Our Story

A Solid Foundation

In 1995, the Parish Council of St. John Orthodox Church in Memphis formally embraced the mission of trying to help start an Orthodox monastic presence somewhere in the Midsouth, such that her members would have closer access to monastics than then existed. Specifically, the council wanted to help initiate a women’s monastic presence. Bishop BASIL, our then-bishop for the “region,” was encouraging, but wisely noted that such an endeavor could take time, and that we should be patient and begin earnestly praying as a community. Things progressed much quicker than he or the parish anticipated. Within a year, a couple in the parish had purchased land in Grand Junction, TN and was prepared to donate it right away. The initial gift would be for 40 acres, but the couple would subsequently donate up to another 180 acres when the community could fully use it. With that offer in hand, His Grace BASIL suggested that the pastor and he make a visit to Fr. Roman Braga, the spiritual father for Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction, MI. Fr. Roman was a true confessor from his life in Romania, and Dormition was/is a healthy community and with a very able abbess in Mother Gabriella.

Without going into great detail, the result of that meeting and subsequent communications was an agreement that Mother Nektaria would come to Tennessee to begin the establishment of a community which could grow into a fully functioning monastery. Hierarchically, it would be an Antiochian community, and Metropolitan PHILIP directed that Bishop BASIL would have charge over it. Mother Nektaria asked that it be dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle, and His Eminence blessed it to be so. Since Mother was not ready to assume the role of an abbess, and no community beyond her yet existed, Mother Gabriella agreed to act as abbess. Additionally, since Dormition was under the hierarchical oversight of Romanian Bishop NATHANIEL, he also gave his blessing following fruitful communication with Bishop BASIL. Her spiritual father and confessor was Fr. Joseph Morris, the Superior of Gregory Palamas Monastery in Ohio (GOA).

Mother Nektaria arrived in Memphis in 1996. Since there were no structures on the property yet, and the community had yet to be established legally, Mother took up residence in a rented home less than a block from St. John’s church. A small chapel was created in a small building on the back side of the property, and she began services almost immediately. Weekly liturgies were served for the entire time until she relocated to the property in Grand Junction. With the metropolitan’s blessing, the fledgling “community” took the name St. Paul Skete.

With sadness, but also with thanks to God for a life well lived, Mother Nektaria, 72, fell asleep in the Lord on Aug. 9, 2023. Mother lived the last 27 years of her monastic life at St. Paul Skete.

Looking Ahead

On July 15, 2024 Father Paul, a son of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America and a monk of the Great Schema from the Holy Monastery of Saint Paul’s on Athos, arrived to the property in Grand Junction.  With God’s help he is now building on the foundation left by +Mother Nektaria for the establishment of an Athonite style monastery for men dedicated to the Life-giving Trinity.

Hieromonk Paul (born 1966) entered the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1993. Two years later, he joined His Grace Bishop Basil to assist him in the Wichita Chancery. Hieromonk Paul departed for Damascus, Syria in the winter of that year, coming under the direction of His Grace Bishop John (now His Beatitude Patriarch John X) of Houmayra, Syria.

Father Paul traveled to St. Paul Monastery on Mt. Athos in the summer of 1996. On Great and Holy Wednesday of 1997, he received the Great Schema.

In 1998, Hieromonk Paul returned to U.S. to assist Bishop Basil at the Wichita Chancery, visiting St. Paul Monastery every two years for confession to his elder, Parthenios. He also visited friends like His Eminence Metropolitan Saba (when he was metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Bosra, Hauran and Jabal Al-Arab, Syria) and the monasteries of the Patriarchate of Antioch.

In 2006, Fr. Paul took up residence at St. Paul Monastery for four years. In 2010, he again returned to the U.S. where he cared for his aging parents for the next 11 years.

Hieromonk Paul accepted the request by Metropolitan Saba to assist him upon his election as Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of North America in 2023. The next year, His Eminence assigned him as supervisor (dikaios) of the monastic property in Grand Junction, Tenn. (now named for the Life-giving Trinity), after the repose of Mother Nektaria.

On Feb. 8, 2025, at Our Lady of Balamand Monastery in Lebanon, Schemamonk Paul was ordained to the holy diaconate by His Eminence Metropolitan Saba at St. George Church, and then to the holy priesthood the next day by His Beatitude Patriarch John X at Dormition Church.