Perched on a quiet hill in Southern Maryland overlooking the Port Tobacco Valley stands a monastery whose story reaches back to the founding years of the United States. The Carmel of Port Tobacco, established in 1790, was the first Carmelite monastery in the original 13 states and the first community of cloistered nuns in America.
That year, Mother Bernardina Matthews, her nieces Sister Mary Aloysia and Sister Mary Eleanora, and Sister Clare Joseph Dickenson left their Carmelite monastery in Belgium to begin a new foundation in Maryland. Sailing from Antwerp on May 1, 1790, and accompanied by their spiritual director, Father Charles Neale, they arrived in New York on July 2 before journeying south to Port Tobacco.
Religious freedom for Catholics was increasingly recognized after the ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which guaranteed free exercise of religion and prohibited religious tests for federal office. Yet state-by-state barriers lingered in the early republic. Until then, American women who felt called to religious life had to cross the Atlantic to enter convents in Europe.
The Carmel they founded flourished through the early 1800s, but by 1831, after years of hardship and the death of Father Neale, Archbishop James Whitfield invited the sisters to relocate to Baltimore, where they could sustain themselves through teaching. From that community came many new Carmelite monasteries, eventually dozens across the United States.
Nearly a century later, the story of the Port Tobacco Carmel gained new life through the work of local Catholic laywomen and the Restorers of Mount Carmel in Maryland, a group founded in 1935 to preserve and protect the historic site. The organization acquired what remained of the original property, including the two surviving 18th-century buildings, and led extensive restoration efforts. A new Chapel of Our Lady was dedicated in 1954, and a Pilgrim’s Hall followed in 1968. Their efforts ensured the site’s recognition on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
A moment of spiritual rebirth came in 1976, when six Carmelite nuns returned to reestablish contemplative life at Port Tobacco. Since then, the community has grown steadily, preserving the contemplative tradition that has shaped Carmelite life there for more than 230 years.
A life centered on prayer and silence
The Carmel of Port Tobacco belongs to the Order of Discalced Carmelites, a branch of the ancient Carmelite family that traces its spiritual lineage to St. Teresa of Jesus, better known as St. Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582).
In the 1500s, St. Teresa, together with St. John of the Cross, led a reform movement within the Carmelite Order. She sought to restore the original simplicity and contemplative focus of the early hermits of Mount Carmel, a life centered on prayer, silence, and poverty. The nuns who followed this reform were called “Discalced,” literally meaning “barefoot.” It symbolized humility and detachment from worldly comforts, and they wore simple sandals instead of shoes.
“We’re semi-eremitical, half hermits,” said Mother Marie Bernardina of Divine Mercy, the current prioress at the Carmel of Port Tobacco. “It’s a hidden life of prayer and sacrifice for the world and for the Church.”
Today, 11 women live at the Carmel, nine permanent members and two in formation.
Their day begins at 5:30 a.m. with the chanting of the Divine Office, followed by an hour of silent prayer and daily Mass. Throughout the day, work alternates with prayer, spiritual reading, and silence.
“We have an hour of spiritual reading, including the Church Fathers, Vatican documents, and the writings of the saints, especially our Carmelite saints,” Mother Bernardina said. “Recreation for us means talking, because we hardly speak during the day.”
The nuns live by the Carmelite motto, “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts,” drawn from the prophet Elijah, whom they revere as their spiritual forefather. Their charism is contemplative prayer expressed through adoration, intercession, and reparation for the Church and the world.
“You need a strong faith to believe that a hidden life behind cloister walls can make a difference in the world,” Mother Bernardina said. “But it does. We pray for priests, for the Church, for the world, raining down hidden blessings.”
Mother Virginia Marie of the Transpierced Heart, a former prioress who entered religious life in 1952, described that invisible fruitfulness simply: “It’s like leaven in bread. You don’t see it, but it works. Grace is so effective; it’s like electricity in the air. You don’t see it, but it sure works.”
She recalled a moment years ago that deepened her trust in Mary’s care. While repairing a stool in the monastery, she struggled to remove a stubborn tack and muttered in frustration, “Mary, you’re not helping me one bit.” The tack suddenly flew loose and struck her glasses, blurring her vision. “Everything went foggy, and I sank to my knees,” she said. “Then I heard in my heart, ‘I’m keeping you as the pupil of my eye,’” she said.
The memory, she explained, remains a reminder that Our Lady watches over each of her children with quiet, protective love.
How to understand a Carmelite vocation
To understand the Carmelite tradition, one can look to the order’s saints, whose lives illustrate its charism, a rule of life centered on friendship with Christ through prayer and contemplation.
Many women who discern a Carmelite vocation are inspired by these examples. One of the most well-known is St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), a Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism after reading The Life of St. Teresa of Ávila.
Stein once wrote of the contemplative vocation, “Once you are joined to the Lord, you become as omnipresent as He is.… Your compassionate love, drawn from the Redeemer’s heart, can take you in all directions, allowing you to sprinkle on every side the Precious Blood that soothes, heals, and redeems.”
Stein’s reflection mirrors the hidden fruitfulness that inspired St. Thérèse of Lisieux. For the Port Tobacco nuns, this description reflects what they understand as the heart of their vocation: to live “in the heart of the Church,” as St. Thérèse described, embracing the Church’s central vocation of love. Their foundress, St. Teresa of Ávila, called this life simply friendship with Christ, a quiet, steadfast companionship that sustains the whole Church.
Preparing to welcome St. Thérèse’s relics
That same spirituality will take center stage later this month when the Carmelites welcome the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux to their monastery Nov. 23–25 as part of the Relics of Love and Trust Tour 2025.
“It will be a time of real grace for the whole area,” Mother Bernardina said. “She’s so powerful and so accessible. Littleness, people think, ‘I can be little.’”
Born in 1873 in Alençon, France, Thérèse Martin entered the Carmel of Lisieux at 15 and died of tuberculosis at 24. Her posthumously published autobiography, Story of a Soul, revealed a spirituality of childlike trust, finding holiness not in grand gestures but in small acts done with great love.
She was the youngest of nine children born to Louis and Zélie Martin, who were canonized together in 2015, the first married couple to be declared saints in the same ceremony.
Thérèse was canonized in 1925 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997. She joined her Carmelite foremother St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Hildegard of Bingen as one of only four women to receive that title.
Reflecting on that same spirit of humility, Mother Virginia Marie spoke about what the example of these women means for those discerning religious life today.
“Our greatest power is the hidden power, like a mother in a family,” she said. “She directs things quietly. People will say, ‘My mother was always there for us.’ That stability is powerful.” She warned that striving for prestige can cloud one’s purpose. “When people elbow for position, they lose something,” she said. “The happiest life is about service, forgetting yourself.”
For young women drawn to the contemplative life, her counsel is both gentle and direct: “You don’t know until you try it.”
Mother Bernardina offered a similar perspective when speaking of St. Thérèse’s complete trust in God. “Thérèse threw herself into Jesus’s arms, in darkness, in physical pain, in faith,” she said. “That’s why the Lord made her so popular. He wants people to live with more trust, more childlike faith.”
The sisters are preparing carefully, both spiritually and practically. The reliquary of St. Thérèse, which weighs nearly 500 pounds, will rest on a handcrafted rolling platform built by master carpenter Bill Hoxie, who often assists the monastery. “He’s beautifying and serving God with his talents, making the most gorgeous platform,” Mother Bernardina said.
In addition to logistical planning, the nuns have printed flyers, distributed notices to local parishes, and prepared their small gift shop, which supports the community through handmade items, devotional books, and quilts sewn by the sisters. “We’ve had many inquiries by email and phone,” Mother Bernardina said. “We’re stocking extra books on her spirituality and other items in the gift store.”
Spiritually, the sisters are preparing by reading and reflecting on the writings of St. Thérèse. “We’re nourishing ourselves with her letters and spirituality,” Mother Bernardina said.
A witness of joy
Within their enclosure, the sisters live the same rhythm that St. Thérèse once lived in Lisieux, a life of ordinary holiness. “The happiest life is about service, forgetting yourself,” Mother Bernardina said. “You just do it with love.”
For Mother Virginia Marie of the Transpierced Heart, the Carmel’s silence is not an escape from the world but a deeper way of serving it. “The Carmelite life offers a kind of freedom the world doesn’t understand,” she said. “In a world filled with noise and constant distraction, silence has become a rare gift.”
She explained that their vocation teaches a deeper attentiveness, one rooted in listening for God’s voice. For the Carmelites, that attentiveness leads to joy, not from quiet alone, but from belonging entirely to God. Their happiness, Mother Virginia said, is rooted in the Lord and in serving Him through prayer, simplicity, and love.
Mother Bernardina said visitors who come to the chapel often comment on the peace they find there. “When people come here, I hope they leave with an understanding of the place of prayer, that peace and joy in the Lord are possible for them, too,” she said. “We’re not walled in. We always say, ‘This isn’t a jail; it’s to keep the world out, not to keep us in.’ We’re perfectly happy. The walls are a symbol that our lives are lived totally for the Lord. People are often struck by how much peace and joy they see here.”
As the relics of the Little Flower make their way across the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, the nuns of Port Tobacco will pray for those who come to venerate them and for the countless unseen pilgrims who seek the same peace.
“Her little way is a way for all of us,” Mother Bernardina said. “To love where we are, to trust when we can’t see, and to find God hidden in the ordinary.”
The Carmel of Port Tobacco is located at 5678 Mount Carmel Road in La Plata, Maryland. Information about visiting hours, prayer requests, and the relics schedule is available at CarmelofPortTobacco.com.
