Our Monastery
Monasticism
The Hermitage of St. Ignatius is the first True Orthodox monastery in Latin America. It is an attempt, however small, to provide a place where Spanish speakers who wish to live the Orthodox monastic life can do so in their own language. The Hermitage follows the way of life of the Orthodox skete, which is a small monastery where a group of disciples are in obedience to an elder. This way of life we inherited from our elders in the Skete of St. Anna on Mount Athos, and we try to realize it as much as we can in the rather different environment of Latin America. The Hermitage of St. Ignatius maintains a spiritual connection with its mother-house, the Monastery of St. John the Wonderworker in Cobleskill, NY. The hermitage is open to visitors and accepts monastic aspirants.
Foundation
Orthodoxy was brought to Guatemala in 1998. When Metropolitan Demetrius of America founded a small parish in Guatemala City dedicated to Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg. A beautiful church was built, but the mission was not able to grow much as there was no permanent priest. In 2013 he started sending Fr. Maximus, a Spanish-speaking hieromonk of Holy Ascension Monastery in New York to serve as a part- time priest. As events developed, God made it clear that he wanted a more permanent Orthodox presence in the country, and Fr. Maximus asked the Metropolitan for a blessing to look for a property to found a monastery, inasmuch as a local church cannot exist without monasticism. Metropolitan Demetrius was more than happy to give his blessing, because he had always had the dream of doing more missionary work in Guatemala and Latin America in general.
The Hermitage of St. Ignatius
With the assistance of some of the parishioners, they began looking for a suitable property; but for over a year were not able to find anything. Eventually they realized that they had made an elementary mistake: they had not begun the project with sufficient prayer. That night they served the Canon to Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg; and the very next morning, through her intercessions, they found a beautiful property on top of a mountain in Santa Cruz Naranjo, about an hour and a half southeast of Guatemala City. Metropolitan Demetrius blessed the purchase, and he drew lots to decide the name of the new monastery. The name drawn was St. Ignatius the Godbearer of Antioch. Thus the monastery officially was called “La Ermita de San Ignacio” – the Hermitage of St. Ignatius.
After living for a short period in bamboo huts
The monks built two small cells, and in February 2016 the Metropolitan came to Guatemala to celebrate the feasts of St Xenia (Feb.6) and St. Ignatius (Feb. 12). He served an open air Liturgy at the Hermitage attended by many people and made a number of locals catechumens. Then, foreseeing that there would be a community there, he gave directions to build a large church, measuring 6x13m. Fortunately, labor and materials in Guatemala are inexpensive, so the church was finished in less than a year.
- 7:00 am Matins
- 9:00 am Breakfast
- 10:00 am Daily work. The obediences include building, sewing, iconography, translating, managing the coffee farm, classes in Greek and chanting, and many other tasks.
- 5:00 pm Dinner
- 6:30 pm Vespers and Compline
- On feastdays Matins is followed by the Divine Liturgy. On Sunday the Matins starts at 9:00 am, followed by Liturgy.
Thy Holy Monastery
Soon Fr. Maximus moved to Guatemala in order to live full time at the Hermitage, and was joined by other monastics. Other monastic buildings were constructed, such as a refectory, a bathroom, and more cells. Now the Hermitage functions as a full-time monastery with obediences, a regular cycle of services, and a life a repentance and prayer. Through the prayers of the holy Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer, O Lord Jesus Christ, preserve and strengthen Thy holy monastery!
