History Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville, New York)

interior of cathedral @ holy trinity monastery

hieromonk panteleimon (nizhnik), after spending ten years @ st. tikhon’s orthodox monastery near south canaan, pennsylvania, wanted live more rigorous monastic life. moreover, after 1926 split between rocor , group later become orthodox church in america, wanted stay church abroad. shared desire ivan kolos, local choir director living @ monastery. decided find place live “genuine monk’s life.” traveled herkimer county in upstate new york, bought starkweather farm near jordanville $25 down payment. in order pay off mortgage, panteleimon worked @ sikorsky airplane factory in stratford, connecticut wing mechanic, while kolos remained @ parish.

in spring after pascha in 1930, fr. panteleimon moved onto property, while ivan kolos , monk st. tikhon’s, fr. james (mosheruk), worked @ sikorsky factory until land paid off , go jordanville. life hard: lived in small building, kept horse , cow, , instead of stove used hot stones cook food. in addition performing daily services, brotherhood worked land , began dairy production. of new member of brotherhood, hieromonk ilya (gavriliuk), carpenter, monks began building large house chapel , room sixteen cells, , completed in 1935.

the new monastic building consecrated bishop vitaly (maximenko) on june 17, 1935. however, @ end of divine liturgy smell of burning wood filled air. crying, “the church afire!” in russian, vitaly , other monks helped assembled worshippers safety. uninsured building, valued @ $10,000, burnt ground. sheltered in wagon shed, monks refused despair , decided build better structure. small brotherhood bought another, larger house nearby, bought 200 acres of land, , began farming , dairy operations. obtained printing press , linotype machine , began publishing spiritual works. interacted local community: few of monks held concert @ episcopalian parish in richfield springs, , members of nearby baptist church visited monastery service.

in 1946, fourteen new monks arrived @ jordanville, headed bishop seraphim (ivanov). these included of future leaders of russian church abroad, including future metropolitan laurus (Škurla), novice vasily. brotherhood based in st. job of pochaev monastery in ladomirová, czechoslovakia, had been founded archbishop vitaly when still archimandrite. after brief stay in munich, brotherhood accepted invitation of bishop vitaly join struggling brotherhood @ jordanville, resulting in largest orthodox monastery in america. brotherhood of st. job brought st. job’s printing press them across atlantic, and, until fall of soviet union, holy trinity monastery place in world typeset in church slavonic.

in 1944 construction began on new monastery cathedral, many of bricks salvaged demolished factory. cathedral designed roman verhovskoy, , head of building committee nicholas alexander (aleksandrov), professor @ rhode island state college , future dean of seminary. cornerstone of church laid in 1947, , church completed in 1951; governor of new york, thomas e. dewey, attended dedication. construction of church aided 50 monks , lay-workers had joined monastery after leaving post-war europe. among them archimandrite cyprian (pyzhov), had assistant monk alypy (gamanovich) (future archbishop of chicago) frescoed interior of church, covering 700 square feet of walls on 400 icons. new monastic quarters built 1954–1957. in addition building monastery, jordanville monks helped set parishes in albany , utica.

on december 3, 2011, on feast day of entry of theotokos temple, government officials came monastery, enjoyed food, , listened talks held in seminary hall, official ceremony making monastery national historic district took place. district includes 41 contributing buildings, 3 contributing sites, 2 contributing structures, , 3 contributing objects.