Free Republic

BREAKING: OCD Carmelites of Philadelphia abandon their cloister; flee to Nebraska for unknown reasonsAs far as I know, this story is being broken right here. Following is a guest post from a reliable source, with personal knowledge of the situation, who wishes to remain anonymous:For reasons not totally known at this point, the Carmelite Sisters of Philadelphia have abruptly abandoned their monastery.According to sources close to the monastery, the sudden move took place over this past weekend. On Friday, after the daily Mass, a van was noticed by the entrance to the monastery used by the cloistered sisters. Later that...

Sister Bernadette is among 16 sisters in a contemplative community at Mount Carmel Convent in Nairobi. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec) By Barb FrazeCatholic News Service NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- For several of the cloistered Carmelite Sisters at Mount Carmel Convent, their life of prayer began in their families, when they were children. "My dad taught me to pray for others," said Sister Bernadette, one of the younger sisters. She said her father told her he knew sisters who prayed for everyone, and she asked if they could pray for her, too. She said she began corresponding with the sisters and was...

A cloistered nun prays at Blessed Sacrament Monastery in Anchorage last month. — Anchor photo Anchorage sisters ‘live for God’BY PATRICIA COLL FREEMANCatholicAnchor.orgOn a recent snowy morning, Blessed Sacrament Monastery in Anchorage looked especially quiet. There were no cars in the parking lot, and only a small sign on the building gave evidence of the Catholic cloister.But inside the hushed monastery, live a handful of cloistered nuns who are about the work of saving the world.They are members of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, a cloistered religious order that was first established in 1807 in France by Blessed Mary Magdalene...

Roman women are converts to conventsBy Hilary Clarke in Rome(Filed: 28/11/2005)Growing numbers of educated Italian women are throwing away their high heels and lipstick and opting for the austere life of nuns in closed convents.A surprising 550 women in Rome chose to withdraw to cloisters this year compared with 350 two years ago, it emerged at a conference organised by the Vicariate of Rome and Italy's Union of Mother Superiors (Usmi).Most of the country's 7,500 cloistered nuns have traditionally come from regions such as the Marches, making the sudden rise in the city of la dolce vita even more...