Lone Butte, British Columbia, Canada, October 15, 2026
Photo: bcres.paragonrels.com
A small monastic community in the wilderness of British Columbia is looking for a buyer who’ll keep its chapel an Orthodox place of worship.
Holy Transfiguration Hermitage, part of the Orthodox Church in America’s Archdiocese of Canada, needs to leave its current location near Lone Butte, as its founder, Archimandrite Gregory (Papazian), who is almost 80, has developed a number of age-related health problems that make it extremely difficult for him to continue where the hermitage is now, reports Prekarios Styletes on X.
The community, currently consisting of three monks, has moved a number of times over the years. The rugged Cariboo region in central British Columbia has been the hermitage’s home for the past 11 years.
The brotherhood with Abp. Iréneé. Photo: orthodoxcanada.ca
The monks need to find a new location in a less remote area, where their elder can get more adequate care. The proceeds from the sale of the hermitage will cover all relocation costs, but they still have to find an appropriate buyer.
The monks are addressing the clergy and the faithful of the various jurisdictions, asking them to consider purchasing the hermitage. It can continue to be used as a monastery, but given its small size, it could also be used as a home.
Their main concern is that the chapel, which is integral to the building, remain an Orthodox place of worship.
Photo: bcres.paragonrels.com
The listing price for the 19-acre property is CA $549,000 (about US $385,000). The property is listed on a realty site and, as of this writing, has been on the market for 23 days.
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Fr. Gregory, born Burdz Papazian to Armenian parents in Cairo, Egypt, established the hermitage in Rawdon, Quebec, in 1977 with the blessing of Archbishop Sylvester (Haruns). Archbishop Sylvester had tonsured him a monk, given him the name Gregory, and ordained him to the diaconate and the priesthood. At Rawdon, Fr. Gregory built a two-story structure known as “the skete” and began candle-making, which would remain the main product of the hermitage at all its sites.
As the skete became better known, more people came to services and more demands were placed on Fr. Gregory, as though he were a parish priest. In the early 1980s, with Archbishop Sylvester’s blessing, he moved to a wooded area on his brother’s farm near Fitch Bay, Quebec. He lived there for nearly 20 years with no utilities, supporting himself and Monk Raphael (Vereshack) through candle-making and iconography. Fr. Gregory was elevated to igumen around 1993. Monk Samuel (Panchuk) later joined him and was ordained a deacon in 2007 and a priest in 2010.
Photo: bcres.paragonrels.com
In 1998, Fr. Gregory fell ill. On October 1 of that year, with the blessing of Bishop Seraphim (Storheim), he closed the hermitage and went on medical leave. After his health improved back in Canada, he and Fr. Samuel moved to British Columbia, settling in 1999 at Gibson’s Landing. They bought property there with a local Orthodox family and built a new hermitage, and Monk Moses (Schneider) later joined them. Over their 15 years there, the growing number of visitors again threatened the monks’ rhythm of life, so they began limiting visiting hours.
In 2015, the property had to be sold because the co-owning family was being refused insurance for sharing the land with a monastery. The monks relocated to a property near Lone Butte, about 111 miles north of Kamloops, where they built their cells, chapel and workspace with the help of friends. They limited visitors to clergy making a personal spiritual retreat, and they continue to make beeswax candles, iconographic works and other handiworks.
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