St. Petroc Monastery (Cascades, Tasmania)

Saint Petroc Monastery was a semi-eremitic monastic community for men located in Cascades, Tasmania. It was headed by Fr. Michael for the duration of its existence, and followed the Sarum practise of the Western Rite. It no longer exists.

History

Saint Petroc Monastery was founded in 1992 as an Anglo-Catholic monastery. In 1995 it turned to Orthodoxy and, under instruction, was placed under the direction of Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch. In 1997, the monastery was received into ROCOR, under the omophorion of Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand, with the mandate to not only continue using the Sarum practise of the Western Rite, but to do so with the explicit intent of attracting people of Anglo-Celtic ancestry to Orthodoxy through this rite. Fr Michael and Fr Barry Jefferies, a married priest associated with Fr Michael, were baptised and ordained by Abp Hilarion to this end. The Monastery also received permission to create attached monastery missions and parishes. In 1998, the monastery began one of these attached missions in Launceston, named for St. Stephen, and would go on to have other attached missions in various cities in Australia, England and Southeast Asia.

In 1998, Fr. Michael was appointed a chaplain at the University of Tasmania by Abp Hilarion; this service concluded after the University of Tasmania sold the chaplaincy building in 2011.

In 2003, the Saint Colman Prayer Book, compiled by the monastery, is authorised for use in ROCOR by Abp Hilarion. In June of the next year, the Monastery called a meeting of Western Rite clergy in Australia and New Zealand - which included the priests attached to the monastery and two Antiochian clergy - to discuss the future of Western Rite in Australasia.

On November 19, 2010, Hmk Michael was made the Assistant to the Metropolitan for Western Rite communities in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, with Dom James (Deschene) similarly appointed in the Western hemisphere. This arrangement continued for about six months.

In 2012, Saint Petroc Monastery was closed by Fr Michael, who moved in 2014 to a different monastic endeavour.

External Links

• Saint Petroc Monastery