Pernambuco, Brazil, February 8, 2022
Photo: Facebook Through the labors of the brotherhood and the support of the faithful, Holy Trinity Monastery (Serbian Orthodox Church) in Pernambuco, Brazil, aims to continue developing its recently established press, which is the first Portuguese-language Orthodox publishing house in Brazil.
The monks already volunteer their time in translating and editing Orthodox texts into Portuguese, but until now they have had to rely on expensive third parties for printing. Thus, the Monastery intends to purchase its own professional printing press and become the first Orthodox press in Brazil, “able to print books at reasonable prices, and without having non-orthodox publishers meddling with the editing process,” reports the site of the monastery’s St. Sava’s Publishing House.
“A few volunteers associated with the monastery do all the work, and the high costs have to be absorbed by the monks. If the publishing house were at least equipped with the necessary machinery to work independently, without having to outsource the production of its books, the volume of Orthodox literature in Portuguese would certainly grow exponentially,” the monastery writes.
Abbot Archimandrite Pedro Siqueira acquired a desire to missionize through Orthodox literature during his time spent at St. Herman’s Monastery in Platina, California, well known for its vast catalog of publications that began with the blessing of St. John (Maximovitch) and the labors of Blessed Fr. Seraphim (Rose) and Fr. Herman (Podmoshensky).
Upon returning to Brazil, Fr. Pedro established Holy Trinity Monastery on land that had been donated to the Church in 1986, upon which a church and other buildings had already been erected.
Clergy gathered during the visit of Metropolitan Amfilohije (Radovitch). From left to right, the second is Bishop Kirilo (Bojović) and the third is Abbot Pedro Siqueira, 2019. Photo: editorasaosavas.wixsite.com
The Diocese of South and Central America, created by the Serbian Holy Synod in 2011, was entrusted to His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro, whose missionary vision and drive inspired the flourishing of the monastery and its missionary activities. Met. Amfilohije charged Abbot Pedro with the task of publishing the famous Prologue of Ohrid.
The first volume was published in 2016 in partnership with Theotokos Publishing Company, but as there is no Orthodox publishing house in Brazil, the high cost of book production has hampered the monastery’s missionary intent.
Holy Trinity Monastery. Photo: editorasaosavas.wixsite.com
Fr. Pedro then established the St. Sava’s Publishing House in 2020, which operates exclusively through volunteer work. It has already published Surprised by Christ by Fr. James Bernstein in Portuguese, and has prepared The Orthodox Understanding of Salvation by Dr. Christopher Veniamin and the second volume of the Prologue for publication.
St. Sava’s also has exclusive rights to publish any title from the St. Herman’s catalog in Portuguese.
To purchase the necessary equipment to begin publishing texts in-house, the monastery is seeking $5,000 in donations. All funds will go directly towards purchasing the equipment and supplies.
Donations can be sent with the bank information below:
Account name: Brazilian Monastery Fund
Address: PO box 70
Platina, CA 96076
Account No. 5994130523
Bank: Wells Fargo
Bank Address: 1515 Pine Street
Redding, CA 96001
Bank Routing Number for wire transfers: 121000248
BIC (SWIFT code): WFBIUS6S
St. Sava’s Publishing House is also on Facebook and Instagram.
Last March, land was blessed for the construction of a monastery under the Antiochian Orthodox Church in Brazil. In October, a church of the Polish Orthodox Church in Brazil was broken into and liturgical items were looted. A fundraising campaign helped the church receive the necessary funds to replace the stolen items.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
