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New Mexico Monastery Abbot Hieroschemamonk Silouan Reposes
Hieroschemamonk Silouan, who guided a growing New Mexico monastery for years, has reposed after a long battle with cancer.
CAÑONES, NM — Hieroschemamonk Silouan (Lightle), abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael in northern New Mexico, reposed in the Lord on the night of October 12, 2026, following a long battle with cancer. The Orthodox Church in America’s (OCA) Diocese of the South announced his passing and asked the faithful to remember the departed monastic in their prayers.
Fr. Silouan devoted many years to the Orthodox Church through a life of prayer, monastic obedience, and spiritual care for the brotherhood entrusted to him. Under his leadership, the monastery developed into a community of twelve monks dedicated to Orthodox worship and the monastic tradition.
The community began as a skete in 1993 and was formally designated a monastery in 2009. Located in Cañones, the monastery has served as a center of Orthodox monastic life in northern New Mexico.
The funeral service for Fr. Silouan is being held on Tuesday, October 13, at the monastery, where he will also be buried in the monastic cemetery. Bp. Gerasim of Fort Worth, serving as Locum Tenens of the Diocese of the South, is traveling to attend the funeral and pray alongside the grieving brotherhood.
The announcement called on the faithful to support the monks in prayer as they mourn the loss of their spiritual father. It concluded with a prayer that the Lord grant Fr. Silouan rest among the saints, where there is no sickness, sorrow, or sighing, but life everlasting.
Previously, the UOJ reported that Metr. Saba honored Warren Farha of Eighth Day Books.
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