WE ARE CHRISTIANS OF THE EAST

"One is truly a monk when one lives by the work of one's hands, like our Fathers and the Apostles."

The Eastern monks and lay people of the Monastery of Silence are a community founded in the Mugello mountains near the city of Florence, Italy. The monastery is currently undergoing restoration, but some of us are already living in temporary rooms and structures within the building.

We cannot yet accommodate all our brothers, so we are four lay people and one monk. The others will arrive as the work progresses.

The monastery is open to visitors on Sundays.

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We live from our work; we receive no subsidies or grants of any kind, and we are committed to helping the people and animals currently hosted by us.

In the solitude and silence of the mountains, we seek to perpetuate the charism of the Eastern Fathers by living in the simplicity and poverty of the primitive Eastern Rule and in observance of the Gospel. This monastery is a public association of Christian faithful founded "in itinere" to become a religious institute within the Eastern Church. We temporarily belong to and are recognized by the Old Catholic Church of Brazil. The community lives in unwavering fidelity to the Magisterium of the Holy Eastern Church. With ardent love for God and missionary zeal for souls, we follow vows of obedience and poverty for the Church and the entire world. We practice Yeshua Meditation and Transcendental Hesychasm.

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Blessed by the abundance of lay and monastic vocations, we live a joyful community life, with the Lord Jesus calling souls to follow him along the "narrow path" of traditional and ever-renewing Eastern religious life. Lay sisters and brothers sanctify their days through manual labor, living in harmony with nature through farming, tending animals, or roasting coffee. The priest celebrates the Sacraments, provides spiritual direction, and preaches the monastery's Divine Liturgy. Once mature in the spiritual life, a monk can aspire to become a solitary hermit-monk, an anchorite, in the mountains, alone with the One.

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We are all in Apostolic Succession. Apostolic succession is the Christian theological doctrine according to which the apostles pass on their authority to their successors, the bishops, by the laying on of hands on their heads, in the context of the sacrament of Holy Orders. Acceptance of this doctrine is the foundation of the episcopal structure of the major Western and Eastern Churches like ours.

Watch our video below and read our FAQs about us.