St. Barbara Orthodox Monastery
LATEST NEWS & POSTS
March 2025
We will be closed to visitors March 3rd to March 7th, Clean Monday to Friday.
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March 2, 2025 Wishing you a Blessed Great Lent! Here is our Lenten schedule of services.
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ST. BARBARA ORTHODOX MONASTERY
LIFE OF PRAYER
St. Barbara Orthodox Monastery is a women's monastic community of the Diocese of the West of the Orthodox Church in America, under the omophorion of His Eminence, Archbishop BENJAMIN. The Monastery was founded in 1992 and has been located in Santa Paula, California, since late 2005.
The Sisters maintain a regular cycle of daily liturgical services and partly earn their living growing lavender and producing lavender products, selling solid wood caskets, and operating a small bookstore and online gift shop.
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In our daily pursuits, we at St. Barbara Orthodox Monastery strive to embody the teachings of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through living in community, prayerful devotion, hospitality, and diligent labor, we seek to deepen our love for God and neighbor, endeavoring to make our monastery a prayerful haven for all who visit.
THE LIFE OF ST. BARBARA
St. Barbara, a 4th-century martyr, embraced Christianity while sequestered in a tower by her wealthy pagan father, Dioscorus.
While gazing out of her tower and pondering what she saw, Barbara marveled at the inspiring beauty of nature she beheld, and reasoned rightly that there must be a loving Creator who was responsible for the beauty that thrilled her soul.
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She learned about the Christian faith (possibly from her faithful attendants). The more she drank in the truths of the Faith, not only was her heart captivated by God's marvelous creation, but also by Christ's wondrous love and work of salvation on the Cross in our behalf.
She was secretly baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity in her father's absence by a traveling priest disguised as a peddler.
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So strong was her love for Christ, that this young maiden was willing to suffer greatly and give up her own life for the truth of her new found faith.
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LIFE AT THE MONASTERY
SCHEDULE OF SERVICES
We will be closed to pilgrims during the first 5 days of Great Lent: Clean Monday to Friday, 3/3-3/7.
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Great Lent Service Schedule
(March 3rd to April 19th)
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​Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri
7 am Matins (8 am on Clean Mon, Tues, Wed, 3/3 -3/5)
12 pm 6th Hour
4 pm Vespers (Most Fridays: Vespers with Fr. Jude)
6 pm Great Compline
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Wednesday
7 am Matins (except Clean Wed, 8 am)
12 pm 6th Hour
5:30 pm Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
(Except Wed, March 12th: Sisters will be at St Barbara Greek Church in Santa Barbara)
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Saturday
7am Matins​​
12 pm 6th Hour
6 pm Vigil
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Sunday (Except Sunday, March 9th: No Liturgy)
9:30 am 3rd & 6th Hours
10 am Divine Liturgy
5:30 pm Vespers
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PLAN A VISIT
If you would like to visit the monastery, please contact us ahead of time via email or phone. Everyone is welcome to attend the liturgical services in our chapel and to share in our common meals together.
There is no fixed fee for overnight accommodations, although free-will donations are gratefully accepted.
We ask that you dress modestly.
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