South Canaan, Pa. ? The monks living at North America’s oldest Orthodox Christian monastery rise early, meet in their icon-filled church at 5 a.m. for three hours of prayer, and again at 5 p.m. for another service.

The monastic life has remained largely unchanged at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery since its founding 100 years ago near this rural village in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The spiritual center of American Orthodoxy, it has been the site of annual Memorial Day pilgrimages since eastern European coal miners and their families first came here from nearby Scranton and Wilkes-Barre a century ago.

Today, about a dozen monks, who take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, live in a dormitory steps away from the main church. The longest-serving among them has lived there about 40 years; the newest one joined a year ago.