Our Mission

We at the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene have received the call to serve the Church, ourselves, and you through prayer and monastic life. We strive always to attain not only our own salvation, but also to aide others in this difficult journey through our continual prayer. We take monastic vows so that others may benefit from a continual cycle of prayer, and we join our voices with our brother and sister monastics around the world to pray for the salvation of others, the growth of the Church, and peace on earth. In other words, we pray when others cannot or simply do not. We continually seek God in community and rely on prayer and ministry to continue the mission of the One, Holy Apostolic Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. We strive always to spread the message of salvation granted to the Holy Apostles as our Lord commands.

We are one of the very few urban monasteries. Our monastery is located in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, where we prayerfully serve the forgotten. We are active in food banks and feeding programs that provide much needed help to the disabled, homeless, senior citizens, single mothers, children, and other poor who live in our midst.

Our patron saint is one of the most misunderstood women of the Bible, St. Mary Magdalene. Wrongfully mislabeled a prostitute and unclean woman in the 7th century, St. Mary Magdalene was instead one of Jesus’ closest friends, the only one whose presence at the cross of crucifixion and the burial tomb is specifically noted in the Bible by all the evangelists who provide names in their accounts. It was she who first witnessed the risen Christ, and she was chosen by Him to take the message of his resurrection to the others. Like St. Mary Magdalene, we strive to emulate her model and bring the message of our Lord’s resurrection to those we encounter in our lives. It is a beautiful life, filled with the love of the Lord for all.