Subject: An Update from New Camaldoli
Dear Oblates, Friends and Members of the Camaldolese Family,
I wanted to share with you an update following the fires and evacuation that have affected New Camaldoli over these past weeks.
First, we remain deeply grateful that the Hermitage itself came through the fires without significant damage, and that all of the brothers were able to evacuate safely. Since then, the community has been living temporarily in our other houses and with friends and family, while New Camaldoli has remained closed.
After careful consideration, I have decided that New Camaldoli will remain operationally closed through the winter of 2026–27. The property will continue to be cared for and its essential systems and infrastructure maintained, but the monastic community will not return to live there during the winter, and the guesthouse and public operations will remain closed.
I want to emphasize that this is not a decision to close New Camaldoli permanently. We will review the situation again after the winter, taking account both of conditions at the Hermitage and of the work of the Sustainability Review already underway.
The fires and evacuation came at a time when we were already engaged in a wider discernment about our future. Following the regular Visitation of our California communities earlier this year, and as part of our ordinary monastic life and governance, we began looking together at the future sustainability of Camaldolese life in California. That work began well before the fires and continues.
Our communities are small and growing older, and we need to look honestly at how our monastic life, our houses and our resources can best support a healthy and sustainable Camaldolese presence in California in the years ahead. We are therefore looking at our communities as a whole, listening carefully to one another and asking what will best serve our life and vocation. The evacuation has given that discernment an unexpected new context and has also given us new things to reflect upon.
We were greatly encouraged recently by Fr. Matteo Ferrari, our Prior General, and the General Council. Fr. Matteo described the work we are undertaking as a real example ofsynodality in action. He reminded us that synodality does not begin with predetermined answers, but with questions, with listening to one another and learning from one another, and with being willing to search together for the way forward. We were very grateful for his and the General Council’s encouragement of the work we have begun.
We know that New Camaldoli means a great deal to many of you. For generations it has been a place of prayer, silence and encounter with God, and many of you have supported the community with extraordinary generosity, friendship and prayer. We are deeply grateful for that, and it is very much part of what we carry with us as we continue this discernment.
We are approaching this time not fearfully, but as part of our monastic vocation. Discernment asks us to listen carefully, to be honest about the realities before us, and to remain open to the Holy Spirit. We do not need to know the answer before we begin that listening, and there is something hopeful in being able to ask these questions together.
For now, our task is to care responsibly for New Camaldoli through the winter while continuing this wider work of discernment. After the winter, we will take stock of what we have learned, of conditions at the Hermitage, and of where the Sustainability Review has brought us.
We will keep you informed as this work develops. In the meantime, please continue to hold us in your prayers, as you are very much in ours. We ask especially for the wisdom and freedom to listen well to one another and to the movement of the Holy Spirit as we seek the way forward together.
With gratitude for your friendship and prayer,
Fr. Ignatius M. Tully, OSBCam
Prior, New Camaldoli Hermitage
—
Fr. Ignatius M. Tully OSBCam.
Prior – New Camaldoli Hermitage
62475 Highway One
Big Sur
CA 93920
Subject: An Update from New Camaldoli
Dear Oblates, Friends and Members of the Camaldolese Family,
I wanted to share with you an update following the fires and evacuation that have affected New Camaldoli over these past weeks.
First, we remain deeply grateful that the Hermitage itself came through the fires without significant damage, and that all of the brothers were able to evacuate safely. Since then, the community has been living temporarily in our other houses and with friends and family, while New Camaldoli has remained closed.
After careful consideration, I have decided that New Camaldoli will remain operationally closed through the winter of 2026–27. The property will continue to be cared for and its essential systems and infrastructure maintained, but the monastic community will not return to live there during the winter, and the guesthouse and public operations will remain closed.
I want to emphasize that this is not a decision to close New Camaldoli permanently. We will review the situation again after the winter, taking account both of conditions at the Hermitage and of the work of the Sustainability Review already underway.
The fires and evacuation came at a time when we were already engaged in a wider discernment about our future. Following the regular Visitation of our California communities earlier this year, and as part of our ordinary monastic life and governance, we began looking together at the future sustainability of Camaldolese life in California. That work began well before the fires and continues.
Our communities are small and growing older, and we need to look honestly at how our monastic life, our houses and our resources can best support a healthy and sustainable Camaldolese presence in California in the years ahead. We are therefore looking at our communities as a whole, listening carefully to one another and asking what will best serve our life and vocation. The evacuation has given that discernment an unexpected new context and has also given us new things to reflect upon.
We were greatly encouraged recently by Fr. Matteo Ferrari, our Prior General, and the General Council. Fr. Matteo described the work we are undertaking as a real example ofsynodality in action. He reminded us that synodality does not begin with predetermined answers, but with questions, with listening to one another and learning from one another, and with being willing to search together for the way forward. We were very grateful for his and the General Council’s encouragement of the work we have begun.
We know that New Camaldoli means a great deal to many of you. For generations it has been a place of prayer, silence and encounter with God, and many of you have supported the community with extraordinary generosity, friendship and prayer. We are deeply grateful for that, and it is very much part of what we carry with us as we continue this discernment.
We are approaching this time not fearfully, but as part of our monastic vocation. Discernment asks us to listen carefully, to be honest about the realities before us, and to remain open to the Holy Spirit. We do not need to know the answer before we begin that listening, and there is something hopeful in being able to ask these questions together.
For now, our task is to care responsibly for New Camaldoli through the winter while continuing this wider work of discernment. After the winter, we will take stock of what we have learned, of conditions at the Hermitage, and of where the Sustainability Review has brought us.
We will keep you informed as this work develops. In the meantime, please continue to hold us in your prayers, as you are very much in ours. We ask especially for the wisdom and freedom to listen well to one another and to the movement of the Holy Spirit as we seek the way forward together.
With gratitude for your friendship and prayer,
Fr. Ignatius M. Tully, OSBCam
Prior, New Camaldoli Hermitage
—
Fr. Ignatius M. Tully OSBCam.
Prior – New Camaldoli Hermitage
62475 Highway One
Big Sur
CA 93920
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This is the time for all who have visited, and gained from, the Hermitage, to provide encouragement and support. This is a precious resource of peace and holiness in a precious place. We should gather together to preserve it.