How was the Byzantine Rite formed? As the Apostles went forth and spread the Gospel to different parts of the world, they incorporated the customs and music of the different regions into the liturgy. Four great centers of Christianity emerged with distinctive Christian customs but the same faith in Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome and Alexandria. A couple of centuries later on May 11, 330 AD the capital of the Roman Empire was moved to the Eastern city of Byzantium and subsequently renamed Constastantinople in honor of Pope Constantine I, the Great. A liturgy based on an adaptation of the Antiochian liturgy was developed as the new center of Christianity arose in Constantinople. This new ritual became commonly known as the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church.

The Byzantine Rite originated at Constantinople during the fourth and fifth centuries and by the ninth century Saints Cyril and Methodius were evangelizing in the region of Carpatho-Rus, the present day Ukraine area. They promoted the use of the ancient Slavonic language in worship and established what was known as "spiritual song" that has been handed down through the centuries. From Constantinople the Slavic peoples of the region of Carpatho-Rus (the present day Ukraine area) were evangelized by Saints Cyril and Methodius and as a result naturally followed the Byzantine Rite. Within the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church there are fourteen traditions or churches including the: Albanian, Bulgarian, Byelorussian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Italo-Albanian, Krizevci, Melkite, Romanian, Russian, Ruthenian, Slovak and Ukrainian Catholic traditions. Saint Anne Byzantine Catholic Church is part of the Byzantine Ruthenian tradition. While Byzantine Ruthenian Christians were long separated from the Catholic Church they entered back into perfect communion with the Holy See principally in 1596 AD (Union of Brest-Litovsk) and 1646 AD (Union of Uzhorod).

Historically Ruthenia is a geographic and culturo-ethnic name applied to parts of Eastern Europe populated by Eastern Slavic peoples, and to the various states that once existed in these territories. Essentially, the word is a Latin rendering of the ancient place-name "Rus". Some of its inhabitants who did not adopt a Ukrainian national identity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries continue to identify themselves as Rusyns even now. The historical territory of ancient Rus in the broadest sense in today's world is formed with parts of the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, a small part of northeastern Slovakia and a narrow strip of eastern Poland.

Many Byzantine Ruthenian Catholics came to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and settled in the mining towns of the Eastern and Midwestern United States. During and after World War II, some migrated to the Western United States. In response to this movement, Holy Father Pope John Paul II established the Byzantine Catholic Diocese of Van Nuys in 1982 to care for the Byzantine Catholics of the Western United States. The Van Nuys Eparchy (relocated to Phoenix Arizona following the Northridge Earthquake of 1994) is part of the Metropolitan Province of Pittsburgh which also includes the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and the Eparchies of Passaic and Parma.