RNZ<\/a><\/p>\nPolice Scotland are appealing for information about Justin Evans who went missing shortly before midnight from Papa Stronsay, Orkney on April 11.<\/p>\n
Papa Stronsay is home to a handful of monks of the Catholic order Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.<\/p>\n
Evans \u2013 a 24-year-old originally from Christchurch \u2013 was last seen within the Golgotha Monastery, where he had lived for about two years.<\/p>\n
He was described by Police Scotland as being six-foot-tall with short hair and a dark beard. He spoke with a New Zealand accent and was last seen wearing a white robe, police said.<\/p>\n
A police spokesperson told RNZ on Wednesday evening the search for Evans was ongoing and continued overnight (NZT).<\/p>\n
However, the Diocese of Aberdeen in Scotland, put out a statement saying the search for Evans, who they called Brother Ignatius, had been called off.<\/p>\n
“The Diocese has learned with deep sadness of the disappearance and presumed death of Justin Evans, also know as Brother Ignatius, aged 24, a member of the Redemptorist community on the island of Papa Stronsay.<\/p>\n
“It is believed he came to harm in conditions involving the sea,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
It said local police and coastguard services had now called off searches.<\/p>\n
Known for ‘humility and charity’<\/p>\n
“Brother Ignatius was known for his humility and charity, and our prayers are with his community and family at this difficult time.”<\/p>\n
Evans had once been a student at Christchurch’s St Bede’s College, and the rector Jon McDowall, said he remembered him as a young man who was a “charismatic leader” within the College.<\/p>\n
“We are deeply saddened to hear of Justin’s disappearance, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this incredibly difficult time.”<\/p>\n
McDowall said Evans had been well respected across the religious community.<\/p>\n
His hope was that Evans would be found safe and well he said, and his family be given the time and space they needed.<\/p>\n
Earlier, a resident on the island of Stronsay \u2013 a short boat ride from Papa Stronsay \u2013 said everyone was doing their best to find Evans.<\/p>\n
He felt the situation “must be a terrible worry” from the distance of New Zealand and wanted to reassure Evans’ loved ones that the community was looking for him.<\/p>\n
‘Everybody is doing their best’<\/p>\n
He said the couple of hundred residents were keeping their ears to the ground and would continue to do so.<\/p>\n
“Everybody is doing their best here and that’s how small communities are.<\/p>\n
“We saw people were out looking for the lad and we’ll just keep looking. Let’s keep him in our prayers.”<\/p>\n
James Geluk, a New Zealander who had lived on the mainland, Orkney, for several years told RNZ, Papa Stronsay was a tiny island a short distance away from Stronsay, which was a similar size to Waiheke Island.<\/p>\n
Geluk said during low tide it would be possible to wade across between the two islands but both were still quite isolated communities.<\/p>\n
Stronsay had about 30 or so families living on the island who were mostly farmers, whereas on Papa Stronsay, the monks were the only inhabitants on the island.<\/p>\n
Order purchased island and monastery ruins<\/p>\n
He said The Sons of the Holy Redeemer had bought the island near the year 2000 and at the time it had a ruined monastery on it which they had since re-done.<\/p>\n
The order was very reclusive, Geluk said, but he did see the monks about at the shops in Orkney when they came over to do shopping.<\/p>\n
Geluk lived near the main harbour in Kirkwall where the Coastguard and police staged everything over the weekend.<\/p>\n
“It’s not ridiculously uncommon for sea rescues and operations to go on… but don’t typically hear anything from the monks, from the monastery.<\/p>\n
“It’s very difficult to imagine somebody being able to get off there [the island] without needing people on Stronsay itself.”<\/p>\n
Father Michael Mary \u2013 the founder of the traditionalist Catholic order which owns the monastery \u2013 said the situation was “utterly tragic” and suspected Evans had been suffering from long-term hypothermia before his disappearance.<\/p>\n
“We are a close community and this has hit us all very hard and is deeply hurting. We hope to find him and hope that the sea will give him up soon.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Diocese of Aberdeen believes the New Zealand monk who is missing on a remote Scottish island is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69,1745],"class_list":{"0":"post-382020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-uk-europe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}