Grand Junction, Tennessee, February 11, 2025
Hieroschemamonk Paul (left), Met. Saba (right). Photo: antiochian.org
The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America is opening a new monastery in southwestern Tennessee.
The monastery, named for the Life-giving Trinity, hopes to start receiving pilgrims after Pascha, the Archdiocese reports.
The holy habitation is in Grand Junction, on the same property where the women’s Skete of St. Paul was located. Mother Nektaria, who labored alone at the skete for nearly three decades, reposed in the Lord on August 9, 2023.
Photo: antiochian.org
The monastery will be headed by the newly ordained Hieroschemamonk Paul, who has monastic experience in America, Syria, and Mt. Athos. He was ordained to the diaconate by His Eminence Metropolitan Saba, the head of the Archdiocese, at Balamand Monastery in Lebanon on Saturday, February 8, and to the priesthood the next day by His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East.
Following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, Pat. John addressed Fr. Paul, saying: “The message of the Church to you today—the Sunday of the Pharisee and Publican, and the day of your ordination as a priest—is to be humble, following the example of your Lord Jesus, Who humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on the Cross.”
“We seek to preserve this deposit, the deposit of faith in the Church of Antioch that bears witness to the word of truth, to Christ Jesus in all parts of the world,” the Patriarch added.
In the video below, Fr. Paul’s ordination to the priesthood begins at 2:00:25:
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Fr. Paul’s biography from the Antiochian Archdiocese:
Hieromonk Paul (born 1966) entered the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1993. Two years later, he joined His Grace Bishop Basil to assist him in the Wichita Chancery. Hieromonk Paul departed for Damascus, Syria in the winter of that year, coming under the direction of His Grace Bishop John (now His Beatitude Patriarch John X) of Houmayra, Syria.
Father Paul traveled to St. Paul Monastery on Mt. Athos in the summer of 1996. On Great and Holy Wednesday of 1997, he received the Great Schema.
In 1998, Hieromonk Paul returned to U.S. to assist Bishop Basil at the Wichita Chancery, visiting St. Paul Monastery every two years for confession to his elder, Parthenios. He also visited friends like His Eminence Metropolitan Saba (when he was metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Bosra, Hauran and Jabal Al-Arab, Syria) and the monasteries of the Patriarchate of Antioch.
In 2006, Fr. Paul took up residence at St. Paul Monastery for four years. In 2010, he again returned to the U.S. where he cared for his aging parents for the next 11 years.
Hieromonk Paul accepted the request by Metropolitan Saba to assist him upon his election as Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of North America in 2023. The next year, His Eminence assigned him as supervisor (dikaios) of the monastic property in Grand Junction, Tenn. (now named for the Life-giving Trinity), after the repose of Mother Nektaria.
On Feb. 8, 2025, at Our Lady of Balamand Monastery in Lebanon, Schemamonk Paul was ordained to the holy diaconate by His Eminence Metropolitan Saba at St. George Church, and then to the holy priesthood the next day by His Beatitude Patriarch John X at Dormition Church.
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