A religious tradition born in Egypt finds a home in California desert
NEWBERRY SPRINGS, Calif. -- Down an unpaved road, past brooding icons and swaying stands of mesquite, lies St. Antony's Monastery, a place of scorching winds and emptiness that perhaps only a holy man could love.
Little moves when the sun is high, but as the day wears on, black figures emerge from solitary rooms. These shrouded men, most from Egypt, are practicing the oldest monastic tradition in Christendom and tending its sole outpost in North America.
They spend days and nights in prayer, seeking a mystical union with the divine.
``The desert gives you a great calmness of heart," said Father Antonious Saint Antony, one of 10 monks living here. ``After a while God seems like a friend."
Despite its remoteness, this 800-acre swath of the Mojave 25 miles northeast of Barstow has become a magnet for thousands yearning to embrace a way of life far different from mainstream America -- one shunning materialism, embracing poverty, and denying the self.
Like the monks, most visitors are Coptic Orthodox hoping to reconnect with their past. The faith dates to about AD 60, when tradition says the Apostle Mark founded the church in Alexandria, Egypt.
Cherie Anderegg, a Coptic convert from La Habra, Calif., was here on a retreat. She once attended a large, nondenominational church whose effort to appeal to everyone resulted in what she said was a diluted faith that left her unsatisfied. One night she and her boyfriend went to a Coptic service where the priest read the entire book of Revelation.
``We felt they were right, that this was the way Christ had set up the church," said the 22-year-old. ``This church has not changed since it started."
Her friend Sarah Nicola, 22, of Anaheim, Calif., attends Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church in Santa Ana.
``I was born a Copt," she said. ``I come here to recharge."
Father Anastasi Saint Antony is the leader, or abbot, of St. Antony's Coptic Orthodox Monastery. A soft-spoken man with a ready smile and serene demeanor, he wears the traditional garb of a Coptic monk: black robe, black hood, and long, untrimmed beard. Like the others, he goes by the last name Saint Antony.
``We are here to have a quiet life and unite with God; there is no other reason to be here," he said. ``I came because I felt I was distracted. I could not concentrate on the verse in the Bible that says you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind."
The monks trace their spiritual roots to St. Antony, often called the Father of Monasticism, who retreated into the Egyptian desert about AD 285 for a severe, ascetic life of religious contemplation. Others followed and became known as the Desert Fathers. The tradition eventually spread throughout the Christian world.
Monastic life here is rigorous, physically and mentally. The monks take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and focus on worship . They pray for hours each day .
Asked if he ever tired of this, Father Anastasi said, ``Do you ever tire of saying `I love you' to your wife?"
Though they eat and sometimes pray together, much of their life is spent alone in a tiny room they call a cell . Sometimes they stay in desert shacks.
``Every person has two struggles: the spiritual attacks from outside and the attacks from within," said Father Markos Saint Antony. ``Here we have only one fight, the fight within. We have eliminated the outer struggles."
The monks begin their day at 3:30 a.m. in a red-carpeted church with gold-framed icons on the walls.
No one sits during the Liturgy, which can last three hours. The rites continue periodically throughout the day, ending about 11 p.m.
Outside the church, Ehab Shoukry rested on a bench. The 26-year-old Copt from Boston had been up since 3 a.m.
``I have never been to a monastery before," Shoukry said. ``I like the quietness, and I love the communal prayers. I wanted to come and see what the desert is like. I'm just amazed by it. I feel comfort, I feel joy, I feel peace. The monks are like angels on Earth."
