Our Beginnings
Mount Carmel in the Holy Land
Together with Mount Horeb, Carmel was a sacred mountain, central to the life of Elijah, the great Hebrew prophet. On Mount Carmel, he manifested the power of God in opposition to the prophets of Baal (1 Kgs 18). In later years, the heights of Carmel would become associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whom all the attributes of spiritual beauty and holiness converge.
Beginning in the eleventh century, Christians came from Western Europe to the Holy Land during the era of the Crusades. Around the year 1191, former Crusaders and other men came to live on Mount Carmel. They formed a group of hermits who dedicated themselves to a life of prayer and asceticism in the spirit of Elijah.
From the fountain of Elijah on Mount Carmel, there has poured forth through the centuries a rushing river of living spiritual water – overflowing its boundaries and coursing down through the riverbeds of time even to the present day.
Carmel in the USA and California
THE CARMELITE MISSIONARY SPIRIT
West Coast
From ocean to ocean, the charism of Carmel was carried by fervent missionaries – and the ones to whom we owe the most are those Carmelites who came to California’s shores in 1602 as chaplains of the Don Sebastián Vizcaíno expedition.
The captain graciously allowed the three Carmelite friars on board his flagship to name the area in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, since she was the patroness of the expedition and her picture was prominently enshrined in the bow of the lead ship. Also, the friars were struck with the similarity of Point Lobos to their Order’s original home base, Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Thus, a Carmelite identity was firmly established in this area at an early date but remained only as a tradition for many years until the coming of the Carmelite Nuns many centuries later.
East Coast
The first Carmelite foundation in this country was established at Port Tobacco in Maryland in 1790, and our monastery traces its origin to this monastery.
Carmel of Our Lady and St. Thérèse
THE FIRST MONASTERY ESTABLISHED IN HONOR OF THE NEW SAINT
Canonization of Saint Thérèse
On May 19, 1925, a beautiful and holy young Carmelite from Lisieux, France, named Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, was canonized in Rome by Pope Pius XI. Bishop John Bernard MacGinley had just been appointed to a new diocese, Monterey-Fresno, in Central California. He was in Rome for the canonization and was so inspired that he petitioned the Holy Father for permission to found a Carmelite Monastery in Carmel in honor of the newly canonized saint.
(Front L-R) Mother Alberta, Sr. Elizabeth
The New Foundation
Armed with this permission, the bishop contacted Mother Augustine of the Santa Clara Carmelite Monastery to ask her if she would make a new foundation in Carmel. She was delighted with the idea! Five sisters volunteered, and in that same year, they made preparations to enter the small temporary frame house which Mother Augustine arranged to be built for them. Thus, on the feast of the Archangel Raphael, October 24, 1925, the five nuns began the new foundation. The new monastery was founded under the title of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces and Saint Thérèse.
Transition to Our Current Home
After six years in the temporary monastery, a new, larger monastery was built for our foundresses, and on the feast of All Saints, November 1, 1931, they moved into their new home to begin to prepare for the coming of the young women whom God would call to lead the contemplative way of life. The beautiful new building was a gift of the Sullivan family as a memorial to Mr. Francis J. Sullivan.
