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On Christmas, [[January 7]], 1976, Makarios was made a [[novice]] by Archbishop [[Averky (Taushev) of Syracuse|Averky (Taushev)]], then Dean of Holy Trinity Seminary. As a novice his obediences in the [[monastery]] were cleaning, cooking, working the tractor in the farm and digging graves in the cemetery. After a few years in the monastery he was made a riassophor [[monk]] on Friday of the First Week of Lent, 1979 and [[tonsure]]d to the small schema on Friday of the First Week of Lent, 1980, and given the name Mitrophan in honor of Saint [[Mitrophan of Voronezh]]. He was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[subdeacon]] on Palm Sunday of the same year, before graduating from Holy Trinity Seminary that year.
Fr Mitrophan, with the blessing of [[Laurus (Skurla) of New York|Archbishop Laurus]], moved to [[Mount Athos]] in June of 1981. Initially, he lived in St Elias Skete for several months, a strict skete which was then connected with ROCOR. On the advise of Elder Nicodemos of Karoulia, he then moved to an English-speaking cell (within [[Koutloumousiou Monastery (Athos)|Koutloumousiou Monastery]]) with four other ROCOR monks (including a hieromonk ordained by then-Bp Bishop [[Mark (Arndt) of Berlin|Mark (Arndt)]]), which was one that other monasteries would often send American visitors to them. He became acquainted with St [[Paisios (Eznepidis)|Paisios the Athonite]] while there. He was tonsured to the great schema by [[Hieromonk]] Chrysostomos of Koutloumousiou and given the name George in honor of Saint George the Great-Martyr.
In February, 1986, Fr George returned to [[Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville, New York)|Holy Trinity Monastery]] and started working on the Printshop of Saint Job of Pochaev, where he worked until 2008. He assumed editorial duties on Orthodox Life from 1992 to his consecration as bishop in 2008, including writing & translating many articles for ''Orthodox Life'' magazine and translating several sayings of the Optina Elders found in ''Living Without Hypocrisy'' ([[Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville, New York)|HTM Press]], 2006). He also began helping at [[Hermitage of the Holy Cross (Wayne, West Virginia)|Hermitage of the Holy Cross]] during this time, serving as confessor and spiritual father.
