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Manton’s Monastery of St. John
Photo courtesy of Hieromonk Innocent
eat, work, love.
MANTON’S MONASTERY OF ST. JOHN
TUCKED AWAY on 42 acres of Ponderosa pine trees in Manton is the Monastery of St. John, a foundation of prayer, work and love for the Eastern Orthodox Christian monks who call it home, and a place of retreat and renewal for those who visit.
Founded in 2006 when the monks outgrew their original home at Point Reyes Station in Marin County, the Manton location was chosen after an extensive search that went beyond California. “We made the decision fairly quickly as soon as it was discovered,” says Hieromonk Innocent, the monastery’s Superior. “We had grown to about eight members at the time. After moving here, even more people came.” Manton offered land that could be developed with a church, and a milder climate for those who fared poorly on the coast.
The bells ring early at the Monastery of St. John, calling the monks to prayer at 5:55am. They move through a schedule of private and group contemplation that includes chanting, reading, singing and work designed to move them closer to God. “We’re finding our salvation,” says Innocent. “What that means is that we know that we are far from God and we realize that something has to change. We need to be transformed.” The spiritual tradition the monks follow was established in the fourth century by St. Pachomius and St. Basil.4 continued on page 52
Although the environment may be idyllic, the monastic life has its challenges, and these are embraced as part of the journey. “When we come and live this life and live this program, all the things that are hidden come to the surface. Then there is conflict, there is drama. And we tell God,” says Innocent. “It’s a years-long process of finding out how bad we really are and how much God really loves us.”
Innocent was raised an Evangelical Protestant Christian but converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity at age 29 after a mission trip to Siberia. “I came back and experienced shell shock,” he explains. “That led me on a path to search for what I really believe. It led me to the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church.”
While the Monastery of St. John is designed to facilitate a monastic life for its members, it also provides opportunities for visitors to experience renewal and retreat through its guest house. “It’s not a hotel,” says Innocent. “Guests are expected to come to services and the common meals. It’s a non-organized personal retreat.” Themed spiritual retreats are also offered a few times a year, and groups have enjoyed volunteer events in the mountain environment.
The monks pay for expenses through an online business selling beeswax candles and honey made onsite, as well as spiritual books found in their bookstore. “We make a lot of candles that are used in Eastern Orthodox churches,” says Innocent. “They are thinner. Most of our candles are used for prayer. Historically, monasteries, especially in Russia, rely heavily on candle-making and bee keeping. The reason we do candles is because we want to have something to keep us busy, to not be idle.”
The monks have been happy to help locals get started in beekeeping, as well. “We have a nucleus package – three or four frames with a queen bee,” he adds. “It connects us to the community. Bees work here because there are flowers. And it’s cold enough here that certain parasites don’t exist.”
For those not interested in keeping their own bees, but desiring honey, it’s available, as well. “People will deliberately come here for local honey. I like it when we can connect with other people that way.”
Although this year’s annual open house was canceled at the monastery due to precautions related to COVID-19, Innocent still believes in the message of the event. “We can show that it’s possible to live in community, to work things out, how to actually stay in one place. To honor the place, to honor the people. To go through the struggle of forgiveness.”
The path to forgiveness is so important that it’s how the monks end their long days of prayer and work. “At the end of the final service, we bow to each other and we say, ‘Please forgive me,’” says Innocent. “It’s the end of the day. You have to have forgiveness at the end of the day.”•
Monastery of St. John www.monasteryofstjohn.org 21770 Ponderosa Way, Manton
Melissa Mendonca is a graduate of San Francisco State and Tulane universities. She’s a lover of airports and road trips and believes in mentoring and service to create communities everyone can enjoy. Her favorite words are rebar, wanderlust and change.
A HISTORY OF
TRADITION
T H E W I N T U C U LT U R A L M U S E U M IN SHASTA LAKE
THE WINTU Cultural Museum shares the story of the Wintu Tribe through artifacts, photographs and documents. It’s a look at the past, but also a reminder that Wintu people are very much present. “We are still here. We are still Wintu,” notes one display.
“For anyone who comes in, it’s really to show that we have been here for hundreds of years and we’re not extinct. We still carry on,” says Gary Rickard, tribal chairman of the Wintu Tribe of Northern California.
The museum on Shasta Dam Boulevard in the City of Shasta Lake is part of the Wintu Cultural Resource Center. The 6,000-squarefoot facility also includes a conference/ meeting room for the tribal council and its committees, a commercial kitchen and a spacious community room. It’s a gathering place for events, activities and classes, such as lessons on the Penutian language of the Wintu. The kitchen is used to prepare meals for a community-wide lunch distribution program.
The center came to be through a collaboration of the tribal government and the City of Shasta Lake. A total of $1.8 million in Community Development Block Grants (grant cycles in 2007 and 2010) and $155,000 in city redevelopment funds were used to purchase and remodel a commercial building.
The museum encompasses 2,510 square feet of the center, with a mission to promote4 continued on page 56
understanding of and respect for Wintu history and culture. The Wintu were made up of nine bands and have a history in the region going back at least 1,500 years, Rickard notes. “We pretty much lived in harmony with nature and the other bands. There was very, very little conflict with other tribes,” he says.
A floor-to-ceiling timeline curves around one side of the museum, offering an overview of Wintu history from 1815 through 2013. Wintu population was estimated at 14,000 prior to European contact, according to the timeline. The California Gold Rush brought a surge of new arrivals to Northern California in the mid-1800s. Wintu were displaced, died from starvation and disease and were slain, with killings encouraged by governmentissued bounties. By 1880, the Northern Wintu population was 454, the timeline states.
The timeline includes the Indian Citizens Act giving Indians the right to vote in 1924; eviction of Wintu from ancestral lands to make way for Shasta Dam in the early 1940s; the Toyon occupation in the early 1970s; and the ongoing push for official tribal status.
Displays showcase Wintu cooking baskets and additional artifacts, as well as baby carriers, woven hats, containers and items from other California tribes. Historical photographs and a copy of a treaty signed but never ratified by Congress are among the items exhibited. The tribe is working on repatriating Wintu artifacts held in other collections. “We’ve gone to Chico State, Sac State and several other places to bring some of our stuff home,” Rickard says.
A Native Veterans Wall of Honor in the museum features photographs of tribal members who serve or have served in the military. It’s common for tribes to honor veterans, says Rickard, who was a paratrooper in the Vietnam War. Service is viewed as “representing our homeland,” he says.
The museum gift store sells jewelry, artwork and other items made by Wintu artisans.
An important function of the museum is sharing accurate history of the Wintu with young people. Tribal elder Pat Begley leads sessions for students who visit on field trips. She made a papier-mache model of a village to give students a sense of what life was like. “We lived in bark houses, we didn’t live in teepees,” she says. “We didn’t have any Walmarts that we could run down to or a Papa Murphy’s to get a pizza. We had to make
Tribal Elders Janice Trotter (left) and her sister Patricia Begley (right)
our own food, our own clothes.”
She shares history and traditional stories with children. Students try beading and participate in a friendship dance using elderberry-cane clapper sticks.
Cindy Hogue, a tribal councilwoman who teachers eighth-grade English language arts and history in the Happy Valley Elementary School District, took a summer school class of fourth- through eighth-graders to the museum. “It’s a really great program,” she says.
The students enjoyed the hands-on activities and stories. And they were excited to learn Happy Valley is territory of the Daunam Band of the Wintu Tribe, she says. “They were able to connect to the local history,” Hogue says. “I think it helps for them to know who was here before.” •
Wintu Cultural Museum 4755 Shasta Dam Blvd., Shasta Lake Open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 11am to 4pm www.wintutribe.org/wintu-culturalresource-center-and-museum
Laura Christman is a freelance writer in Redding with a degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a long career in newspaper journalism. Contact her at laurachristman14@gmail.com.
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