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Special to Horizons
ST. NAZIANZ, Wis. — Father Anthony Romens was tonsured a stavrophore monk for Holy Resurrection Monastery in St. Nazianz Sept. 8.
Father Anthony was born in Milwaukee. He was baptized and raised Roman Catholic, but his spiritual search led him to the Romanian Catholic monastery, located about 85 miles north of Milwaukee.
“The monastic tonsure (or solemn vows) is essentially a definitive marriage between a monastic’s soul and God,” said Father Anthony.
“In the Gospel of Matthew, we hear Christ speak of life after death. ‘At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven,’” he continued.
“In this way, a monk begins the angelic life on earth. Henceforth, after our solemn vows we strive to live a life of prayer and fasting as we live in heaven for the renewal of all God’s creation,” he said.
During a tonsure, a monk makes vows to God and the church in front of the community.
The abbot cuts some of the monk’s hair in the form of a cross, one bit from each side, to symbolize the candidate’s dedication to God, and the monk then makes vows to live according to the monastic angelic life, which St. John Paul II described in “Orientale Lumen” as “the reference point for all the baptized.”
Byzantine Catholic monks have three levels of profession: the first is rasophore; the second is stavrophore; and the third is the great habit, which is for hermits.
Father Anthony is the fourth monk to join this monastery and to be tonsured a stavrophore monk since the community moved to Wisconsin from California in 2011.
The number of fully professed monks has doubled to eight, since the monastery settled in Wisconsin.
Caption: Father Anthony Romens was tonsured a stavrophore monk for Holy Resurrection Monastery in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin, Sept. 8. (Photo courtesy of Holy Resurrection Monastery)
As published in Horizons, Oct. 6, 2019.
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