St. Petroc Monastery (Cascades, Tasmania)

Saint Petroc Monastery
Jurisdiction	ROCOR ANZ
Type	Semi-Eremitic Male Monastery
Founded	1992
Superior	Fr Michael
Approx. size	One
Location	Cascades, Tasmania, Australia
Liturgical language(s)	English
Music used	Western Rite, Sarum
Calendar	Julian
Feastdays celebrated	Unknown
Official website	website

Saint Petroc Monastery is a semi-eremitic monastic community for men in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia located in Cascades, Tasmania. The current superior is Fr Michael, and follows the Sarum practise of the Western Rite.

History

Saint Petroc Monastery was founded in 1992 as an Anglo-Catholic monastery. In 1995 it turned to Orthodoxy and, under instruction, was placed under the direction of Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch. In 1997, the monastery was received into ROCOR, under the omophorion of Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand, with the mandate to not only continue using the Sarum practise of the Western Rite, but to do so with the explicit intent of attracting people of Anglo-Celtic ancestry to Orthodoxy through this rite. The Monastery also received permission to create attached monastery missions and parishes. In 1998, the monastery began one of these attached missions in Launceston, named for St Stephen. In 2001, Fr Michael becomes a chaplain at the University of Tasmania; though this service concludes after the University of Tasmania sells their faith centre.

In 2003, the Saint Colman Prayer Book, compiled by the monastery, is authorised for use in ROCOR. In June of the next year, the Monastery calls a meeting of Western Rite clergy in Australia and New Zealand - which included the priests attached to the monastery and two Antiochian clergy - to discuss the future of Western Rite in Australasia.

On February 13, 2013, Hieromonk Michael is suspended and retired by Metropolitan Hilarion due to canonical violations, neglect (through absence) of St Dyfan's parish in Hobart, and "bringing disrepute to the Orthodox witness of the Western Rite movement" through his online interactions. On the 31st of March, he announced that "[o]n the 15th of March, [he] was notified in writing of [his] reception by his eminence (sic), Metropolitan Daniel of the Metropolitanate of Moscow (TOC-R). This was followed by the necessary decrees. The decrees stated that [he is] a Hieromonk of Metropolitan Daniel's diocese, resident in the United Kingdom". This reception means the departure of Hieromonk Michael and St Petroc Monastery from the Church.

External Links

• 'A site of St Petroc Monastery'
• Saint Petroc Monastery, Hobart, Tasmania. A ROCOR missionary initiative.
• FrMichael Hieromonk Facebook page