Dear Friends and Supporters,
For a few years, parishioners from the St. Andrew’s Romanian Orthodox Church in New York, under the guidance and blessing of Fr. Ion Proteasa, embarked on the difficult journey to establish a monastic community and raise an Orthodox Monastery within driving distance of the New York metropolitan area, that will serve as a place of retreat and prayer for Orthodox Christians.
For almost a decade, we’ve worked tirelessly to restore St. Andrew's Orthodox Church. We renovated the building, replaced windows, floors and, most importantly, we painted the entire church with beautiful icons that represent our faith and our tradition. We learned along the way that it takes a strong community to achieve such things and we’ve been blessed to see our community grow from a handful of people to dozens and eventually hundreds who value building strong Orthodox families and raising kids in the Christian life.
Encouraged by the results of our past efforts, we started on the journey to build a strong monastic community that will serve generations of Christians, starting with our children. Through the generous financial contributions of a few families, we purchased the land for the Monastery in May 2022, we cleaned the property with help from volunteers, we blessed the land, and we planted the Holy Cross in September 2022. Several fundraising events have been organized and, thanks to your generosity, we made great progress. We are now in the construction planning and fundraising phase.
Being part of a community that serves the christians in the Tri-State area and especially our youth in the years to come is a blessing. Our plea to you is that you keep us in your faithful prayers and that you join us and support the Monastery in ways in which God directs your heart.