www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Christ the Bridegroom Monastery

I have heard about a new women's monastery in the Eparchy of Parma called 'Christ the Bridegroom'. They supposedly live a traditional form of Eastern Monasticism and refer to themselves as nuns. However, I was told by a priest from Parma that they are not a canonical community in that they are not officially recognized by the Church as a religious community. Yet they present themselves as religious nuns and wear the traditional habits. They are also raising a lot of money for renovations. Their Blogspot does not mention their non-canonical status. Isn't this rather deceptive? Enlighten me, anyone!

You either misundersttod the priest or he is being completely dishonest. A monastery is not founded overnight. A group of aspirants approach the local bishop and petition to be recognized as a Private Association of the faithful, then a Public Association of the Faithful, finally a Monastery of Eparchial Right. Christ the Bridegroom is fully recognized by Bishop John who has tonsured Mother Theodora a nun and gave her leadership of the community.

http://www.parma.org/monasticism.html

I certainly agree that a monastery does not develop overnight. Actually I know from a priest who is a close friend to 'Mother Theodora' and some of the other women that they are NOT a community of Eparchial Right and that Bishop Kudrick gave them permission to wear a habit and call themselves 'sister'. Also, they even spent part of their novitiate in an Orthodox monastery which seems contrary to the Canons of the Eastern Church. Besides, a bishop's recognition does not a nun make. Would you not agree that there are Canons that must be followed? Personally I think having monastics in an Eparchy is very desirable. But I have a problem with those who present themselves as something they are not, at least not as yet. I know of a young woman who expressed interest in their community but was not told anything about their status. Is this the transparency that we always say is important today in the Church? Even a Public or Private Association of the Faithful is not recognized as a religious community which can profess canonical vows. I pray for the success of Christ the Bridegroom community because there is great need of such monastic life. I'm just calling for clarification, honesty and transparency.

John Michael,

As I understand it, the community has not yet reached the canonical status of a monastery but it is recognized and encouraged by the Church. Indeed, the community came into being in response to a letter from the bishop. If you explore their website a little, you will see that Bishop John himself has indeed presided at all the entrances and professions. I haven't visited the monastery but I am eager to do that sometime soon. They appear to be a very energetic (and young!) community.

http://www.christthebridegroom.org/

Caleb

Everything at Christ the Bridegroom has been done with the approval and supervision of Bishop John. In the Eastern Church a bishop's blessing is the only thing that can make a nun. Mother Theodora and Sr Cecelia were given the liturgical rite of monastic investure by Bishop John, they are nuns. Their website states quite clearly they are working toward full canonical establishment. Holy Resurrection Monastery went through the same procedure. As to spending part of the novitiate at an Orthodox Monastery, this didn't break any canons and was sadly necessary because no traditional Eastern Catholic women's monasteries exist near them. Again, I would not rely on your priest friend for info, as he has seemingly not kept up with the progress of the community. If you have concerns I would contact Bishop John directly: 216-741-8773 ex 221

Fr. Deacon Lance,
I would greatly appreciate it if you would refer me to the particular canons that support what you say. I have read through the canons and also orthodox references in regards to monastic profession, etc. I am afraid I still fail to see the validity of what you say. Granted, Orthodox Bishops seem to have greater flexibility in this area but Eastern Catholic bishops are required to follow the Code of Canons of the Eastern Church. Giving the Little Schema to a woman who is not already a canonical member of a legitimate monastery is irregular even for the Orthodox. Bishops are not little popes who can act independently of the law. I commend your support of Christ the Bridegroom community and we both want to see it succeed. But is there not a right way and a wrong way to go about it? If they are not at least community of Eparchial Right then they are not officially nuns as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. If I am incorrect, please refer me to the appropriate canons so that I can stand corrected. In fact, nothing would give me more delight than to be proven that I am wrong regarding Christ the Bridegroom 'Monastery'. Peace.

Mother Theodora was already a professed nun of the Order of St Basil the Great when she asked to be released from the Order so that she could start an authentic Greek Catholic Monastery for women. She was re-professed as a Stavrophore by Bishop John. Two women have been tonsured as Rasophores. Rasophores do not profess vows and this stage lasts at least three years and can continue for a fourth. I would assume this is the reason the monastery is not fully canonically erected. Until they have a few more fully professed nuns you can't have a fully erected monastery. I am not sure what your problem with this is. How do you expect a new monastery to get started? You seem to want to catch them in some sort of catch 22: No monastery, no nuns. No nuns, no monastery. Expecting them to advertise as "Christ the Bridegroom Public Association of the Faithful waiting to be canonically erected into a Monastery" is a bit much. Again, Holy Resurrection Monastery started the same way. They were a Public Association of the Faithful before full canonical erection but always called themselves a monastery.

Canon 462

1. The monastic state is definitively assumed with perpetual
profession, which includes the three perpetual vows of obedience,
chastity and poverty.
2. In the making of profession the prescriptions of the typicon and the liturgical books shall be observed.

Fr John Michael,

I just noticed you state in your profile you are a priest. Latin Church I assume? May I ask what Diocese you are incardinated in? As you are accusing Christ the Bridegroom Monastery and Bishop John of Parma of canonical impropriety, a serious accusation, perhaps you concerns would best be handled through a conversation between your bishop and Bishop John?

Did you read this on their blog?:


I don't see anything deceptive about them.

I never intended to make anyone angry but to put the question out there about Christ the Bridegroom community. The canonical references that Deacon Lance provided did not include the other relevant canons regarding monastic establishment and profession but so be it. The fact is that I have learned from several people, clergy and lay within the Diocese of Parma, that my concerns are shared by them also. There are three of you at least that are strongly supportive of the community and what Bishop Kudrick has done. Perhaps my questions would best be answered by a canonist who is knowledgeable in the Eastern Code. I confess that I have information that I have not shared in this Forum which warranted my post in the first place. I have learned from my many years in the Church that bishops, priests and religious do not always follow the canons of the Church. I very much want to support young, developing religious communities, especially in the Eastern Church where there are so few. I just want to make sure that my support is going to the right place and I just can't do that for Christ the Bridegroom community at this point. The only thing I can do at this time is pray for the community. God's peace rest on all of us!

"They are raising a lot of money for renovations." They probably have "hopes" of raising a lot of money, but I'm not sure that its really happening.

Also "they present themselves as religious nuns" .....we (myself included) call ourselves Christians, but do non-Christians think we really are.

If one is knowledgeable about the first monastics one knows that they just picked up and went into the desert. They had no formal community nor patriarchal consent and there were no canons giving them such rights. Perhaps all this formality and legalism is why monastic communities are disappearing and there are no replacement communities.

Hear, hear!
This is an especially hard road to hoe as traditionally Eastern Christians do not organise their communities with the piped-in infrastrucure of orders. As is evident, it is in the bishop's hands. Bishop Dudick, of blessed memory, had always included monasticism in his chief projects but nothing really ever stuck. Monastacism had a rocky history in another Byzantine eparchy...Monassticism is so essential to Eastern Churches it is hard to imagine the one without the other. For a long time certain Orthodox jurisdictions had minimal to zero monastic presence and one wonders how they manage to maintain.

Is this a normal practice for those who want to enter the order?

http://www.gofundme.com/VictoriaOlsen

Not that I'm aware of . . .

But I think I'll make a donation . . .

Alex

This young lady, like many people of my generation, has a lot of student loan debt and is using gofundme to help raise money to pay the loans off. It is a normal practice for someone to be debt free when entering the monastic/religious life. I've seen many Roman Catholic laymen/women using this site to help them.

Her raising money has nothing to do with the monastic community, other than it having a requirement of being debt free before entering formation.

Prayers for Victoria!

Alex

From what I've read GoFundMe does not have the best reputation. There have been several cases of irregular activities with that firm.

I understand that a person needs to be debt free when entering monastic/religious life. However, if the applicant's debts are paid off via donations, and then later, the applicant decides the monastic/religious life is not for them, are those who donated reimbursed?

The reputation of "GoFundMe" is irrelevant to this particular discussion. Though you are certainly free to research better ones and suggest them to those involved.

Should the individual discerning a vocation ultimately decide not to enter a monastery, that's OK. The website clearly notes that this person is in a period of discernment. The discernment is for the Lord's will. Whatever it is, one prays the Lord grants it to those seeking it. Asking about refunds is a bit silly. [A not dissimilar analogy would be if you made a donation to your parish for a new furnace and then was upset because they bought a different brand than you prefer, and you asking if they will give the money back to anyone who did not get exactly what they wanted.]

I was only asking a question and do not appreciate my query being dismissed as being "silly". A former entry mentioned this monastery was not sanctioned, I wondered why someone would use an online fund collection secular company when there are other groups sanctioned by the Catholic Church (i.e. Mater Ecclesiae Fund, the Laboure Society). As for analogy, donating for a church furnace and not getting the brand one wants is confusing, the furnace would be obtained either way, here, if someone obtains donations to enter the religious life, pays off their debt and then decides through discernment it is not God’s will to go farther, what happens to the funds collected?

But, you see, it is!


You should read the thread in its entirety


Because GoFundMe is very public and much more visible to those who might choose to donate.


It would seem that is a matter for the moral discernment of the individual who was the recipient of the funds. It's not a question that anyone here can answer - only she.

Many years,

Neil

Let us pray then that she has the moral discernment and remains permanently in the order. God Willing.
S'Bohom
Roberta

It has become common for those entering religious life to enlist the generosity of others to help them settle their debts. It's certainly a common predicament.

There is simply no doubt at all about the community's being sanctioned or not. Look at their website and their facebook page. Or look at the eparchy's website. The original poster, John Michael, raised some question about the community's canonical status but not whether it was sanctioned and supported by its bishop. Frankly, I still don't understand the original concern. Full canonical establishment as a monastery is a goal they are working toward--as it has already been pointed out, they say that explicitly on their website.

I rejoice to see the emergence of a traditional monastic community with so much evident vitality and energy. May there be many more.

This may be off topic but what type of tradition are you referring to?

I am thoroughly confused as to the attire that is being utilized at Christ the Bridgegroom. Why does it seem that they are going backward in time. Even the head of their group "Mother Theodora" was originally a Sister of St. Basil the Great for 13 years and wore a modern habit.

Both my beloved sister and dear Aunt were Byzantine Benedictine Sisters. They and other sisters in various other orders fought long and hard for modernization which Rome graciously approved of many years ago. Part of this modernization was their habit. Bishop Nicholas Elko of the Byzantine Catholic Church realized the need for modernization and began the order of Christ the Teacher which was a progressive order for the 1950s. He chose to utilize a habit the corresponded to the changing times.

As a modern Catholic woman who has watched the forward march of the Holy Catholic Church into the future to stop now and go back five centuries is mind boggling.

Why are you so concerned about external appearances ?

I'm not saying anything against the use of 'modern attire' by monastic communities but it was my understanding that in the USA ' traditionally attired' RC Orders , at least among the women's orders , were seeing far more applications than those in communities wearing 'modern attire'.

How far do you wish to take modernisation ?

Do you wish our priests to modernise the Liturgy and stand behind the Holy Table and face us as is done in the modern Latin Catholic Church ? Do you wish to return to the days when our churches did not have Iconostases in the rush to expand and 'modernise' ?

I have memories of someone in the Vatican telling us to return to our roots - and our root are very very firmly traditional.

Could you please link me to the web page of this order so I could see the habit corresponding to the changing times ?

I can find nothing about this order - is it still in existence ?

What is more mind boggling is that all the Orders that modernized are on the verge of extinction, receiving no inquirers and yet continue to insist that modernization was a good idea. The Byzantine Benedictine sisters are so few and so aged they had to sell their monastery to Coptic Orthodox nuns, in ten years or so none will be left. The Basilian sisters seem headed the same way. The Order of Christ the Teacher is no more. Archbishop Elko was disgraced and not allowed to return to the Byzantine Church when he returned to America, so much for modernization. On the other hand, those monasteries that are returning to authentic Eastern monasticism, including the habit, are adding new young members.

This whole sentence terrifies me. Thank God for Vatican II and the call to reclaim our authentic Traditions! Bishop Nicholas did a lot of good, like English language liturgy and helping expand westward (my parish was established when he was Bishop of Pittsburgh) but he also did terrible things like not allowing new or remodeled Churches to have Icon screens.

Didn't he serve as a Latin-rite bishop before his passing?

It would seem, or atleast I hope, that like most things in the Church that want to correspond "to the changing times" it has changed itself out of existence.

I, for one, am grateful for the fruitful witness of the Sisters at Christ the Bridegroom & am blessed to have my family know them & have visited their monastery a few times. May they continue to grow & blossom!

On a related note, this is from Sr. Gabriella at Christ the Bridegroom...

My heart sings and my eyes tear. Eternal memory Sr. Flora!

Sr. Flora, the Sister who gave us our monastery when we were just starting, passed away yesterday. She and Sr. Adalberta previously lived in our building for many years and took care of the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapoch and its pilgrims. The have lived for the past seven years at Regina Health Center and have beautifully continued their ministry of prayer and service for their fellow residents. Please pray for the repose of Sr. Flora, as well as for Sr. Adalberta who mourns her passing. We are so grateful to these Sisters for the gift of their monastery, and especially for their love and prayers.

In blessed repose, grant, O Lord, eternal rest to your departed servant Sr. Flora and remember her forever.

http://www.geaugamapleleaf.com/obituaries/sr-mary-flora-kovics/

My original point about Christ the Bridegroom and the revival of traditional monasticism really had much less to do with the habit in particular than with their form of life. I believe that the revival of traditional monasticism is vitally important for the life of the whole Church, east and west.

What I meant was that the Byzantine religious communities had come to be organized along the lines of religious orders in a modern sense, and they are largely engaged in a variety active apostolates. For sure, that isn't only a problem for Eastern Catholics. For example, most Benedictines communities in the U.S. staff schools or parishes or some other apostolate. In this country, monastic communities rarely got to be really monastic, as they were enlisted to teach in schools and undertake any number of other services to the Church.

The western Benedictine communities that sought to restore a more authentically monastic life (like Mount Saviour in New York or the Weston Priory in Vermont) tended to be very warm toward vernacular liturgy and other commitments that might be called broadly 'reformist.' Whether or not sisters engaged in an active life of service to the Church wear a traditional habit is far less important to me than it seems to be to you or Nelson. What is more important to me is that we also have communities that are genuinely monastic, whether of nuns or monks.

Caleb

Father Deacon Lance:

I am on the mailing list of a new Carmelite monastery in Wyoming (Latin) that cannot seem to find the space for all the new young men who have expressed interest in becoming cloistered monks. They are in the process of building a monastery of stone buildings and cells and have had young men apply from as far away as Australia.

There is another new monastery--Benedictine--established in Oklahoma (Latin) that seems to be having the same problem.

Interestingly enough, both have made their liturgical life revolve around the Extraordinary form of the Latin liturgy.

This while so many other foundations haven't had a vocation in years.

As an aside, I have a relative in an (women's) order that hasn't taken in anyone new in almost the 39 years my wife and I have been married. Go figure.

Bob

And we should care about the Extraordinary Form Carmelites because . . .?

Another example of traditional monasticism flourishing while modernized orders wither. The Byzantine Carmelite nuns in Sugarloaf are yet another example.

I love their coffee and tea.

We should care about the growth of the extraordinary form Carmelites because we are all part of the One, Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church, I'd say...

We have been blessed to visit the Benedictine order in OK, Our Lady of Clear Creek, & it was wonderful!

The crux of the matter re. modernisation and habits is not why active orders sought to modernise and subsequently die away but whether in the modern age religious are necessary to do something the laity can do. Whether you are Orthodox or any kind of Catholic the lay vocation is still a huge untapped resource, due largely to poor formation as laity, identity crises stemming from misinterpretations of things like Vatican II, growing pains from immigrant to blue collar to suburban parish life, etc.
Traditional communities do well because they are doing something the laity cannot do, which from our perspective is: not trying to do a layperson's job.

You may be right that some traditional communities may be thriving on account of their difference from ordinary experience of most lay people. You may be especially right about those Latin communities that some have made the Extraordinary Form of the Mass the center of their liturgical life. However, in the big picture, I don't agree about what monasticism represents, or should represent, for the ordinary experience of most lay people.

Monasticism is fundamentally a lay movement. The undertaking of monastics is to live out the universal Christian vocation. Accordingly, monasticism can serve as a sort of reference point for all of us, not only or particularly the ordained, but rather and more importantly, the baptized. To that extent, I have wondered if the 'difference' you notice in the life of some of these newer communities isn't something of a distraction. from this central purpose To be clear, I'm certainly not complaining about them and I am delighted that new monastic communities seem to be springing up. But it's their pattern of life (traditional monasticism), rather than the latinity of their worship (traditionalist liturgy) that I think is genuinely important.

Zita,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Thank you for posting the memo of the passing of Sr. Flora. She was a magnificent person who combined hard work and deep spirituality every moment you saw her.

She and Sr. Alberta immigrated to the US from Hungary about the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. They found their home here in the newly established Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapocs. Rev Alexander Bobak established the Shrine in Welshfield Ohio (about 40 miles east of Cleveland) with great determination, intense zeal and a minimal amount of funding.

Sr. Flora immediately went to work.

With only a few sheds and many volunteers, she and Fr. Bobak did much of the heavy work. You would always see her on her knees working in the shrubbery, the kitchen and all over the grounds of the Shrine. She was always busy and hard at work, but never complained or asked for help. You just wound up helping her simply by her own example.

She was also an amazing beacon of hospitality. No matter when you went to the Shrine, there were always huge vats of chicken, rice, salad, etc., available in large quantities for visitors. And depending on the tastes of the gentlemen involved, there was always a bottle of whiskey brought out from a private area. (My dad, of blessed memory, had only to walk into the kitchen and Sr. Flora would immediately bring out his libations).

She devoted probably 40+ years to the Shrine, working hard, praying fervently, and preparing for visitors. The highlight of the year was always the Pilgrimage at the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos in August. In the early years, well over 100 busses plus many cars would stay at the Shrine for the weekend. Those are good memories, which today have unfortunately a fraction of that activity.

Whatever Sr. Flora was doing, whether working or praying, she did with an internal intensity you realized that came from within. Some may see this as a saintly quality. I would not disagree.

It is a tremendous pleasure to see the continuation of her efforts in the establishment and of the Sisters of Christ the Bridegroom Monastery.

May God grant to His departed servant, Sr. Flora, blessed repose and memory eternal!

Boldog nyugalmat és örök emléket!

Fr Deacon El

Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic

Glory to Him forever!

Fr. Deacon El,
I did not know Sr. Flora personally, so I thank you for sharing this beautiful insight into her life!

I see you are from Centreville. I grew up in Chantilly & still have family there. Small world.

I'm not necessarily endorsing the form of liturgy used. My fascination is with the fact that these two orders have sprung up and have had such a draw with the young people who apply. Their concern seems to be with guiding people toward the Lord and with faithfulness to the Church and her teaching--something that seems to be lacking in many of the modernized orders. Or so it seems.

Bob

Dear Bob,

The monastery you mention is working on restoring and using the full Carmelite Rite of the Holy Sepulchre - which I think is different from the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite (correct?).

The same is true of the Benedictine monastery, although the Benedictine Rite only extended to the celebration of the Divine Office rather than any form of the Divine Liturgy (e.g. Benedictines at Durham practiced the Rite of Durham with respect to the Divine Liturgy).

I would say people are attracted to liturgical beauty, traditional forms and challenging self-discipline. The people seeking entry to these monasteries are not those who grew up with the Tridentine Liturgy and who wish it came back.

In the case of the Carmelites, however, and their relation to the Eastern Churches, I was blessed to carry on a correspondence with the late, great Archbishop Raya (+memory eternal!!) and asked him about the Carmelites at one point.

Among other things, he told me that he had always had Carmelites under his omophorion, both Latin and Byzantine, since the Carmelite Hermits were originally of the Greek Church, not the Latin.

Also, that the reason why St Simon Stock and his Carmelites were about to be ejected from England and Europe (which occasioned the famous vision of the Virgin Mary granting him the Brown Scapular) was because Roman Catholic Europe considered the Carmelite Hermits to be an Eastern monastic community who, essentnially, should stay in the East . . . Their original habits had brown and white stripes on their mantles - resembling the mantles of Eastern Hierarchs.

It was only with St Albert the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem that the Carmelite Rule was formalized and only later still that they came to resemble a Western Order as a whole.

Also, we should indeed be interested in such movements toward ancient monastic traditions among RC's because ultimately the reunion of East and West will only come about when everyone will drink ever more deeply of the ancient Patristic waters.

The current RC liturgical movement is, by some accounts, a modern adaptation to Protestant liturgical culture.

Alex

I like your post, Alex; I just thought this part could be expanded a little bit. The Carmelites encountered opposition, especially in England, in a context in which there was general angst on the part of secular clergy (and by angst I mean a range of attitudes, from concern to ferocious opposition) vis-a-vis the "new" religious movement of the thirteenth century (especially the mendicants). The Carmelites were caught up in all of this, but they did receive a bull of protection from Pope Innocent IV in the 1250s which ended the controversy.

The rapid diversification of religious life in the thirteenth century is an amazing thing . . . the Father brings forth from his treasure-trove things new and old.

I thought you were going to say "No bull . . ." I'm happy that was not the case then!

I love everything about the Carmelite charism and their original icon of Our Lady of Mt Carmel is a Romano-Byzantine icon, "La Bruna" or Our Lady of Naples.

The scapular as a symbol of the Holy Protection of the Theotokos is an ingenious sacramental!

Alex

Aug 1, Feast of the Procession of the Holy Cross, Bishop John recognized Chrst the Bridegroom Monastery as a Public Association of the Christian Faithful.

A little late but:

On September 27, 2019, Bishop Milan Lach completed the canonical process of the founding of our monastery, establishing us as a sui iuris monastery of eparchial right, and approved our typikon (rule of life). On September 29, 2019, Mother Theodora was elected hegumena (abbess), and on September 30, Bishop Milan publicly announced the canonical establishment and performed the liturgical institution of the hegumena.

Christ is in our midst!!

May the Lord be praised. May the prayers of these holy women strengthen His Holy Church.

Glory to Jesus Christ!