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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 priest from Louisville, Kentucky presented a dire need for religious to run parishes and schools. Three Ursuline sisters from the neighboring convent responded to the request and established a school in Louisville. They corresponded with their friend and former confessor, Fr. Cyril Knoll, about their ministry in Louisville.
By the 1850's the Carmelites in Straubing, Germany, had recuperated sufficiently from the years of the Secularization to begin looking to establish missions in other countries. On June 8, 1864, Fr. Cyril and Fr. Xavier Huber arrived in Louisville from Straubing. Unfortunately in the meantime, the bishop had been transferred to Baltimore and a new bishop had not been appointed. The two Carmelites immediately began working, even accepting responsibility for St. Joseph's Parish, some 13 miles north of Louisville.
A short time later, Knoll was back in Louisville, assisting at St. Martin's parish. Without a new bishop however, Knoll grew restless to move on and eventually wrote to Bishop Miege of the Kansas Territory for a foundation. Miege welcomed the Carmelites into his fledgling diocese and gave them responsibility for St. Joseph's Parish. By 1866, there were six members in the Carmelite community, 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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