History of Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Monastery in Harvard, Illinois

Icon of the 16 monasteries in North America under the spiritual guidance of Elder Ephraim. Click to enlarge.

oly Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Monastery is one of the sixteen monasteries that currently exist in the United States and Canada under the spiritual guidance of Elder Ephraim.
Elder Ephraim is a flesh son and spiritual son (during his early years) of nun Theophano. At the age of 19 he became a spiritual son of St. Joseph the Hesychast, also known as the Cavedweller. St. Joseph is a well-known ascetic from Mt. Athos in Greece, and is also one of the most recent saints of our century.

Elder Ephraim	Nun Theophano and Abbess Makrina	Elder Joseph the Hesychast

he Elder is now in his mid-seventies and a priest-monk for over fifty years. His spiritual children number into the tens of thousands from all around the world, including lay people, monastics, and priests. He is also the spiritual elder of four monasteries in Mt. Athos and eight women's monasteries throughout Greece.
His Eminence Metropolitan Iakovos, Heirarch for the Metropolis of Chicago, fulfilled and blessed the requests of local pious Orthodox Christians for the establishment of a men's monastery in the area of Illinois and Wisconsin.

In the fall of 1998, after many efforts and a long search, this beautiful land was chosen to be a monastery commemorating the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ. One priest-monk and two monks were assigned from St. Anthony's Monastery, which is in the desert of Arizona, to come here to start the monastery.
According to the New Testament, Our Lord took three of His disciples (St. Peter, St. Iakovos, and St. John the Theologian), to the top of Mt. Tabor, where He was transfigured by showing them some of His glory (as much as they could handle), in the presence of the two Holy Prophets Elias and Moses. St. Isidoros Pelousiotis explained that the appearance of the two Holy Prophets during The Transfiguration, along with the presence of the three disciples, indicate and affirm that Our Lord Jesus Christ is in total control of both the living and the dead.

Bishop Iakovos

Holy Transfiguration
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It is very significant that The Lord's Transfiguration took place before his arrest. After His disciples witnessed His awesome glory and tremendous power, they then saw Him humiliated in the most disgusting ways, and eventually put on The Cross. Then they could realize that He suffered everything because of His infinite, truthful, and unconditional love towards each one of us individually, and that He wants all of us to be with Him eternally.

he Monastery's Chapel is dedicated to The Holy Disciple and Evangelist Saint John the Theologian, who was an eyewitness to the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord.
In order to glorify His disciple, Our Lord allowed the following amazing incident to occur.
Fr. Theologos, who is a monk at the monastery, is well-trained in gold leafing. In the fall of 2001, during the completion of the construction of the chapel's altar, he was working with a small wood-carved ornamental cap. The cap had been purchased at an outlet of a large chain-store for home improvements, in order to beautify the altar's iconostasis.

St. John the Theologian
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The date that the ionic cap was carved had been marked on the back of it by the woodcarver, and, amazingly, it was 12-18-1998 . . . the same date that the three fathers arrived here from Arizona!

- Ionic Cap -

It's also remarkable to mention that in order to find the nine necessary caps, because of the few number of caps left in the stores, we had to look through five other stores of that same chain. The shortage of the caps was because the store's management decided not to stack them on the shelves anymore, but to have them on display and available for orders only. We looked at the dates of all the other caps, and surprisingly they were all carved on various dates of 2001!

ere in McHenry County the community is very friendly, and during the zoning proceedings there was a unanimous decision in favor of the Monastery. We are very obligated and thankful to everyone who has helped and is helping the Monastery in any way that they can, and we wish from our hearts that the Lord may bless them all.
Besides being busy with the upkeeping of the grounds, many handicrafts are made at the Monastery. Some of them, accordingly wrapped, are available as gifts for baptisms and weddings. Also, monastic clothes are custom tailored at the Monastery, as well as vestments, rhasa, and hats for Orthodox priests.
The Monastery celebrates two feasts every year: The feast of St. John the Theologian on May 8th, and the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ on August 6th.
The gate is open daily between 6:00 am and 8:30 pm. Everyone is welcome.