While Estonia is home to convents, there had not until now been a still-functioning monastery, but that may soon change, with the fledgling religious house — Eastern Orthodox rather than Roman Catholic — taking shape.

A daily routine that begins at 2 a.m., almost constant prayer, simple food, gardening and other chores, and confinement to one's cell — who would want to take on the life of an Orthodox monk?

Yet that is exactly how the monastic house in Hageri, near Kohila, in Rapla County ticks, set up on seven hectares of land gifted by entrepreneur Urmas Sõõrumaa; while the facility is not yet a full-blown monastery, having just two residents, it functions just like one.

"We live like everyone else, except for the clothing, fasting, daily schedule, and being constantly in prayer in all our activities. A continuous state of prayer," the newly appointed abbot, Bishop Damaskinos of Haapsalu, told Maaleht — noting the house will serve as a refreshing oasis of enlightenment for visitors from near and far.

Despite having a Greek-sounding name and being from the Haapsalu diocese, Bishop Damaskinos, birth name Jaakko Olkinuora, is in fact a Finn from a Lutheran background, whose spiritual longings from an early age took him to the famous Mount Athos.

A doctor of theology and also a trained musician, Olkinuora learned to speak Greek before becoming first a monk, then a deacon, a priest, until finally being ordained Bishop of Haapsalu.

Along with Bishop Damaskinos, the renovated interwar-era farmhouse is home to one other clergyman, Father Paisios, though there is space for more and plans to grow economically too, by producing candles and even incense — in the latter case, this would be the first known facility for producing the slow-burning fragrance in the whole Nordic region.

Sõõrumaa, formerly head of the Estonian Olympic Committee, donated a farmstead he owned expressly for the purpose of establishing the monastery and reviving Orthodox cultural life, though it also has a personal connection for the businessman — many generations of his forebears were connected to the Hageri church manor, and during the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Sõõrumaa's own father, one of the Forest Brothers (Metsavennad), once hid from authorities in the cellar of the very same building.

So deep does the site and Orthodoxy run that Sõõrumaa, who recently visited Mount Athos together with Bishop Damaskinos, took a never-say-never approach when it comes to matters spiritual: He has already been confirmed as an Orthodox archon, a lay administrator of the church.

The monastery already has a Facebook page; a website is still in the works, and from summer it is hoped that visitors will be able to drop in — at present, they must contact the house in advance.

"There is a vision, but much depends on how many people come to us. That is the biggest question," Bishop Damaskinos said.

The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAÕK) is organizationally a part of the Constantinople Patriarchate.

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