Holy Resurrection Monastery is a self-governing monastery sui juris under Catholic Canon Law.  There are currently five stavrophore (fully professed) monks, together with four rassophores (novices), and one postulant.  In 2011 they relocated from California to a monastery in the village of Saint Nazianz, Wisconsin (the town is named after one of the greatest Eastern saints, St. Gregory the Theologian, known in the West as St. Gregory Nazianzen).

Here, they strive to live the monastic life of prayer, work, and hospitality while contributing to the spiritual lives of their friends and neighbors (whether Eastern or Western Christians), especially through dedication to practical ecumenism. Abbot Nicholas is also responsible for overseeing the nuns of Holy Theophany Monastery, a dependency of Holy Resurrection Monastery.

In early 1995, several faithful Byzantine men came together and were initially received by His Grace, Bishop George (Kuzma), Eparch of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys, California.  In 2005, at their request and with the approval of the Holy See, they were received under the holy omoforion (jurisdiction) of His Grace, Bishop John Michael (Botean), Eparch of the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St. George in Canton, Ohio.  Bishop John Michael’s diocese covers the entire territorial United States and was recently extended to include some Romanian Catholic communities in Canada.

Speaking of Abbot Nicholas, he gives excellent reflections on what the Eastern churches can bring to the West.  Here is a sample from one of his homilies:

“…about the Byzantine Tradition I can say this. Mystery for us is not about just what we do in church, it is how we see everything, how we see reality. Every Christian is part of the hidden life of the Sacred Trinity. Every Christian is a mystic. Being a mystic means being a liturgical being, nothing more. Everything we do is, or ought to be, at least wrapped in the mystery of the direct experience of God. I can’t say this enough . . this sense of mystery is not just a feature of how we do church or how we do mass or how we do liturgy. It colors even how we see sin . . . not so much as a moral crime, but as a failure to worship, not the exercise of a defiant human will in opposition to God, not an exercise of freedom, but a failure to be who we deep down in our hearts want to be.”

Their liturgical services (Divine Liturgy as well as the Divine Office) are in English with some Greek, Romanian, and Slavonic sprinkled throughout. Visitors are welcome to come on private retreats alone, as couples, or in small groups.

Holy Resurrection Monastery
300 S 2nd Ave
PO Box 276
St. Nazianz, WI 54232
Telephone: (920) 881-4009
Email:  monks@hrmonline.org