Founding Community in 1939
The Discalced Carmelite Nuns came to Oklahoma at the request of Bishop Francis Clement Kelley in 1938. After Bishop Kelley read the Life of Saint Teresa of Jesus, he wanted a Carmel for his young diocese. He wrote, “I have long desired to have a contemplative order of women to aid us by their prayers and sacrifices.”
First Monastery – 18th and Ollie
On December 17, 1938 Mother Teresa and her niece, Sr. Stephen Kane, arrived in Oklahoma City from the Bronx in New York. Being from the east, our two sisters wondered if they would still see cowboys and Indians roaming the wild west state of Oklahoma. As their train pulled into the station they heard a lot of whooping and hollering and believed their question had been answered. Was it cowboys – or was it Indians!? No, it was actually friends and relatives welcoming college students home for the Christmas holidays!
Mother Teresa and Sr. Stephen stayed with the Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese until they were able to purchase and convert a large house at the corner of 18th and Ollie Streets. On March 11, 1939 the rest of the founding community arrived and on April 12, 1939 the monastery was inaugurated and dedicated to Saint Joseph.
Life was difficult and the nuns struggled to survive. They made do with the little they had and saved their pennies in order to pay off the debt on their house. They even patched and repatched their worn tunics with Gold Medal flour sacks.
After ten years the debt was paid and, with the monastery outgrowing its temporary location, the community purchased land at 4200 N. Meridian. The property was surrounded by farmland and located outside the limits of Oklahoma City. A frame monastery was erected using part of a prisoner of war barracks moved from McAlester, Oklahoma. On July 4, 1949 the Blessed Sacrament was transferred to its new location. Within a short time the building proved too small and rooms were gradually added to house the new members. By 1958, the community had grown large enough to be able to respond to a request for a new foundation in Fort Worth, Texas.
Front view Meridian
Inside view Meridian
During the early 1950’s, Sr. Catherine Thomas, who transferred here from New York, wrote an autobiographical account of her vocation to Carmel. The title of the book was My Beloved, The Story of a Carmelite Nun and was published in 1955 by McGraw-Hill Book Company. The work became an unexpected success and was reprinted eight times and translated into five languages. LIFE magazine even did a story on the community. My Beloved brought many vocations to Carmels in America. Lay people in many countries received spiritual help from her book as well, and wrote to Sr. Catherine for advice. We continue to receive inquiries about her life and the availability of her book. The reforms of Vatican II have made obsolete some of Carmelite practices as described in My Beloved. The story of how a person is called remains as true today as in Sr. Catherine’s time. A vocation is a mystery.
On October 28, 1985, due to the expanding growth of commercial businesses and noise from heavy traffic, the Community once again moved to a more remote location, this time to 20,000 North County Line Road near Piedmont, OK. Here the Nuns built a permanent monastery. The chapel was solemnly dedicated on March 19, 1986, the feast of St. Joseph, and the next day the monastery was blessed.
Today we continue the rhythm of prayer and contemplation just as the first Nuns founded by Saint Teresa of Jesus in the 1500’s did in Avila, Spain. Prayer is our primary apostolate and our mission is to pray for the needs of the Church and people in Oklahoma and the world.