Nava Jyothi Benedictine Monastery

Nava Jyothi is the first Benedictine Monastery for Nuns in the Syro- Malabar Church.The object of the Founation is a contemplative Benedictine monastery in the Syro- Malabar Rite so as to combine these two rich traditions of our ancient Church. The founding of the monastery took place with three sisters from the Abbey of Shanti Nilayam in 1999. The first two years were lived in the Dioceses of Kothamangalam, for which a temporary house was blessed on 3rd Feb 2000. Canonical approval for the Foundation was obtained from the ‘Institute of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life’ Rome, on 3rd April 2001. We moved to the Dioceses of Kanjirapally on 14th December 2001.Cannonical approval from the ‘Oriental Churches’ was given on 11th March 2003 to erect a “Sui iuris” monastery, which came into existence on 25th September 2003. Foundation Stone for the new monastery building was laid on 30th September 2003 by His Beatitude Mar Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, the Major Arch Bishop of the Syro- Malabar Church. The blessing of the monastery and the Consecration of the Chapel was done on 1st November 2007 by the same person His Beatitude, the Cardinal.

The monastery became a member of the ISBF(Indio-Sri-Lankan Benedictine Federation) on 2002, and was granted a Decree of Association(Consociatio) with the Benedictine Confederation on 10th February 2008.,by Rt. Rev. Abbot Primate Notker Wolf OSB. We are also a member of the CIB (Conference of International Benedictine Women. Our Motto is “Ora et Labora” (Prayer and Work),for the Church & the world. Seven times a day we pray. By our manual work we wish to show the Local people & others that manual Labour has a dignity and prayer & work can go together. At present we are a Community of Five Sisters: Four Solemnly Professed Nuns & one Regular Oblate.