Shannonbridge, Ireland, August 23, 2019
The Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Southern and Western Europe has published an official appeal to faithful Orthodox Christians to offer their prayers and funds towards purchasing property to open a new monastery in the heart of Ireland.
The monastery will be dedicated to the Mother of God and its patronal feast will be the Life-Giving Spring, celebrated every year on Bright Friday.
The property that the metropolis hopes to buy was a retreat center belonging to a Catholic religious community. It is located in the heart of Ireland in the village of Shannonbridge, just a few miles away from where St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise had labored in asceticism in the 6th century. The entire area was home to a number of monasteries and monastics in the first millennium of Christianity.
The request reads:
Our appeal is all the more urgent and necessary as we are trying to buy the property as soon as possible. As nothing is impossible with God, and as God works through people, please, could you become collaborators in this undertaking, be co-workers with God and with us founding the monastery to the glory of God and to the honour of the Mother of God and the Celtic saints of Ireland, who, let us not forget, did a great deal for Europe in the first ten centuries. We think it is about time we remembered them and knotted our loving relationship with them, as, isn’t that so, “God is wondrous in His saints.”
“Even if you cannot immediately help, please join us in prayer, this is a very precious help that can work wonders and without which we cannot achieve anything,” the appeal continues.
Donations can be made using the following account details:
Beneficiary: Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland
Address of the beneficiary: St. John the Baptist Missionary Centre, Drimnagh Castle, Long Mile Road, Dublin 12
Bank: Bank of Ireland
Bank address: 6 Lower O’Connell Street, Dublin 1
IBAN: IE98BOFI 9000 3324 4356 07
BIC: BOFIIE2D
Contact: sr. Iosifia ( m.iosifia@yahoo.co.uk; Tel: 00353894831802)