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Holy
Myrrhbearers Monastery was founded in 1977 with the first Divine Liturgy we
celebrated as a community on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearers. That service
was celebrated by Father Tom Hopko in St. Sergius of Radonezh Chapel
at the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America, where we first lived and
worked. During
those first five years at the OCA Chancery, we were blessed to experience the
Church very intensely. We believe He put us there to teach us to pray with
genuine compassion for those in positions of authority who must deal with so
much in the churches. In
addition, we were able to form bonds of friendship that we cherish to this day
with many people, both within the OCA and in other jurisdictions.
During that period, Metropolitan Theodosius made possible visits to other
monasteries in this country, and also to the Monastery of the Protection of the
Mother of God in Bussy, France. We are truly grateful for the generosity,
support and patience our fellow monastics have shown through these years as we
feel our way into a traditional form of monastic prayer and life within our
American setting. Metropolitan
Theodosius, along with clergy, choir directors, and others in and near the
Chancery as well as friends at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, did much to educate
and encourage us in developing a full cycle of monastic services. We were given
the time and the resources to compile our service books: the Horologion,
Octoechos, Triodion, Pentecostarion and Menaion. In the years since
then we have continued to add to and revise our services as new translations
have appeared and as our choir skills have improved. When
it became obvious that we would need our own home in order to grow into a fully
monastic life-style, Metropolitan Theodosius blessed us to move into rented
quarters near St. Vladimir’s Seminary for an interim period. During this time,
we tested our ability to live on our own, to find our own sources of income and
become incorporated so that we could purchase property. We found many more
wonderful friends who gave good advice and the encouragement we needed to begin
a mail-order business with our own greeting card designs, prayer books and other
products. Through the years, this
business has become an important means of support for the monastery. We
began property-hunting on a shoe-string budget in 1982. By the summer of 1983,
we were beginning to wonder if the Lord really did want us to have a permanent
home. Then we found a Pennysaver ad for a bargain: 144 acres with
farmhouse, two barns, mobile home and pond for $55,000. Still, that was eleven
times the money we had so carefully saved. We believe it was a series of
miracles that made it possible for us to move there the day after Thanksgiving
in 1983, and be mortgage-free shortly after the death of Father Alexander
Schmemann. In
1986, not long after we moved here, parishioners from SS Peter & Paul Church
in Herkimer, led by their priest, Father James Jadick,
volunteered their services to build us a chapel. They were soon joined by
members of St. Basil Church in Watervliet and Dormition Church in Binghamton.
John Gala of SS Peter & Paul drew up the plans, and we were able to hire a
contractor to put in a full-basement foundation the following fall. We had just
enough funds to buy the materials for our volunteers to cap the basement in time
for winter. By the next spring we were able to begin the next phase. There were
several workdays when Orthodox men and women gathered from all over New York
State and northern Pennsylvania to put up the framing and close in the shell of
the new structure. Then our faithful crews from Herkimer, Watervliet, and
Binghamton began the long work of finishing the interior as we were able to
purchase the supplies. Those
who have been here know that the chapel is truly a beautiful labor of love, from
the many windows and skylights to the French doors, oak parquet floors and
knotty pine paneling. The only sad part was that the wonderful work parties
ended! Fully 200 people were present for the consecration of the chapel by
Metropolitan Theodosius, assisted by Bishop Job, Father Thomas Hopko, Father
James Jadick, Father Steven Belonick, and other local area clergy. One of the
most moving parts of the service came when the Metropolitan handed out
certificates to those who had helped to build the chapel. Almost everyone
present qualified, and he wisely thanked all the wives who had put up with their
husbands’ long hours away and
often had come themselves to help feed everyone. Many
of these people, together with new friends, soon gathered in the chapel to
witness the monastery’s first life-profession, then the clothing of a sister
in the monastic habit and the installation of Mother Raphaela as the
monastery’s first abbess. These moving services were the seal and confirmation
of all the faith and work that had gone on before. There
is no question that having our chapel consecrated was a major milestone for the
monastery. Since then, through the generosity of friends, an iconostas with
beautiful icons has been added, the main icons being gifts from St. Gregory the
Theologian Church in Wappingers Falls, NY.
Among the original icons donated to the monastery, perhaps most beautiful
is a large processional icon of the Myrrhbearing Women.
Shortly
after the chapel was finished, many friends from St. Michael’s in Geneva, NY,
donated funds to create the memorial prayer garden that has been a source of joy
to us and to our guests. Fifty small cedars were planted in a rectangle and have
grown into walls for shelter and privacy, making a lovely outdoor chapel. During
the summer this is a quiet place for prayer and reading, and on occasion, for
vespers and memorial services. In
1991, again through the generosity of friends, we were able to purchase a small
piece of property adjoining our pond with an old house originally built for the
families who ran the mills on our millpond. We have found documents dating the
first commercial operation of those mills to 1803. Sadly, although it was a
source of power into the 1950s, floods and the ravages of time have now left
only the dam with its original laid-stone spillway and what we call the mill
house. By 1995 we were able
to begin the renovation of the mill house which was completed two years later,
and is now available for the use of guests. On the site of the old farmhouse, in 1998 we completed building the new monastery which is an inspiration, support, and encouragement for those of us who have answered the call to dedicate our lives to repentance and labor, the worship of God, prayer for His people and for His world. The new building provides the silence and privacy needed for the hidden life of a monastic while also providing reception rooms where guests and other pilgrims can find hospitality and God’s healing peace and beauty. The
initial renovation and construction were made possible by a Pan-Orthodox
committee, the Friends of Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, who helped us with
fund-raising. Mr. Robert Carpenter, head of Carpenter Brothers
Construction and also parish president of Dormition Church, Binghamton, donated
the plans and headed the construction crew. As
funds have become available through our generous benefactors, work has continued,
with a portico entry-way, tying together the chapel and monastery wings, a deck,
a kiosk to hold the six beautiful bells specially cast for the monastery
in Russia, and our continued paying down our mortgage.
For our thirtieth Anniversary Year in 2007, friends donated a permanent
monastery sign, fencing and a greenhouse for our vegetable garden. Each
woman who has tested a vocation to the monastery — whether she has stayed or
has moved on — has brought her own unique gifts and abilities.
As a result, now that we have room and more sisters, we are continuing to
develop the farm as an integral part of our monastery.
While it seems that we are unusual as farmers and monastics, until very
modern times almost all monastics had farms and raised most of their own food,
"working with their hands" as St. Paul admonishes us to do. In
addition to giving us a sense of kinship with those who came before us, we
find that the farm animals and chores help to keep us sane and grounded.
Many of our guests ask to help out in the barns and fields and often discover
real healing through this work as well as through their prayers with us.
With some enthusiastic support from friends and some generous donations,
we began by renovating the larger of the two barns, putting in fencing and
acquiring sheep, goats, chickens and ducks.
We sell yarn spun from the fine wool of our sheep, prayer ropes and other
items made from this yarn, and eggs from our chickens and ducks.
The milk and cheese from our goats are not yet for sale, but we and our
friends enjoy them. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” We ask you to join us in our prayer that we may grow only as the Lord wills. We pray that those dreams which are simply desires for the glory and praise of men will not come to pass and that those which are for the glory of God, the salvation of souls and the hastening of His Kingdom will be blessed. May we continue to see the mighty works of God in the next thirty years of our monastic life. |