BRIEF HISTORY

The Monks of New Skete began in 1966 with a small group of monks. Having originally been members of the Byzantine-Rite Franciscans, our first brothers sought to live a more explicitly monastic life within the Eastern Christian tradition. To do this, they left the Franciscans and established New Skete as a separate monastic community. 

Initially they were helped by the monks of Mount Saviour Monastery, who gave them temporary use of a lodge in Northwestern Pennsylvania. After six months, the monks moved to a small farm near Cambridge in the beautiful hills of upstate New York.  The monks renovated and converted the farmhouse into a suitable monastery, landscaped the grounds, and began farming like their neighbors.  However, as time went on, it became clear that the location we had chosen lacked the necessary solitude, so a year later we moved once more to a new location on the other side of Cambridge.  There we built our present buildings – now our permanent home.  (For a brief photo tour of the monastery, click here.) Currently we have nine professed monks.

In 1969, inspired by a similar vision of monastic life, a group of eight Poor Clare nuns settled several miles from the monks and became the Nuns of New Skete, a sister community. There are currently ten professed nuns and one novice. The fact that New Skete is composed of male and female members has enriched our monastic life with a healthy dynamism and interchange and led to an expanded liturgy that includes a mixed choir for singing the divine offices and Eucharist.

In 1983 a group of married people who had been attending services at New Skete for some time, petitioned the community about becoming a third community at New Skete.  After a trial period, they became the Companions of New Skete, and built a separate residence at the bottom of the monk’s property. The Companions support themselves largely through running a guesthouse catering to married couples. Together with the monks and nuns, they gather twice a day to chant Matins and Vespers.

While originally the monks and nuns followed the Byzantine Rite within the Roman Catholic Church, in 1979, after many years of studying and practicing Orthodox theology and liturgy, New Skete came to the conclusion that it could best serve the renewal of Eastern Christian monastic and liturgical life within the Orthodox Church. With the encouragement and counsel of Fr Alexander Schmemann and Fr John Meyendorff, they were received into the Orthodox Church of America by Metropolitan Theodosius.  As members of the Orthodox Church for the past twenty five years, New Skete works actively for the reconciliation and mutual understanding of all Christians, particularly the Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church.