Gregory (Wendt)

Archimandrite Gregory (Wendt) is abbot of Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos Monastery (OCA: Weaverville, NC)

This article or section needs a cleanup to bring it to a higher standard of quality. Recommendation: Needs formatting and categories More detailed comments may be noted on the talk page. You can help OrthodoxWiki by editing it, especially to conform to the Style Manual and the suggestions in How to write a great article.

Previously known as Monastery of the Exultation of the Most Holy Cross Affiliated organization: Holy Cross Academy

Holy Protection Monastery and its brotherhood (including Fr. Abbot Gregory (Frank G.) Wendt, Fr. Damian (James A.) Gibault, monks Seraphim (Petro) Terenta, Nicholas (Vasyl) Kopich, and Novice Yosup Lembak) are located in Miami, Florida. The monastery was Byzantine Catholic until its reception into the OCA in October, 2003.

According to the OCA Press release from October, 2003, in March 2003, Metropolitan Herman (OCA) received a letter from Archimandrite Gregory [Wendt], the monastery’s abbot, requesting that the brotherhood be received into the Orthodox Church and that the monastery be accepted as a monastery of the Orthodox Church in America. For a number of years, the monastery was within the Ruthenian Byzantine Rite Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, NJ. In response to the petition, and with the concurrance of His Eminence, Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas and the South, Metropolitan Herman directed Protopresbyter Robert S. Kondratick and the Very Rev. David Brum to visit the monastery in April. They also visited Holy Cross Academy, a school serving over 300 students operated by the brotherhood, of which Archimandrite Gregory serves as headmaster and president. After conducting a thorough investigation of the monastery, its history, and its brotherhood, Fathers Kondratick and Brum reported that they saw no obstacles to accepting the community into the Orthodox Faith.

After careful scrutiny and further contact with Metropolitan Herman and members of the OCA’s Synodal Administration, members of the Holy Synod of Bishops, at their fall 2003 session, decided to receive the monastery and its brotherhood into the Orthodox Faith.

Father Gregory and the organizations affiliated with the monastery were under heavy scrutiny because of murder that took place on grounds in Florida.

The Miami Herald printed the following in an article from 4/25/01:

The founder of Holy Cross Academy - where a nun was recently murdered - once operated a ramshackle monastery in Palm Beach County that was abruptly closed by church officials, records show.

Miami-Dade homicide detectives plan to visit the now-defunct Monastery of the Three Holy Hierarchs to try to learn more about Father Abbot Gregory Wendt, sources close to the investigation said.

Wendt is now the head of Holy Cross. A novice monk allegedly stabbed Sister Michelle Lewis to death there last month.

The murder suspect, 18-year-old Mykhaylo Kofel, has told detectives Wendt and another priest molested him on occasion since he came from the Ukraine four years ago for monastic training.

Both Wendt and Father Damian Gibault have adamantly denied the accusations through their attorneys.