User:Holy Cross Orthodox Monastery

Since February 2007, with the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Nicolae from Chicago, our Monastic Brotherhood dedicated to the Holy Cross, has a temporary location in North York (Toronto). It is now a known fact to more and more people; there are always new comers who just discovered us either on the internet or through family and friends.

Also, Hierodeacon Mardarie from Constanta, Romanian, has come to join our efforts since December 2008. Even though Fr. Mardarie’s actual status in Canada is a 'visitor' at the Monastery, Fr. Deacon Mardarie has now been received officially within the ranks of the clergy of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas since January 2012. He is now being appointed officially by the Archdiocese to serve at the Monastery which will allow us, in those conditions, to apply for Fr. Mardarie to become a Permanent Resident in Canada.

We are only two monks at the Monastery and, because this is a temporary location, we cannot really consider receiving Novices or other Monks at this time; not until we have our own building and location/property. Our monastic services are both in English and Romanian. However, we hope that in the nearest future, we will be able to receive candidates from any Orthodox Jurisdictions. As we do not have much space we cannot receive guests for retreats: we must keep the only two rooms available for unexpected visitors who may need to stay overnight.

Our beautiful Chapel has become too small for the number of people who attend our Sunday services. We have gone up from 25 people to, sometimes, 60 people! Because of this, we had to remove most of the chairs and have carpeted the floors: people now stand for the Liturgy as it is traditional in monasteries. Naturally, most of the people also stay for Agape after the service and our Trapeza is also way too small to accommodate everyone. The time has come for us to seriously search for a place of our own which will afford us more space and where we can build or transform the premises to meet our needs and those of our visitors.

To this end, we need the financial support of Orthodox Christians and especially from the Romanian community for which this monastery is primarily established. In order to materialize our efforts, we need to have FOUNDERS for our Monastery and are counting as well on all concerned Christians with the means to become Benefactor, Donor or Contributor to the establishment of our Monastery. We need your help now to establish a Spiritual Oasis for Orthodox Christians in Toronto and the GTA.

With our respects and blessings for you in the Lord Jesus Christ,

Holy Cross Orthodox Monastery