Hilarion Heagy, Eastern Catholic monk, renounces Christianity for Islam
Hilarion Heagy, an Eastern Catholic monk and priest, recently renounced Christianity and embraced Islam triggering multiple headlines in Islamic media and consternation among some who knew him to be a devout Christ follower.
“Since news of my embrace of Islam has now officially gone public, my message inbox has been jammed full and my phone has been ringing off the hook,” Heagy, who now also goes by his new Muslim name, Said Abdul Latif, wrote in a post on Medium on Feb. 20. “It is currently impossible to speak to everyone and to answer every question that’s been fielded to me. My time is simply limited. (Not to mention, it’s been a bit exhausting over the past 48 hours. But glory to God or all things.)”
In a statement on Facebook Friday, Abbot Damian Higgins of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in California, identified Heagy as Troy Heagy, saying he visited the monastery as “Fr. Hilarion” last year.
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“He had been tonsured a monk and was ordained a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR). He served faithfully in a Russian Orthodox Monastery for many years until he sought to unite himself in an Eastern Catholic Community in Wisconsin,” Higgins noted.
“He came to stay with us with the expressed intent of founding a monastic community in Texas. He was NOT an official member of our brotherhood nor did he receive faculties from our Eparchial Bishop Benedict. He only recently revealed through social media that he had an interest in the Sufi tradition of Islam from 20 years ago,” Higgins explained. “He never had any indication of this interest and can only say that, while here, he was an example of a faithful Christian man in every respect. We pray that he may return to the fullness of Truth revealed in The Incarnate God, Jesus Christ.”
Michael Lofton, founder of the Catholic apologetics channel Reason & Theology, said he spoke to Heagy as recently as last November and he had discussed establishing a monastery in California.
“You know, he had plans on putting together a monastery in California, and I was really, really excited about that, because we need more Eastern Catholic monasteries. So I was really excited about that,” he said, reacting to the news. “That was kind of the last I heard from him.”
Lofton said news of Heagy’s apostasy came “out of nowhere.”
“I’m very, very sad and grieved over this because this is in relation to somebody that I know personally and I’ve also admired and really sad to see this,” he said.
Heagy, however, had been publicly writing about his transition away from Christianity on Medium under his adopted Muslim name since last October when he said he had developed an interest in the Sufi tradition of Islam since 2003 while living a life of “intense spiritual searching.”
“I am currently a priest in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. A ‘traditional’ priest. Perhaps you can say ‘Traditionalist,’ yet that term has some unwelcome connotations and baggage. At the moment, I am on a sort of semi-private leave while the practical arrangements of my move to Islam are made final,” he wrote on Oct. 4, 2022.
He made it clear that his pivot away from Christianity is not a midlife crisis.
“It is simply that we all see things differently at different points in our lives. With different eyes. Looking back, as it were. Hopefully growing in wisdom. Inshallah,” he said.
He explained that he would have converted to Islam in 2003 but he was too afraid in the early years after 9/11.
“By 2003, I yearned to become Muslim. I saw the beauty of it. The depth. The truth of it. I spoke with the Imam about conversion. I hung out at the local Islamic Center. I made Muslim friends. It was a beautiful and joyful moment. But I didn’t convert. At the time, I was too fearful of such a conversion,” he wrote.
“How would I be perceived if I ‘rejected Christ,’ as I saw such a conversion entailing? How could I do such a thing? My parents and family would disown me. Society would see me as a ‘terrorist.’ I backed away at that point, I am ashamed to say. And for reasons which, looking back, were really mostly cultural, I chose to seek out such depth in theology and mysticism as I saw in Sufism and in Islam within a Christian context,” Heagy said.
And the closest he said he came to finding what he saw in Islam was in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
“Orthodoxy was my compromise,” he wrote. “Yet Orthodoxy was a complete system. A whole civilization. A depth in theology. A world of monasticism. A thing of transcendent beauty. It was something into which one could immerse oneself and throw oneself completely. Which is what I did.”
In discussing Heagy’s relationship with his church community, Lofton alluded to the apostate priest having some grievances with leadership. He noted, however, that he would continue to pray for Heagy and that his journey to find truth will lead him back to Christianity.
“Remember the words that you said about the cross. Islam does not have the cross,” Lofton said before offering prayers for the former priest on Reason & Theology. “I'm sure right now, you believe you have answers. Whenever you're no longer confident in those answers, please come back to Christ. Turn to Him.”
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