When Fr. Panteleimon first settled on the present location of Holy Trinity Monastery, he began to build a large house with sufficient rooms for the future monastery, including it's own house church. With the help of four new brothers, including Bishop Vitaly, progress continued slowly. After much labor, in 1935 the house with it's church was completed and the tiny brotherhood was ready to move in. But God deigned something else for the new community.On July 17 a triumphant blessing of the house and church was held with a small group of neighbors and friends in attendance. Toward the end of the liturgy a cry of "fire!" was heard: a fire had suddenly broken out on the second floor of the new house. In the course of a couple hours, before the eyes of everyone, the new house and it's church with all of their contents totally burnt to the ground. The small brotherhood was left with out any money, in debt, under the open sky. Fr. Panteleimon and his companions were shaken and left in confusion over the tragedy, and tried to find a reason for the disaster. After deep reflection, they decided that what they had built was not worthy for what God intended for the future monastery. They began to rebuild anew, and laid the foundation for a large separate stone church, which with God's help was the first of the large buildings that now make up Holy Trinity Monastery and later Seminary as we know them today.
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