Brian MershonSAVANNAH, Georgia — Sister Loretta-Maria of the Blessed Trinity and the Rosary, a Carmelite nun for six years, is founding a new, autonomous lay association for women that will be under the rule of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). She was among a handful or religious sisters formerly living in the Carmelite monastery in Savannah, Georgia that was suppressed and closed by the Carmelites in late 2022 under the instruction Cor Orans issued in April 2018 by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The original story was published by LifeSiteNews.
Sister Loretta-Maria said she hopes to found a community of women religious who consecrate their lives to the religious service of contemplation under private vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, while living their lives on 10 acres of land near of High Springs, Florida, where a new monastery is being built.
“We are not affiliated or associated with a diocese or with the Cor Orans Federated Carmelite Order. We consider ourselves a de facto association of women religious and founded our monastic-styled community as an autonomous, private institution. We intend to build our own monastery on our own land. In Christ, Bishop Athanasius Schneider has given us his blessing to serve the Holy Roman Catholic Church as an autonomous monastic community and has blessed our monastic building fund project for this purpose,” Sister Loretta-Maria said.
Sister Loretta-Maria is the founding Sister and is serving as president of the 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation for the building fund. She said that a superior will be determined later. They plan to live out their lives in accord with Canon 215 of the Code of Canon Law. A detailed explanation of Canon 215 is outlined here.
The community will be privately regulated. The future Traditional Carmelite Monastery will be called Our Lady Co-Redemptrix Carmelite Monastery and will have a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, where Sister Loretta-Maria hopes to have the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments celebrated daily.
“All we want is to live a quiet, simple and private life of prayer and solitude, to participate in the Mass of the Ages, raise a few chickens and plant some vegetables,” Sister Loretta-Maria said. “We will follow the Discalced Carmelite Constitutions written by Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Avila, the Rule of Carmel written by Saint Albert of Jerusalem, as well as various Carmelite ceremonials and spiritual manuals that have governed the Traditional Discalced Carmelite Order since its founding.”
“We discerned in prayer that building our new autonomous Monastery is the only way in this day and age to protect ourselves from having a repeat of what was witnessed at Savannah Carmel and to protect our vocations from the oppression of liberal theologians, Sister said. “Our 501c3 nonprofit, Habit Forming Sisters Corporation, is for the express and exempt purpose of building this religious monastery and supporting the lives of the Carmelite Community we have established. All of this was another insurance to legally protect our community from the forcible seizure of all the property and assets that was witnessed previously.”
Brian McCall
Murray Rundus
Matt Gaspers