{"id":313947,"date":"2026-10-25T12:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313947\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T12:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:20:23","slug":"rural-pennsylvania-nuns-building-stone-monastery-to-last-1000-years-by-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313947\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural Pennsylvania nuns building stone monastery ‘to last 1,000 years’ by hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of cloistered nuns in rural Pennsylvania<\/a> who trace their history back to 16th-century Spain are building a sprawling monastery meant to last 1,000 years \u2014 and they\u2019re doing it almost entirely by hand.<\/p>\n

Expected to be completed in 2041 at a cost of $100 million, the 48-acre Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph monastery in Fairfield, Penn., is entirely the vision of one woman \u2014 Mother\u00a0Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\u00a0of Merciful Love, the 41-year-old daughter of a firefighter from Cape Cod, Mass.<\/p>\n

Built entirely with traditional methods and materials, the 48-acre Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph monastery in Fairfield, Penn., is expected to be completed in 2041. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

Architect Riccardo S. Vicenzino looks up at the brick vaulted ceiling of a building under construction at the monastery. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a vision, a dream, an interior kind of intuition that there was something that we needed to do different,\u201d Mother, as she\u2019s known around the compound, told The Post in an exclusive interview from behind an iron screen inside the monastery\u2019s<\/a> guest house. \u201cWe are building an authentic building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nuns are laying the foundation brick-by-brick themselves, in between their daily spiritual duties<\/a> and tending to the livestock and garden. For the heavier lifting, they\u2019ve brought in outside help \u2014 renowned New York architect Riccardo Vicenzino and local contractor Joe Bonifate, who is also in charge of fundraising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a theoretical thing. We are building an authentic building,\u201d Mother told The Post. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

A sister lays bricks at the monastery. (All nuns pictured are externs, who live beyond the walls of the Monastery enclosure to better serve the cloistered sisters and act as a bridge between them and the outside world.) Courtesy of Fairfield Carmelites<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very good students. Good work ethic. They arrive on time, take instruction very well,\u201d Bonifate told The Post of his holy labor force. \u201cIf I can just find more crews that had a vow of obedience and were working toward something greater than their next raise I\u2019d be sitting good. We could build anything with a crew like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the next couple decades, the nuns will be living on a construction site as the project comes together, but that\u2019s not an issue. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be an amusing part of our day, when you\u2019re trying to go to mass in the morning and you have to avoid being crushed by the telehandler,\u201d Mother said.<\/p>\n

Vicenzino\u2019s Manhattan-based firm is working on sacred spaces as far away as Texas, as well as Park Avenue and West Village apartments, but this projects is an entirely different animal.<\/p>\n

The Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph monastery (chapel pictured) has no A\/C or running water. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

Architectural plans detail the proposed layout. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

Architect Riccardo S. Vicenzino (left) and general contractor Joe Bonifate review construction plans Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no electricity, heat, A\/C or running water in the monastery. Under Mother\u2019s instruction, nothing made by machine is allowed in the building\u2019s construction. That means even the nails must be hand-forged. Luckily, they found a guy in Kentucky who makes nails.<\/p>\n

Other materials include Pennsylvania field stone, local timber, lime mortar, slate roof tiles, copper downspouts, and hand-made bricks from North Carolina. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a process. We\u2019re bound by Mother\u2019s dictate of authenticity,\u201d said Vicenzino. \u201cTo do something like this from scratch we really had to dust off our old books.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sisters are vegetarian but keep livestock on the property, including horses, pigs, sheep and chickens. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

The Fairfield Carmelites (pictured) stem from St. Teresa of \u00c1vila\u2019s 16th-century Spanish reform, which opened its first monastery in New Spain, present day Mexico, in Puebla in 1604. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

Nuns (like the extern pictured) use lamps, as the monastery has no electricity. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cMother is making requests and we really have to roll up our sleeves and prove through precedence that these things are not crazy. It can be done. We\u2019re using old concepts of thermodynamics that they used to know, this wisdom from back in the old days when there was no A\/C. There are traditions of radiant floor heat that have been around for millennia \u2014 the Romans, the Spanish, the Koreans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project includes a 22-foot-deep subterranean ice house, where blocks of ice will be stored year-round between layers of sawdust and transported to the main building using a pony and cart. It will be accessed via a custom-made steel ladder which Mother was initially resistant to because the steel was machine-made. She eventually relented.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the young women that I speak to want a bigger world to live in, a world that opens up to values that are eternal and reach across the centuries, to be part of something that won\u2019t die with them,\u201d Mother told The Post. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had bigger battles,\u201d chuckled Bonifate.<\/p>\n

The Fairfield Carmelites stem from St. Teresa of \u00c1vila\u2019s 16th-century Spanish reform, which opened its first monastery in what is now Puebla, Mexico, in 1604.<\/p>\n

In the 19th century, reform laws nearly extinguished the Carmelites from Mexico. The 1910 Mexican Revolution and 1926 Cristero War forced further expulsions, with some nuns fleeing to Valparaiso, Neb.<\/p>\n

The Fairfield community (pictured) is an offshoot of the Nebraska order and continues its strict Teresian tradition of enclosure and traditional Latin Mass. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

Today the nuns remain under the relatively hands-off jurisdiction of the Bishop of Harrisburg while still opposing the mandates from Rome as they build (pictured). @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

The Fairfield community is an offshoot of the Nebraska order and continues its strict Teresian tradition of enclosure \u2014 a spiritual rule that strictly separates them from the outside world \u2014 and traditional Latin Mass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This has caused friction with Rome in recent years<\/a>, stemming from the 2018 instruction of Cor Orans, a Vatican document regulating cloistered nuns that reduces the autonomy of contemplative monasteries and requires them to join federations.<\/p>\n

Mother is one of the few cloistered nuns who has been outspoken in her opposition to Rome\u2019s meddling in their way of life, viewing it as a threat to their traditional worship. <\/p>\n

After helping revive a declining Philadelphia order, the Fairfield Carmelites withdrew from Philadelphia\u2019s Carmel in 2021 amid these disputes, triggering the removal of their chaplain and pressure to conform.<\/p>\n

The monastery is made entirely by natural materials. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

A nun drives a horse-drawn cart through a field at the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph monastery. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

Today, the nuns remain under the relatively hands-off jurisdiction of the Bishop of Harrisburg while still opposing the mandates from Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that is happening in many sectors of life, the struggle between the global and the local. Something like a monastery is by its essence a local thing. Its character comes almost from the soil. And that used to be quite easy because Rome was so far away,\u201d Mother said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the reasoning of it, but it\u2019s kind of my job to remind the powers that be that sometimes the big rules that apply across the board have a way of squashing those unique cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be an amusing part of our day, when you\u2019re trying to go to mass in the morning and you have to avoid being crushed by the telehandler,\u201d Mother said of living amidst the construction. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

General contractor Joe Bonifate (left) leads members of the press up the bell tower. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for big people from far away to have big answers that solve their problems. But sometimes little guys have to say, \u2018Wait, what about me? I have something that\u2019s beautiful.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

While the numbers are always in flux, approximately 14 women live on the site today between externs, aspirants and Sisters. Around 50 will reside there once completed.<\/p>\n

The vegetarian order also keeps sheep for both wool and milk, cows, chickens for eggs, and a donkey named Fidelis. A diligent border collie named Noel follows Mother around like a furry guardian while a parcel of pigs are used for waste management \u2014 they eat the garbage \u2014 and are traded for feed and supplies with locals.<\/p>\n

The monastery project is about one-third complete at this point. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

Religious statues are displayed at the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph monastery. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

A stained glass window hangs in the chapel at the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph monastery. Erin Blewett for New York Post<\/p>\n

About 50 will live at the monastery when it is completed. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

One of the bells at the Fairfield Monastery sits atop a tall stone tower overlooking the horizon. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

The monastery is loosely inspired by Spain\u2019s historic medieval city of \u00c1vila <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always been very adamant about regionalism. We asked ourselves, if St. Teresa of \u00c1vila were in Pennsylvania what would she do? We looked to the 18th-century stone farmhouses that are all around us,\u201d said Vicenzino.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an exercise in nostalgia. It\u2019s really an exercise in proven concepts.\u201d <\/p>\n

After a few years of site prep, construction began in earnest in 2018. Today six buildings have been completed \u2014 about one-third of the final project \u2014 and it\u2019s mostly been funded by small donations. <\/p>\n

A brick foundation laid by nuns seen here at the monastery in Pennsylvania. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

The complex features slate tiles, local fieldstone, hand-made bricks and local timber. @HaleyMonicaPhotography<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s slower work because of the nature of the work,\u201d said Bonifate. \u201cThe fundraising too, that\u2019s up to God. My job is to plan like we\u2019ll live forever and live like I\u2019ll die tomorrow. If we had all the money tomorrow it would still take another ten or 12 years to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remaining price tag is about $94 million and most fundraising is done by word-of-mouth. \u201cThere\u2019s a human element the Sisters are tapping into that everyone is yearning for again,\u201d said Vicenzino.<\/p>\n

Mother said young women from all walks of life<\/a> come her way seeking to join the order, and she\u2019s seen a greater interest of late in traditional religious life, including the building project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s connected to a deeper spiritual thirst<\/a> and hunger for that authenticity,\u201d she said. \u201cMany of the young women that I speak to want a bigger world to live in, a world that opens up to values that are eternal and reach across the centuries, to be part of something that won\u2019t die with them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of cloistered nuns in rural Pennsylvania who trace their history back to 16th-century Spain are building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14190,10926,837,26746,28,30,29,12441],"class_list":["post-313947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-architecture","tag-catholic-church","tag-lifestyle","tag-nuns","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}