02/23/2023
With great joy, the brotherhood of Holy Resurrection Monastery announces the election of Father Moses as its new abbot.
This election was necessitated by the retirement in December 2022 of former Abbot, Father Nicholas Zachariadis. Father Seoirse has been Acting Superior during the intervening period.
Abbot Moses was born Michael Wright in 1964 in Nutley New Jersey. He trained as a chef at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, New York and worked in that profession for a number of years. Raised as a Roman Catholic, he discovered the beauty of the Eastern Christian tradition while working in Greece as a young chef. Among other things, this experience led to a brief visit to Mount Athos, an event that supported his sense of a monastic vocation.
Abbot Moses joined Fathers Nicholas and Maximos as one of the founding monks of Holy Resurrection Monastery. They were soon joined by the late Father Basil Doty. The four founders set up the Monastery in Newberry Springs, CA under the jurisdiction of Bishop George Kuzma. The community was subsequently transferred by the Holy See to the Romanian Catholic Diocese under Bishop John Michael Botean. In 2011 it moved to its current home in Saint Nazianz, WI.
Having been elected by the synaxis of the brotherhood--which consists of all members in life vows--Abbot Moses received the abbatial blessing, together with the accouterments of office from Bishop John Michael at Vespers that same day. These symbols of his office consist of the pastoral staff and pectoral Cross.
The community expressed its deep gratitude to their retired Abbot Nicholas, to Father Seoirse, and to His Grace Bishop John Michael for their various contributions to our common life.