By Sister Maria of Divine Mercy and Mother Teresa of Jesus, OCD
The Diocese of Bridgeport is now breathing with both lungs. That is to say, the two Orders of Carmel, which have been likened to two lungs of one body, are alive and well within diocesan borders. In September of 2025, the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Monastery of the Little Flower of Jesus took up residence in Danbury, while the Carmelites of Mary Ever Virgin of the Ancient Observance of Carmel arrived in Fairfield in April of 2023. That makes two Carmelite monasteries of women in one county.
So, why two monasteries? Primarily, because a diocese cannot have too many consecrated men and women religious. They have left everything to follow the Lord. By their very existence, they witness to His sustaining Love which seeks the salvation of souls. How much less can a diocese have too many wholly contemplative, cloistered nuns! Their lives of prayer and sacrifice, though hidden, bear abundant fruit for all members of the Mystical Body of Christ. They are a spiritual powerhouse, radiating the power of God’s Love to all and drawing His graces down upon souls.
But why two Carmelite monasteries? The Sisters of both communities follow the same Carmelite Rule; they trace their origins back to the same Mount Carmel in the Holy Land; they wear the same Brown Scapular of Our Lady; they celebrate the same Carmelite Saints; they share the same love for solitude, silence and prayer, and they have the same goal: union with God and the salvation of souls. And yet, they belong to two distinct, complementary Carmelite traditions. Together, they bring the fullness of the 800-year-old Carmelite charism to Fairfield County.
The Order of Carmel began in the early 13th century as a lay hermit community on Mount Carmel. Over time it became a mendicant order of men and women spread across Europe. Saint Teresa of Avila (1515 -1582) lived her religious life as a nun within the one order of Carmel. In 1562, from within the order, she began her Discalced Reform. It was a reform reflective of the spiritual landscape of Counter-Reformation Spain, emphasizing mental prayer with simplified liturgical prayer as the path to contemplation.
This was a shift from the medieval monastic approach to religious life that the order was living, with its emphasis on Lectio Divina and solemnly chanted liturgical prayer, leading to contemplation. In 1593, about a decade after Saint Teresa’s death, the Reform became a separate order. Thus, a distinctly Teresian tradition, and order, was born.
The Discalced Reform was immensely popular and soon outgrew the original order in numbers, so much so that today many people are surprised to learn that the original order still exists. But it does, and it is now called the Ancient Observance of Carmel.
It is this tradition that the Carmelites of Mary Ever Virgin follow, treasuring Carmel’s older medieval heritage. As it was for the first Carmelites, so for them Mary is everything: Prioress, Patroness, Mother, Sister and Friend. They seek to honor her and love her even as the Lord Jesus did in His life on Earth. In medieval fashion, they see Carmel as a way of life, set in motion by the Hours of the Liturgy, beginning with the solemn chanting of the Office of Matins at midnight. Theirs is a breadth of vision, inherited from the early Desert Fathers and the entire tradition of Christian monasticism, which impels them to offer to God the whole of their lives as worship, seeking above all to offer Him a pure heart for the sake of prayer.
The Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Danbury continue in the footsteps of Saint Teresa’s reform. Losing nothing of Carmel’s ancient devotion to Our Lady, they also recognize Saint Teresa and Saint John of the Cross as their “Holy Parents.” Formed in their writings and those of other Carmelite saints of the Teresian Order, theirs is a depth of vision which comes from these great saints and doctors of the Church. Schooled in their teachings and under the patronage of Saint Therese, they seek Divine union especially along the path of two hours of mental prayer each day, with emphasis on the Sacred Humanity of Christ and the Little Way of confidence and love.
The Good Lord in His Providence has willed to bring to the diocese these two monasteries with their differing approaches to the one charism of Carmel. Though the Carmelites of Mary Ever Virgin and the Discalced Carmelite Nuns are independent from each other, both communities are working together to build up the Body of Christ in Fairfield County. Or, to borrow the metaphor of perhaps the best-known and most-loved Carmelite—Saint Therese, the Little Flower—they are the beating heart of Love in the Church of Fairfield County, keeping the Diocese of Bridgeport spiritually strong.
(For further information, visit www.MaryEverVirgin.org and
www.carmellittleflower.org.)
