Monastery History

Our Monastery History

Although Discalced Carmelite Friars had been among the early explorers of what is now the western United States, they did not establish a permanent community until friars came from Bavaria to Wisconsin in 1906 to staff the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians. This Shrine in 2006 was honored with the distinct privilege of Minor Basilica status as part of its centenary celebrations. In 1914 they added a parish, St. Florian’s in West Milwaukee, to their responsibilities.

On November 6, 1942 we came to Brookline, Massachusetts, to open a novitiate to accommodate the growing number of applicants. Our community transferred to Brighton, Massachusetts, on October 26, 1989. We are now the Monastery of the Espousal of Mary and Joseph.

In 1947, these monasteries were joined to a 1916 Spanish foundation in Washington, D.C., to become the first Discalced Carmelite Province in the United States: the Province of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Washington Province. Father Thomas Kilduff O.C.D., the provincial at that time, consecrated the Province to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the grotto at Lourdes.

That same year, the new Province sent six missionaries to the Philippines to help re-establish the Church in Infanta. Two friars of the Province, Father Patrick Shanley and Julio Labayen, later served as bishops of Infanta. In October 2015 the Philippines officially were proclaimed their own province.

Other foundations followed: a residence in Youngstown, Ohio, meeting the spiritual and pastoral needs of the area and a minor seminary (later retreat house) in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Eventually these houses closed as new needs emerged elsewhere. In 1968, the Province established a community of hermits in Hinton, West Virginia, which recently closed to meet the new needs of the province.

Thus the varied possibilities of the Discalced Carmelite way of life were all present in the houses of the Province. To maintain that, we are looking at establishing hermitages at one of our current houses.

The next step in the history of the Province came in the summer of 1995 when it assumed responsibility for the Discalced Carmelite House of Studies in Nairobi, Kenya, which to this day we currently serve and has expanded to include four other houses. The Province continues to grow, serving the Church with all the wealth its spiritual patrimony has to offer.

The evolution of the Province has been geographical also spiritual. The Holy Spirit continues to lead the Province of Discalced Carmelites to maintain its charism of seeking the face of the living God and to hear His word deep within. We continue to adapt to maintain and enhance our contemplative prayer by entering into communion with God the Father, through Christ His Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.