c. 1998 Religion News Service

EAGLE HARBOR, Mich. _ The monks of the Keweenaw Peninsula are well-known for their wild-fruit jams and brandy-soaked fruitcakes made at”Poorrock Abbey”on this remote stretch of Lake Superior.

But Father Basil and Father Nicholas still lack the one thing they really want: A space to share their music and prayers with visitors.

That may change soon. Fifteen years after founding the monastery now known as the Holy Transfiguration Skete, they have started work on an $800,000 chapel, library and dormitory addition, complete with the onion domes typical of the Ukrainian Catholic rites to which they adhere.

The building will mark a milestone on the journey of two men who left the Detroit area to seek a strict religious life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“We came looking for purgatory, and we found paradise,” said Father Basil, a 51-year-old Michigan native.

They have borrowed money and finished half the project, including the foundation for the church. Completion will wait for another year of donations and food sales at their Jampot retail outlet.

In the early ’80s, Father Basil worked for a Detroit bank and Father Nicholas was a musician and choral director. They had different names then, but as Father Basil said, “that’s the past.”

Father Basil grew up as a Roman Catholic, and Father Nicholas was Protestant. The two deeply religious men had worked together on musical education programs and found the effort strangely unfulfilling _ as though they weren’t truly touching people’s lives.

“We weren’t reaching high enough or trying hard enough,” said Father Nicholas, 52. “What we had to do was recognize the arts as a technique to know God.”

They began looking for ways to weave prayer, art and music into a single tapestry of religious life.

In the winter of 1982, their search brought them to Jacob’s Falls, on the snow-swept shore of Lake Superior midway between the communities of Eagle Harbor and Eagle River.

“Neither of us had ever visited this region, but we knew it was famous for severe weather,” Father Basil said. “We liked what we saw, the broken land and how it interacted with the water.”

They formed the Society of St. John as a nonprofit organization, designed their own monastic robes and bought three acres that had once been a small resort on the Keweenaw’s north shore.

In the winter of 1983-84, they moved into their monastery _ a tiny wooden building that had neither insulation nor winterized plumbing. They cut firewood, hauled water from a nearby spring, and often read their prayers by candlelight while wrapped in blankets.

“I did not question whether we had done the right thing,” recalled Father Nicholas, his eyes twinkling with unmonkish humor. “I had some questions whether we would survive it.”

For the first decade, the two men toiled alone in their monastic life. A third member joined four years ago.

Since their second summer, the men have supported the monastery with a small store called the Jampot, where they make and sell baked goods and fruit preserves under the Poorrock Abbey brand.

The business has grown over the years and they now employ local residents to gather wild fruits, as well as two summer workers to help with food preparation.

Their best-known product, thimbleberry jam, is made from a raspberry-like fruit that grows wild in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Among 60 other varieties are wild strawberry jam, dandelion jelly and several varieties of wild apple or crab apple preserves.

They also publish a newsletter and sell products through the mail and on their Web site (http://www.societystjohn.com). A new venture, Poorrock Abbey Publishing, offers fine art prints as a fund-raiser for the new church. Eventually, they hope to offer religious gifts and icons through the publishing entity.

The monastery had no affiliation until 1995. After a search for a place to belong, the monks met the Ukrainian Catholic bishop of Chicago. Though neither man was familiar with the Eastern rites, they agreed to become part of the Ukrainian Catholic Church as a division, or skete, of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Redwood Valley, Calif.

The skete can become an independent monastery when it has at least seven consecrated monks.

Fathers Basil and Nicholas spent the past three winters in California. They are now recognized as deacons of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. In November, both expect to be ordained as priests by Bishop Michael Wiwchar, Ukrainian eparch of Chicago.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church is affiliated with the pope and the Roman Catholic Church, though its icons and ceremonies appear similar to those in Eastern Orthodox rites. Members of Roman Catholic and Ukrainian congregations may share communion at each others’ churches.

The Keweenaw monks expect several candidates to visit this summer and take the first tentative steps in a four-year process toward consecration.

“Some people think they can be an instant monk,” Father Nicholas said, “but holiness is something you grow into. They come to the monastery as sinners, not saints.”

While they hope for more growth of their community, the men say they’ll continue the work and prayer that make up life in a monastery.

“A lot of it is waiting and living,” Father Basil said. “And that is good. Life here is good.”

IR END HOOGTERP