You might not expect to find an Eastern Orthodox monastery in rural Virginia along with a studio where a leading artist paints religious icons, but thanks to one man they are part of Palmyra – a tiny town in Fluvanna County. That man is Marvin Moss, and his story is as rich as the cultural center he’s created.
Raised in Western Maryland, Moss first discovered the wider world at 13. His uncle, a graduate of West Point, was working in Panama’s Canal Zone and invited Moss and his 14-year-old brother to spend a summer there.
“We were put on the train to New York, all by ourselves, and went to Pier 64 on the Hudson and got on the USS Panama.”
It was an eye-opening experience that would set the stage for a life of adventure. After high school, Moss was accepted to Harvard and Dartmouth but chose – instead – to follow in his uncle’s footsteps -- enrolling at West Point.In a class with six Rhodes scholars, he was not considered a standout student, but shortly before graduation he took the Graduate Record Exam.
“And after an hour I had finished the exam, and I got up to leave, and the proctor said, ‘You can’t leave.It’s a two-hour exam.’And I said, ‘I have already aced this.’”
He had, in fact, done so well that he was called to the Dean’s office for an explanation. Moss supposed it was because much of the test covered topics not even taught at West Point.
“One of the questions was, ‘What is the name of the last part of a concerto which involves improvisation by the soloist?' I’d been listening to classical music since I was six years old, and I knew that the correct answer was cadenza. I was looking around among the professors, and I realized not a single one of them knew the answer to the question.”
After graduation, the army sent Moss to Germany where he learned the language and traveled all over Europe. Then, he was stationed in Ethiopia and discovered Africa before returning to the States and a job at the Pentagon, briefing the brass. He reported to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara about affairs in Africa, the Middle East and, as the nation went to war, about Vietnam.
“I had the highest security clearances in the land, and on weekends I was outside the Pentagon protesting the war.”
At those protests he met Demetrios Carellas, a devout Christian who had served in Southeast Asia and, on returning home, joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Moss was required to spend one more year in the army before retirement, so he volunteered for combat.
“Because I wanted to find out the truth in Vietnam,” he explains.
The truth was complicated and disturbing. At one post, he recalls, morale was miserable.
“There was racial animosity. There was heavy drug use, disrespect for the officers.”
Returning to Washington, he got involved in national politics and was hired by Maryland’s Senator Paul Sarbanes to serve as chief of staff. He stayed in the senate for 18 years before retiring to his new home in Fluvanna. Glen Burnie was built in 1829 by a noted American architect and friend to Thomas Jefferson.
“The House had been abandoned for 18 years, but all of the interior woodwork and all of the historic part of it was still intact.”
His friend, Demetrios Carellas, had become an Orthodox monk along with his twin brother. The two needed a place to live, so Moss welcomed them to Glen Burnie and built the small monastery where this story began.
He would spend the next thirty years protecting the county’s land and history.
“We started a program got over 5,000 acres of new land under historic easement.”
At 88, Moss had served on the county’s board of supervisors and a half dozen national, state and local commissions. It’s time, he says, to retire; to help care for his dear friends— the monks— who are not well, and to give a new generation the chance to find meaning and satisfaction in public service.
