There are two Athonite monasteries in Canada founded by Father Ephraim, among the nearly two dozen he has organized in the last 20 years in North America. One of these is on the outskirts of the town of Brownsburg about an hour North of Montreal. It’s an all-female monastery and includes a cheese-making factory, chicken operation, candleworks, and other traditional monastic commercial pursuits that enable self-sufficiency.
Mr Italo and I visited the monastery today on a photographic excursion, and were befriended by the senior nun who had assisted us in the monastery shop with our voluminous purchases of cheeses, biscuits, candles, books, etc. She volunteered to give us a personal tour of the large site that includes about a dozen buildings as well as an excavation site for a major expansion of the monastery currently underway. Just a few pictures with the Leica M8.2.
Reception building and gift shop
Entrance icon
Candles drying in the candleworks
Logs and chains
Mr. Italo added the following picture today, May 24th.
Would an all-female monastery be called a convent? (I’m actually not sure of the correct terminology here, so it’s a real question.)
By: LeisureGuy on May 18, 2009
at 12:46 pm
It’s a legitimate question but it enters into the realm of semantics because we use the terms “monastery” and “convent” in English to make such a distinction, but that distinction isn’t made in the Greek language. So a “monastiri” is used both for male and female versions. Funny enough though, the female monastics are called “nuns” and “sisters”.
I suppose then in its purest form, when speaking in English, we should make the distinction between a monastery and a convent. On the other hand, trends towards multiculturalism and ethnic pluralism have seen us adopt indigenous rather than Eurocentric/Imperialist terminology…hence “Beijing” instead of Peking as we learned it in the old days! Mumbai rather than Bombay.
Its never easy, is it?
By: Steve on May 18, 2009
at 12:56 pm
It never is. I did like up “monastery” (after writing the above) and found that the word does not necessarily refer to a collection of male monastics. Indeed, I found a new term: “double monastery”, which has both male and female monastics (housed separately).
By: LeisureGuy on May 18, 2009
at 1:59 pm
How do I join this “convent”? I enjoyed their feta.
By: Ali on May 22, 2009
at 1:49 pm
They fast 120 out of 365 days. I don’t think you could handle it.
By: Steve on May 22, 2009
at 10:53 pm