Praying to Establish an Orthodox Monastery in Ireland
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Christ, according to John 12:24
Clonmacnoise, one of the great Irish monasteries, established by St. Ciaran in 544 AD.
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Lifting up the Stone Crosses of Ireland
It’s our hope that God will bless the Irish lands with a return of ascetic monasticism. Inspired by Egyptian desert monastics, our Holy Irish Fathers and Mothers planted seeds of hope, courage, and Christian faith deep in the soil of the island. Like the prehistoric seeds and pollen preserved in the Irish bogs, we pray that with a bit of sunshine and rain, the seeds of early Celtic monasticism might yield a new bloom of faith.
We are grateful for God’s guidance and provision, and especially for the encouragement we have received from Saint Helen. In faith, Saint Helen rediscovered and lifted up the true and life-giving Cross of Christ. May God, in the glory of His Saints, assist this tremendous task of building an Orthodox Monastery in Ireland—of lifting high in spirit the stone crosses which to this day adorn the Irish countryside.
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A Potential Property
To help this cause, we will be raising funds to purchase a nearby 30-acre property to extend the mission. This property would offer additional opportunities for hospitality, pilgrimages, as well as various community projects. We pray that God may ultimately bless it to become the first male Orthodox monastery in Ireland since the Great Schism.
Perched across the Shanakeever Valley and within view of Saint Patrick’s Chapel, the property includes a house, a 300-year old cottage in need of repairs, and a sizeable shed. It also offers a lush flower garden, a few enclosed pastures, and several cows.
Angels are a light for monks, and the monastic life is a light for men.
Saint John Climacus (+ 649 AD)
Why a Monastery?
Ascetic monasticism offers men and women the opportunity to worship God without limiting jobs and family pressures. By laying aside worldly cares, monasteries offer relief for the wearied soul. Visitors to an Orthodox monastery can experience the fullness of the Orthodox Church in a way that is not often possible for a parish. Moreover, the Holy Elders produced by true ascetic practice become living candles for the faithful, inspiring them with courage, offering them spiritual guidance, and lifting up their names in daily prayer.
Spiritual Endurance
Many, inspired by the courage and battle-seasoned faith of Christian heroes like Saint Patrick, yearn themselves for greater levels of faith, discipline, and courage. Guided by a living relationship with God and a spiritual father, Orthodox asceticism offers a tried and true pathway for spiritual growth. Saint John Chrysostom describes how asceticism builds up our ability to persevere:
He [Saint Lucian] scorned hunger: let us also scorn luxury and destroy the power of the stomach that we may, when the time that requires such courage comes for us, be prepared in advance by the help of a lesser ascesis, to show ourselves glorious at the time of battle.”
Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.
Saint Seraphim of Sarov (+ 1833 AD)
Our Ultimate Responsibility
Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge) explains further:
Monasticism does not exist for any specific purposes related to this world. To quote an anonymous author of The History of Egyptian Monks (fourth century), “From the very beginning, the purpose of monasticism was following Christ in the desert, singing hymns and psalms and waiting for our Lord to come.” This seeming “uselessness” makes monasticism free from any services within the Church structure.”
In their daily ascetic struggles, Orthodox monastics, in fact, shoulder the ultimate human responsibility: repentance, and through their repentance, hope and prayer for the salvation of the world.
An Irish Monk Prays to Found a Monestary
A poem by Saint Manchám of Offaly (+ 664 AD)
Grant me sweet Christ the grace to find—
Son of the Living God!—
A small hut in a lonesome spot
To make it my abode.
A little pool but very clear
(To stand beside the place)
Where all men’s sins are washed away
By sanctifying grace.
A pleasant woodland all about
To shield it from the wind
And make a home for singing birds
Before it and behind.
A southern aspect for the heat
A stream along its foot,
A smooth green lawn with rich topsoil
Propitious to all fruit.
My choice of men to live with me
And pray to God as well;
Quiet men of humble mind—
Their number I shall tell.
Four files of three or three of four
To give the psalter forth;
Six to pray by the south church wall
And six along the north.
Two by two my dozen friends—
To tell the number right—
Praying with me to move the King
Who gives the sun its light.
A lovely church, a home for God
Bedecked with linen fine,
Where over the white Gospel page
The Gospel candles shine.
A little house where all may dwell
And body’s care be sought,
Where none shows lust or arrogance,
None thinks an evil thought.
And all I ask for housekeeping
I get and pay no fees,
Leeks from the garden, poultry, game,
Salmon and trout and bees.
My share of clothing and of food,
From the King of fairest face,
And I to sit at times alone,
And pray in every place.
And it is necessary, therefore, for us to become His followers, and for His sake to endure all things, advancing in His precepts by day and by night, for the Lord Himself said, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24).
From the Orthodox tonsure service to the Order of the Lesser Schema, composed by Saint Chariton (+ 350 AD).
Celtic Christianity
Early Celtic Christians excelled at monastic fervour. Inspired by Egyptian desert fathers, they performed ascetic feats such as fasting and all-night vigils, albeit tailored for the regional climate. For instance, many Celtic monastics would submerge themselves up to the neck in Holy Wells, streams, and open sea while praying.
From servant to single mother to Saint!
Saint Helen’s assistance and relics came to us by surprise. She has encouraged us with her generosity and maternal faithfulness. Through her prayers, we ask God to help us establish an Orthodox Monastery here in Ireland.
