Harrison, Montana, December 5, 2025
Photo: holytrinitybutte.org
Archimandrite Metodij, Abbot of the Serbian Hilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos, visited St. Peter’s Monastery in Montana from October 22-24, where he met with 50 young men seriously interested in pursuing monastic life.
St. Peter’s Monastery is located on a thousand-acre ranch approximately three miles east of Harrison, a town of 187 residents. The young men, who traveled from as far as Canada and Arizona, listened to the abbot’s homily and participated in a two-hour question-and-answer session with both Fr. Metodij and Abbot Ephraim of St. Peter’s, the monastery reports.
The event had been announced as “a once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak directly with an Abbot from Mt. Athos, inheritor of over a thousand years of spiritual and monastic wisdom” for men seriously interested in monastic life and possibly joining the brotherhood at St. Peter’s Monastery.
Abbot Ephraim, who arrived at the monastery in 2025, was a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona and one of the founding fathers of St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona.
Photo: stpetersmonastery.com
St. Peter’s Monastery is situated on property initially considered as a potential skete of St. John’s Monastery in Manton, California. Architect Mark Headley designed an Athonite-style monastery for the site, but a decline in the population at St. John Monastery prevented the project from moving forward. In 2022 Archbishop Benjamin blessed the owners to offer the property to other jurisdictions.
The property features a square-log dacha and boathouse, octagonal two-story barn, and Palladian villa. Located two miles off the grid, the ranch generates electricity from a wind turbine and solar array. Philosophy River, named by Lewis and Clark in 1805, flows for one mile through the property.
The Life Estate arrangement requires that the monastery be English-speaking and pan-Orthodox, open to all Orthodox Christian monastics and guests. Establishing the monastery will require approximately $5-6 million to build infrastructure and the main residence for 12-18 monastics. The footings and ground floor stone and reinforced concrete walls are already in place, and the entrance tower is under construction.
Contributions to St. Peter’s Monastery Foundation are tax-exempt and can be made by check to St. Peter’s Monastery Foundation, P.O. Box 141, Harrison, Montana 59735, or by credit card online. St. Peter’s Monastery is a 501(c)3 charitable foundation.
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