St. Anthony Monastery
Under the auspices of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the church established the first Coptic Orthodox Monastery in Canada by the name of St. Anthony on January 7th 2014. The official opening was held on the feast of St Anthony later that month.
The vision for St. Anthony Monastery is as follows:
St. Anthony Monastery will be the ideal community for monks, those seeking a monastic vocation(postulants) and visitors seeking a peaceful retreat. The Monastery will contain facilities to serve each of the aforementioned groups with “prayer and work” being the principal activities. St. Anthony will pave the way for future monasteries in Canada and support their development.
Since St. Anthony monastery was established in 2014, many people have been welcomed and touched by God at the monastery. Because of the love, faith and constant prayers of all those visiting the Monastery, the Spirit of God abides in the place and touches the hearts of anyone seeking Him. Most visitors can share several incredible stories of their experience visiting the Monastery
The monastery is conveniently located between the two largest regions containing Coptic Orthodox congregants: Eastern and Western Ontario.
Since Ontario is home to Canada’s largest Coptic community, the province was selected to be the location for St Anthony Monastery.
The mother Church in Egypt was very excited to find the 274 acre property in TayValley for its peaceful attributes and rural characteristics. As an added benefit, the land use designations already permitted monastery buildings. The Coptic Church is excited to use this property to establish Canada’s first Coptic Orthodox monastery.
St. Anthony’s Monastery serves several purposes. One purpose is to create a peaceful environment for monks to achieve their goal of developing a deeper relationship with God through meditation and prayer.
The second purpose of the monastery is to serve the people of the community. Since the fourth century, people have found great comfort and relief from their visits to monasteries. The monastery Abbot assigns an experienced monk to serve the guests. This monk will spend time with visitors on a group or individual basis. He may speak about God and the way to get closer to Him, he may talk about meditation and how to enjoy quiet time, or he may listen to people’s concerns and offer counsel – all according to the requests and needs of each individual.
Visitors of all religious backgrounds have come to visit. It is a great delight to meet these guests and hear their story and life experiences. The common theme noted from guests is the search for inner joy and peace and it is with great pleasure that we see them leaving feeling blessed and very joyful.
St. Anthony actively seeks to giveback to those in need. Excess provisions are donated to guests and members of the community that need it. The monastery has made a number of donations to food banks as well, including The Table located in Perth.
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