{"id":84796,"date":"2026-07-25T07:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=84796"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:55:39","slug":"orthodox-monks-are-the-first-to-live-and-pray-at-a-monastery-in-estonia-for-80-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/orthodox-monks-are-the-first-to-live-and-pray-at-a-monastery-in-estonia-for-80-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Orthodox Monks Are The First To Live And Pray At A Monastery In Estonia For 80 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <em>Associated Press:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/184df82\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/7716x5144+0+0\/resize\/599x399!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fbb%2Fea%2F82922ee139a0480b2758cdf887f8%2F38ed4dca7f904e32bc35a7becc36a0a9\" alt=\"Estonia Monastery Bishop Damaskinos, centre left, prays during the Divine Liturgy in the chapel of the newly founded Kirikla Orthodox Monastery in Pihali village, Estonia, on July 4, 2026. (AP Photo\/Sergei Grits)\" width=\"432\" height=\"288\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The ancient words of the Divine Liturgy echo in Estonian as Bishop Damaskinos, clad in flowing white and gold vestments, intones prayers in a small, dark chapel separated only by curtains from the bustling daily life of a new monastery nestled within a farmhouse.<\/p>\n<p>Founded last year in one of Europe\u2019s most secular societies, the Kirikla Orthodox Monastery is the first monastery the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church has established in decades.\u00a0Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the church has coexisted alongside a separate\u00a0<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/8e627156352a4d9fb2ad95c4353882e3\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">Orthodox church<\/a><\/span>\u00a0affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, which has a larger membership in the Baltic country. Even so, the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church has long sought to rebuild its own male monastic community within its own borders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Associated Press: The ancient words of the Divine Liturgy echo in Estonian as Bishop Damaskinos, clad in flowing white.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-84796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84798,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84796\/revisions\/84798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}