Source: Religion News Service
For more than 60 years, Mount Calvary Monastery sat as a patch of holy ground high atop the Santa Barbara hills, home to seven Benedictine Anglican monks whose only jobs in life were prayer and welcoming pilgrims.
Now, after one of the most devastating fires to ever hit Southern California, visitors are left with a different kind of religious experience -- a pile of charred ruins.
As drivers make their way to the monastery along narrow roads, banners hanging from side posts thank firefighters. Green vegetation turns to black-dusted earth.
Mount Calvary's guests no longer read or pray; they snap pictures of the remains of the retreat house. The tall, steel cross that framed the courtyard, the golden bell that called the monks to prayer, the painted archway that greeted visitors, are all still there.
There is, however, little else.
Charred cacti form a barrier between the parking lot and what was once a 20,000-square-foot, Spanish-style home. A narrow brick wall divides the property from the burned mountains underneath. And the hilltop provides a commanding view of the town that the fickle fire largely spared.
The ruins of Mount Calvary -- a small pile of books and furnishings in a corner -- are sad reminders of what once was. The vast heaps of rubble, the partially eaten walls, and the collapsed beams all call attention to the supremacy of nature, rather than the supernatural. Guests of the mountaintop now appear to be in awe of -- not God's power -- but the command of fire.
The recent California wildfires burned close to 40,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes. The cost of fighting the fires in Santa Barbara alone is said to be close to $6 million. And yet it is the destruction of the home of a small Episcopal community that has captured the attention of so many.