Golgotha Monastery is a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

located on the

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

island of

Papa Stronsay Papa Stronsay (; ) is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying north east of Stronsay. It is in size, and above sea level at its highest point. After being largely abandoned, the island was bought at the end of the 20th century by traditional ...

. The monastery was founded in 1999, after the monastic community of the

Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer The Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (; FSSR), commonly known as The Sons and The Transalpine Redemptorists, are a religious institute of the Catholic Church canonically erected in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen and ba ...

purchased the island that year from farmer Charles Ronald Smith.

History

After the island was purchased for £250,000 by the

in 1999, a congregation of Catholic monks established the Golgotha Monastery. The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer was established in 1988 by the Redemptorist priest Michael Mary Sim, and was previously affiliated with the

Society of Saint Pius X The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX; ("Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X"), FSSPX) is a canonically irregular traditionalist Catholic priestly fraternity founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Lefebvre was a leading traditionalis ...

. The population of Papa Stronsay as of the 2020s is approximately 26, consisting entirely of the monks who reside within the Golgotha Monastery.

References

{{reflist Roman Catholic monasteries in Scotland Religion in Orkney 1999 establishments in Scotland