy]] in German on [[May 17]] in the academy chapel. He was then directed to establish a church in New York City.
In the meantime, in 1864, Rev. Dr. John Young Freeman had visited Metr. Filaret of Moscow on behalf of the Russo-Greek Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church. This meeting dealt with establishment of an Orthodox center in the northeastern United States which could provide a place for Orthodox rites to be experienced in the proper setting. The assignment of Fr. Nicholas to New York was fortuitous and appeared to have supported Rev. Freeman’s request.