Source: Radio New Zealand
Justin Evans, 24, disappeared from Papa Stronsay in Scotland. Supplied / Scotland Police
A body had been found in the water near a remote Sottish island where a New Zealand monk disappeared last month.
Justin Evans, 24, went missing from the Golgotha Monastery, on Papa Stronsay, shortly before midnight on April 11. The island is home to only a handful of monks of the Catholic order Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.
Also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists, the group was founded in the 1980s and had links to New Zealand, including a monastery near Geraldine.
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Police Scotland said the body was found just before 7.30am on Wednesday in the water near Stronsay, the closest island to Papa Stronsay.
The body was yet to be formally identified, police said, but Evans family, who were from Christchurch, had been informed.
The death was being treated as “unexplained”, police said, and an investigation was ongoing.
It said a report would be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal (a public prosecutor in Scotland).
The founder of the monastery, Father Michael Mary, earlier told RNZ it was believed Evans was suffering from “long-term hypothermia”.
The Sons of The Most Holy Redeemer on Papa Stronsay. Justin Evans is third from the left. Supplied / Stephen Clackson
He called the situtation “utterly tragic”.
Mary said Evans went by the name Brother Iganatius Maria while at the monastery and had lived there for about two years.
“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.”
Evans had three brothers who were all monks, Mary said, and two of them also lived on the island which at the 2022 Census had a population of just nine.
“Brother’s family are in New Zealand which only adds to the pain of loss and separation.
“This is our biggest tragedy since our arrival here in 1999,” Mary said.
A spokesperson for the order in New Zealand, also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists, said everyone in the order knew and loved Evans dearly.
“Our hearts are completely broken with the loss of this beautiful man. He loved being part of the religious family and probably would have become a priest.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand