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It was the energy and persistence of Carmelite Father Cyril Knoll that led to the foundation of Carmelite friars in the United States.
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Holy Trinity Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was where the Carmelites in the United States held their first official gathering, called a Chapter.
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The St. Theresa shrine in Darien, Illinois.
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In 1858, a pastor from Louisville, Kentucky went to Straubing, Germany looking for priests and religious to work in his diocese. He recruited three Ursuline sisters, who opened a successful school in his parish. They corresponded with their friend and confessor, Father Cyril Knoll, about their experiences in America.
Father Knoll was prior of the Carmelites in Straubing and having great plans for expansion, he began negotiating with the Louisville pastor, who needed an assistant. On June 8, 1864, armed with letters saying he was "commissary general" in America and accompanied by Xavier Huber, Father Knoll arrived in Louisville, only to discover the pastor didn't need them after all.
He had heard that priests were needed to serve German nationals in the Midwest, so the two took off to Kansas. Two days later they were settling in to the German parish of St. Joseph in Leavenworth. By 1866, there were six members of the Carmelite community in Kansas, including local priests who joined the immigrants.
Later that year, Father Knoll purchased a large Redemptorist convent in Cumberland, Maryland.
He immediately began to fill it as a novitiate. Candidates moved in and out of the novitiate quickly.
In 1870, the small group opened a house in Paducah, Kentucky, and in 1873 expanded to Louisville. In 1874, the Commissary of Kentucky was erected. New houses were opened in Engelwood, New Jersey, New Baltimore, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh as well.
Back in Kansas, the Carmelites felt that Father Knoll had abandoned them, only remembering them when he needed men and money. As a result of their complaints, the Prior General took the Kansas houses under his direct jurisdiction in 1869. With this help, they were able to build a neo-Gothic church of St. Joseph in Leavenworth, buy farmland to support the community, build a stone church and convent and open a school for boys in Scipio. In 1874 the crops failed and the country was in an economic depression. Instead of contracting, the Kansas prior opened a foundation at Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1875.
In 1878 the two priors agreed to unite their jurisdictions. Three years later Father Knoll resigned as commissary of the German houses. In 1881 all the American houses were united under one prior. In 1890, the American foundations became a Province dedicated to the Most Pure Heart of Mary. In 1900 the Province expanded to Chicago and opened St. Cyril College (now Carmelite High School). The Chicago area became the headquarters for the Province.
In 1949, the Carmelites built a parish and school in Lima, Peru. Since 1959, it has had charge of the prelature of Sicuani.
In the 1950s, we took on parishes in Houston, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson opened in 1953 and Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, California in 1959.
In 1970, we opened our first chapel in a shopping mall, St. Therese Chapel in Paramus, New Jersey. In the 1970s and 80s, we also moved into Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona; Peabody, Massachusetts; Fairfield, California; and Venice, Florida.
By 1990, the Province had spread throughout the United States with some 300 members in 19 States, the District of Columbia, and the province of Ontario, Canada. At present the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary has about 260 men in North America, Canada, Peru, Mexico, and Italy.
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