A Carmelite nun sets out to build a sanctuary of prayer with the traditional Latin Mass in Florida

HIGH SPRINGS, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — A nun who was ousted along with her community from a Savannah Carmel due to Vatican suppression has the land, plans, and blessing for a new traditional Carmel in Florida, a sanctuary where she and fellow nuns would be able to offer prayers and sacrifices for the Church and the world.

Her vision is a slice of heaven on earth, where the public would be able to attend the Traditional Latin Mass daily in a beautiful chapel in High Springs, Florida, northwest of Gainesville. Nuns would have a safe refuge for their Carmelite rule of life as a non-diocesan, independent private institution blessed by Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan.

Sister Loretta-Maria, the bold founder of the monastery, has acquired architectural plans for a stunning cloister and chapel complex, complete with a rectory and guesthouse. Most recently, she secured the pro-bono services of a local Florida engineer (Capital Campaign phases are outlined here).

Now, she is seeking help to fund the building of the monastery, including its “shell” and inner facilities that would allow nuns to move in. The phase-one goal of almost $3 million can be funded and assisted in various ways — not just through monetary donations but also through in-kind donations such as building materials and resources, the work of a contractor, carpenters, and craftsmen, and even traditional Catholic books.

Learn about and donate to Our Lady Co-Redemptrix Carmelite Monastery and Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel building fund

Sister Loretta-Maria told LifeSiteNews that the monastery will be named in honor of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix, whose title she has defended with traditional Catholic teaching on her website.

The nuns’ way of life will be one of contemplative prayer in keeping with the constitutions of St. Teresa of Avila will include the daily Traditional Divine Office and follow the Holy Rule of St. Albert of Jerusalem.

Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila sought for her spiritual daughters to “live a hidden life set apart from the world enclosed within the cloister of the monastery, praying without ceasing for the Pope, the bishops, and all the priests of the Catholic Church,” Sister explained. This is what the world needs perhaps more than anything else today.

The Carmelite apostolate is urgently important as “the world is in despair for its future” and it “is harder today than it ever was in the history of the world to be a good, practicing Catholic, and much more so a good priest or bishop,” Sr. Loretta-Maria noted to LifeSiteNews.

She stressed the importance of fidelity to the traditional liturgy, quoting Bishop Schneider, who wrote that “The faithful as well as priests have the right to a liturgy that is a liturgy of all the saints … Therefore, the Holy See does not have the power to suppress a heritage of the whole Church … It is a form of obedience … to all the popes who have celebrated this Mass.”  

“The High Springs Carmelite Nuns will always keep true to obedience IN CHRIST by keeping the Sacred Tradition and Holy Faith of the Catholic Church alive and well,” she declared.

“We remain ever faithful to the traditional Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and all traditional sacraments, teachings, discipline, dogma, and doctrine passed on to us by the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. We observe and recognize the legitimacy and supremacy of the Pope and the Office of the Papacy from apostolic times to the current pontificate,” she has clarified on her site.

As Sr. Loretta-Maria’s personal experience has shown, in these times, autonomy is needed in order to maintain fidelity to traditional Catholic teaching and liturgy, and even to preserve an authentically Carmelite religious way of life. 

The founding nun previously lived in a now-suppressed Carmelite monastery in Savannah, Georgia, founded in 1958. In 2023, the Vatican shut down the monastery after claiming that the community did not meet the requirements of its 2018 instruction Cor Orans, which revolutionized women’s contemplative life. The directive centralized religious communities under “federations,” thereby undercutting their individuality and their own charisms. 

Cor Orans cites “the number of nuns” as among the reasons a contemplative religious community may be suppressed. As of the time it was forced to close, the Carmelite monastery in Georgia had three fully professed nuns and two novices. The oldest sisters, including the Mother Superior, were both reportedly told to “find a nursing home” to move to without any direction or assistance from either the order or the diocese. 

Sr. Loretta-Maria told LifeSiteNews she is also planning to grow vegetable gardens and a fruit orchard to sustain the nuns as well as raise chickens, keep bee hives, and perhaps a cow and goat on the 10-acre property.

So far, she has cleared and fenced the 10 acres of land and is tracking each completed and upcoming phase of the monastery project on her website. All are welcome to subscribe to the mailing list for updates at the bottom-right portion of the website.

She is currently in dialogue with a few nuns living as hermits as well as a handful of young women along with women with belated vocations who have all expressed great interest in joining the monastery once it is built.

The nun continues to sell handmade rosaries, scapulars, and more handmade crafts on her online shop. 

Learn about and donate to Our Lady Co-Redemptrix Carmelite Monastery and Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel building fund

Online donations can continue to be made to the monastery building project through Zeffy or PayPal.

The address for mailed-in donations is:

Habit Forming Sisters Corporation
PO Box 564
Richmond Hill, GA 31324

Habit Forming Sisters Corporation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so all donations are tax-deductible, and donors can request a tax letter through the website’s contact page.