Police are hunting for a young monk with a New Zealand accent who vanished from a remote monastery on a Scottish Island.
Justin Evans, 24, was last seen at the Golgotha Monastery on Papa Stronsay shortly before midnight on Saturday.
Described as being around 6ft tall, with short hair and a dark beard, he notably speaks with a New Zealand accent and was last seen wearing a white robe.
Inspector David Hall said: ‘Extensive enquiries are ongoing to trace Justin and as time passes concerns are growing.
‘We are working with partner agencies and extensive searches are being carried out in the island area.
‘I am now appealing for anyone may have visited the island and have any information on Justin or his whereabouts to contact us.’
Kirkwall Lifeboat and coastguards mounted a search on Sunday.
Golgotha Monastery is a traditional Catholic monastery established in 1999 by the Transalpine Redemptorists (Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer).
The monks live a strict, self-sufficient life, celebrating the Latin Mass and maintaining the island. The community, usually numbering around a dozen, purchased the island, making it a place of retreat and prayer.
It is thought that monks worshipped on the island back in the time of St Columba, in the 6th Century. Vikings settled there in the 8th Century and named it Papa Stronsay – which means Priests’ Island of Stronsay.
The original monastery was abandoned in the 16th Century – but for over the last 25 years the island has once again been home to monks who celebrate Holy Mass in the language which would have been used by priests many centuries ago.
The order – the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists – was founded in the late 1980s to maintain the practise of celebrating the liturgy in Latin.
At the time the Roman Catholic Church was modernising its services, and encouraging priests to use local languages – so insisting on the old ways was seen as an act of rebellion.
But the monks are now back in full communion with the Diocese of Aberdeen and the worldwide church.
They bought Papa Stronsay after the order’s founder, Father Michael Mary, and some of the priests and brothers visited Orkney on holiday.
The monks – in their black habits – have become a familiar sight in Orkney.
The community gathers for prayers through the day – from seven in the morning
There are currently about a dozen members of the order living on the island.. It has a similar number at its other base in New Zealand. it is not clear at this stage what Mr Evans links with the monastery in Orkney are.
For the monks, a typical day starts at 5am with an hour of individual meditation in their cells, followed by two hours of prayer in the chapel.
After breakfast, the morning is spent in study and work before a bell rings at midday to remind the community to quietly recite the Angelus to themselves as an act of private devotion.
That’s followed by another service and then lunch, during which the brothers listen to improving readings and sacred texts.
The remainder of the day includes prayers, work and possibly some relaxation, before supper, more prayers and then the ‘great silence’. The lights and generator are switched off at 9.30pm.
