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April 23, 2009 - PASCHA
Saint Paisius Serbian Orthodox Monastery
in Safford, Arizona
On Bright Thursday, April 20th. His Grace Bishop Maxim had a brief, yet very eventful visit to St Paisius Monastery in Safford, Arizona and celebrated the Paschal Divine Liturgy with Protosyngel Dorotheos, priest David, and Hierodeacon Elisha Kapor. Sisters beautifully responsed at the Divine Liturgy.
The Abbess, Mother Michaela and Sisters warmly welcomed their visitors: Bishop Maxim, Professor Bosko Bojovic from Paris, Deacon Elisha and Novak Bilich.
Bosko Bojovic, Professor from Sorbonne, Paris, spoke about Fr. Justin Popovic of whom he was a close friend.
Professor Bojovic was here last year as our guest speaker at the Annual Lenten Clergy Retreat.
The St. Paisius Serbian Orthodox Women's Monastery has begun collecting donations to cover the cost of the windows needed for their new church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Holy Virgin, and the adjoining side chapels, dedicated to St. Paisius Velichkovsky (right side) and Ss. John Maximovich and Nikolai Velimirovic (left side). As soon as they can complete construction, they can plan the Consecration to begin using the church.
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St. Paisius Orthodox Monastery is a women's coenobitic community which follows the traditional rule of monastic life. The monastery was founded in 1993 and is dedicated to St. Paisius Velichkovsky, who dedicated his life to collecting and translating the texts of the Philocalia as a means of preserving the teachings of the Holy Fathers on the hesychastic way of life.
The sisterhood is currently comprised of about twenty sisters. The Holy Liturgy is served daily in the monastery, and the daily cycle of services is conducted primarily in English.
To support themselves, the sisters publish spiritual texts, make prayer ropes, and offer to over 1000 guests who visit the monastery each year a fully stocked bookstore. They also labor in cultivating the earth and tending the monastery's flock of purebred milk goats and other animals in order to be as self-sufficient as possible.
Since 1995, the sisterhood has welcomed teenage girls who wish to live and study at the monastery. The monastery home school is dedicated to the Protection of the Theotokos. The sisters tutor the girls in their studies and offer supplementary classes. Some of the students have chosen to remain as nuns in the monastery, while others have married and started their own families.
Situated in the High Sonoran Desert at the base of Mount Graham, the monastery is in the process of building to meet the growing needs of the monastic community and the faithful who visit. This includes plans to build a church, a trapeza (or dining hall) and kitchen, and then continue with a full monastery enclosure. An Orthodox cemetery was established in 2004 for the faithful. |
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