🤔DID YOU KNOW? In our #quoteoftheday for #July18, we mentioned Joseph Lémann. He was a devout Jew from Lyon, France who joined the Catholic Church along w/ his twin bro at age 18 after mtg Hermann Cohen. In 1892 they helped found the Carmel of Haifa, seen here.
@ocdcuria
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The original monastery was built on the shores of Haifa Bay. It was scenic but unsafe; the nuns fled at the Turkish invasion, so the Turks used it as a hospital. After the nuns returned, the founders of LaFarge Cement built a new monastery (1937), an art deco jewel.
2/5
Of course, politics & war played a part: the British Mandate govt wanted to expropriate the nuns' bayshore property to build a port at Haifa. The nuns sold a parcel of land to the British, who built a hospital & the nuns bought land next to the friars on top of the mountain.
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The old monastery (1892) was petite in comparison to the new, factory-sized, multi-story, mountaintop monastery. Typical Holy Land Carmelite austerity meant no heat. But the LaFarge all-concrete construction posed different problems with the climate in winter. Ascesis!
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The Carmel of Haifa has always relied on other nations for vocations. In recent years, other Carmels have sent reinforcements, too. These intrepid nuns have made many great improvements to the monastery. The community & building will survive, God willing, for years to come.
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