| | | Father Jonah, the abbot of the monastery of St John the Wonder Maker gives a service on Tuesday morning in the chapel of St. Sergious in Inverness Park. (Light photo by Jonah Owen Lamb) | |
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Overlooking Tomales Bay, the white Orthodox Church of St. Sergious sits under the tall trunks of pine trees in the hills of Inverness Park. The property, owned by the Orthodox Church of America, has been a hermitage for five decades. For the last 10 years it has been the home of the monks of the Brotherhood of St. John, now numbering 12.
Housed in cramped and rotting buildings infested with black mould, the brotherhood has decided to move. They wanted to stay in the county. But the cost of living, building regulations and local opposition to growth have forced the monks to a new home in Tehama county, near Redding. The new monastery, however, will better meet the monks’ needs.
The move came after meetings with locals and the county. Neighbors didn’t want the location to grow and county zoning rules were too stringent, making any new buildings too expensive, said Father Jonah, the monastery’s abbot.
After looking “everywhere from the Bay Area to Canada” Father Jonah bought a 42-acre piece of land in the small town of Manton for $1.25 million. Two caretaker monks will stay in the Inverness location until the move is complete. The property will remain a small hermitage; a few monks will remain.
In an early morning service, Father Jonah twisted the incense outward, spreading the clouds of smoke with quick jabs. The bearded priest wore a golden robe as he lead the prayers. Four monks, three in black robs, sang in high-pitched voices as the two-hour service proceeded in the small church of St. Sergius. The whitewashed walls were covered in painted icons of Jesus, merry and saints, lit by beeswax candles that burned atop silver trays. The small dome above lit the chapel from its open windows. A bearded monk in black robes stood along the wall voicing scripture in a singsong tone.
Fifty years atop Inverness
The Hermitage of St. Eugene’s was donated in 1951 to the Orthodox Church of America by the parents of Eugene Lewry, who died in World War II. Father Dimitri, a Russian monk, lived at the hermitage alone until 1967. A group of orthodox nuns lived there from 1983 until 1996. Under their stewardship, the Chapel of St. Sergius was completed in 1988 using the 114-year-old dome from the cathedral of the Holy Cross that burned down in 1906 in San Francisco. The current brotherhood of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco has been living on the property for 10 years.
A saint buried in San Francisco
St. John, the monastery’s namesake, was consecrated bishop of Shanghai in 1934 when he was 38. While in China he served Russian exiles who fled Russia after the communist revolution of 1917. He left Shanghai when the communists defeated Chinese nationalists in 1949. Most of Shanghai’s Russian community fled, making their way to refugee camps in the U.S.-held Philippines, according to the Church. After St. John plead before the U.S. congress on behalf of the homeless Russians, 50,000 were let into the U.S., said father Jonah.
St. John came to San Francisco and was made the archbishop of the Russian Church Abroad in 1962. He died in 1966 and was sainted in 1994. His body lies in the Cathedral of the Most Holy in San Francisco. A tiny piece of his toe is inside the monastery’s chapel in Inverness Park.
A calling
Last Monday brother Silouan, 34, sat in the dining room underneath the chapel eating a lunch of cheese and pasta. Relaxing in a white robe buttoned to the neck with a black cap on his head he talked about monastic life. For the last eight years, he has been a monk. “It was a calling,” he said. “If you don’t enjoy it, don’t become a monk. What do you do for fun?” he asked. “I like to pray”
The monastic life is all about revoking worldly ways, explained Silouan. This austere life begins with a vow of chastity, poverty and solitude. “The whole purpose is that we are trying to find God – absolute truth,” Said Silouan. “It’s mostly about us living a life of prayer and contemplation,” he explained.
Monasticism’s long past
Monasticism might not be the most popular career move today but for over 2,500 years many have been called to a life of contemplation. The first Buddhist monasteries were founded 500 years before Christ. Other faiths such as Hinduism and Jainism have monastic traditions as well.
The first Christian monk (the Greek word mono means alone) was St. Anthony of Thebes, who went into the Egyptian desert in 271. Soon after, St. Pachomius brought together the first community of monks. In the following centuries monastic communities became major centers for learning and spread across Europe from Ireland to Russian. Monasteries were instrumental in spreading Christianity.
Daily life
Each morning at the Hermitage of St. Eugene’s, the monks “rise as they rise” explained Brother Silouan as he walked through the spare and cramped building the monks live in. The mold is so bad, he said, the monks were having respiratory problems. After they wake from their bunks, they walk down the hall hung with pictures of saints to the first of three prayer services. Then a simple meal is eaten in silence. For the rest of the day, they work. Behind their thin-walled quarters Brother Silouan pointed out the rusting shipping container that was their candle factory.
A thousand year schism
Almost 500 years before the reformation the Eastern Orthodox Church, symbolically lead by the Patriarch in Istanbul, Turkey, split with the Roman Catholic Church in the great schism of 1054. The split was mainly over weather the Pope should be the head of all Christians or not. It wasn’t until 1963, when the Pope and the Patriarch met in Jerusalem, for the first such meeting in 500 years that the two churches began communicating. The next year both church’s 900-year mutual excommunications were finally lifted.
The two churches still differ in several ways besides the primacy of the pope. Easter is celebrated on a different day for the orthodoxy, which still uses the Julian calendar. “Were a little behind’ explained brother Silouan. Married men may become priests in the orthodoxy. Orthodox Christians have kept their services the same as early Christians. Father Jonah said the church still practice the service written by St. John Chrysostom in 407. “It’s an unbroken tradition for two thousand years,” he said.
The service comes to a close
In the chapel, after father Jonah blessed the armed forces of the world, the president, the civil authorities, the sick, the suffering and the victims of violence in the Middle East he began his short sermon. It was spoken to the few gathered as he stood with is back to the altar with a bible on his chest. Living the gospel is about revoking our egos, revoking the self-absorption that takes hold of us all, he said.
Afterwards as the sacrament was prepared, each monk, in succession, prayed before the icons of the Savior and his Mother and congregated around one another, blessing one another, embracing and kissing shoulders.
Then Father Jonah appeared before the altar with a golden cup in his hands covered in a red cloth. As the monks lined up to take the sacrament father Jonah dipped a gold spoon into the chalice and put it in their mouth. Each monk leaned before Father Jonah with a red cloth held below his beard and drank. Afterward the monks picked up a chunk of bread and ate. When they had all taken the Sacrament, Father Jonah dipped a big brush into a silver bowl of holy water and sprayed each monk, splashing lines of water droplets onto the tile floor.
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