[5] Hieromonk Panteleimon (Nizhnik), after spending ten years at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery near South Canaan, Pennsylvania, wanted to live a more rigorous monastic life.

Together they decided to find a place to live a “genuine monk’s life.”[7] They traveled to Herkimer County in Upstate New York, where they bought the Starkweather farm near Jordanville for a $25 down payment.

[8] In order to pay off the mortgage, Panteleimon worked at the Sikorsky Airplane Factory in Stratford, Connecticut as a wing mechanic,[9] while Kolos remained at his parish.

[10] Life was hard: they lived in a small building, kept a horse and cow, and instead of a stove used hot stones to cook their food.

[8] In addition to performing the daily services, the brotherhood worked the land and began dairy production.

With the help of a new member of the brotherhood, Hieromonk Ilya (Gavriliuk), who was a carpenter, the monks began building a large house with a chapel and room for sixteen cells, and completed it in 1935.

[10] They also interacted with the local community: a few of the monks held a concert at an Episcopalian parish in Richfield Springs,[12] and members of the nearby Baptist church visited the monastery for a service.

[14] The brotherhood was originally based in the St. Job of Pochaev Monastery in Ladomirová, Czechoslovakia, which had been founded by Archbishop Vitaly when he was still an archimandrite.

The cathedral was designed by Roman Verhovskoy, and the head of the building committee was Nicholas Alexander (Aleksandrov), a professor at Rhode Island State College and the future dean of the seminary.

The construction of the church was greatly aided by the nearly 50 monks and lay-workers who had joined the monastery after leaving post-war Europe.

Among them was Archimandrite Cyprian (Pyzhov), who had with his assistant monk Alypy (Gamanovich) (future Archbishop of Chicago) frescoed the interior of the church, covering the 700 square feet of walls with over 400 icons.

In a crypt at the east end of the monastery cathedral are buried, among others, Metropolitans Laurus (Škurla) and Philaret (Voznesensky), Archbishop Averky (Taushev), and Archimandrite Cyprian (Pyzhov), the renowned icon painter.

In addition to Orthodox periodicals, they published service books, multi-volume editions of the lives of the saints, and many other religious works.