Holy Redeemer Orthodox Monastery

This monastery was originally located near Bloomfield, IN. Mother Paula (Seiple) and Mother Pilar (Callen) provided us with wonderful examples of the monastic life. We have lost touch with them over the years and were informed that the contact information we had for them was inaccurate, so we have removed it.

Schedule of Services

Saturday Evening
8pm Great Vespers

Sunday Morning
10am Resurrection Matins

Contact the nuns for seasonal times of evening Vespers and morning Matins, and services for Holy Week and special feasts.

Call to advise them of your desire to visit the convent.

The monastery is closed to the public on Mondays.

Please follow the guidelines for appropriate dress and courtesy during your time at the monastery.

Activities

Retreats

Individual, daytime, non-conducted retreats open to anyone.
Overnight retreats in Shepherd's House (guest house).
One-day, conducted retreats - limited to 8 retreatants.
Dates and topics to be announced.
Meals provided by the nuns.

Study sessions for women
Periodic studies on aspects of spirituality throughout the year, limited to 6 participants. Dates and topics to be announced.

Schedule retreats and study sessions by phoning the nuns.

Monastery Background

In 1986 the monastery was founded by Srs. Paula (Seiple) and Pilar (Callen) as the first monastic community for women in the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC), under the jurisdiction of Bishop Kenneth SAMUEL Jensen of Indianapolis.

The faith of the nuns is grounded in the apostolic teachings of the early Christian Church as taught in the Scriptures and the Church Fathers. Their theology and liturgies are those of the Eastern Orthodox Church, expressed in a contemporary American manner. The EOC has been a communion of churches since 1979 and has churches in Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Georgia, Kentucky, Saskatchewan, and Sweden.

The nuns dress in a habit consisting of a plain dress (tunic) of a somber color (black or gray) to reflect self-control, simplicity, and sobriety of life. The dress is girded with a belt of leather to symbolize the ascetic life of self-sacrifice and continence. A veil is worn as a reminder that all of life is a prayer offered up to God, and that the nun is under His care and His authority.

Holy Redeemer Monastery is incorporated in Indiana as a not-for-profit corporation. The nuns are supported by charitable gifts and their own manual labor. Work projects currently include raising sheep, baking bread, producing religious greeting cards, and marketing several kinds of their own crafts.

The first location for the monastery was a rented 1850 farm house on 2+ acres near Ladoga in Montgomery County, Indiana. There the nuns began to develop their liturgical schedule and a retreat environment for women.

Since 1992, sixty-eight acres of rolling hills and fields have been purchased in Greene County, Indiana, as the permanent location for the monastery. A small house as the convent and a barn for livestock were built, mostly by volunteers. The nuns moved to the new property at the end of 1994. Since then, a small existing house has been renovated for a guest house, trails made through the woods, and meditation areas developed along the trails.

Holy Redeemer Monastery is the residence for those women who are called by God to live the monastic vows of chastity, obedience, poverty, and stability and who share the vision of this particular monastic community. As an outgrowth of the nuns' pursuit of God, they share the monastic experience and environment as they are able by extending hospitality to all who come and by enabling others to use the monastery as a place of retreat. Tools common to monasticism are used by the nuns and offered to those who visit: prayer, silence, solitude, fasting, simplicity, study, and contemplation.