Teen training to be monk charged with nun's fatal beating, stabbing.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Madeline Baro Diaz and Jose Dante Parra Herrera

KENDALL, Fla. _ Mykhaylo Kofel, a monk-in-training accused of killing a nun at Holy Cross Academy, was pursuing a religious vocation that is highly regarded within the Byzantine Catholic Church.

The 18-year-old came to Holy Cross Academy from his Ukraine home four years ago and was one of seven men _ four of them trainees _ living in a monastic house on campus. His quarters were separated by a large field from the convent house that was home to the school's two nuns.

Sister Michelle Lewis, 39, was a woman with a good sense of humor who maintained the reservation that her monastic vows demanded from her and who kept her distance from the monks, according to one parent.

On Sunday morning, a co-worker, concerned because Lewis...

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