Carmelite Fathers

The Novitiate of the Carmelite Fathers is located on Oblong Road. The property owned by the author Sinclair Lewis and known as Thorvale Farm, was purchased by the Carmelites in 1952. In 1955 an addition was made to the original building consisting of a chapel, twenty-five bed rooms, class room, recreation room, and gymnasium.

The chapel is severe in its simplicity. It is dominated by a life-sized hand carved crucifix against a background of glass block. The wall behind the altar is Indiana field stone. There are on either side of the main altar is Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Joseph. These were made in Italy. The Stations of the Cross are hand carved and were executed in Oberammergau, Germany. The main chapel is seperated from a smaller chapel by a folding partition, which when opened permits a greatly enlarged seating capacity.

The Carmelite Order originated on Mount Carmel in Palestine. The Order traces its beginnings back to the hermits established on Mount Carmel in the Pre-Christian times by the prophet Elias. With the fall of the Holy Land to the Saracens in the 13th Century, the Carmelites migrated to Europe. From that time the Order began to take an active part in the apostolate of teaching, preaching and in mission work. Today it has communities in most European countries, South America, Indonesia, Australia, Phillippine Islands and South Africa. The members take the customary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and are especially dedicated to a life of prayer.

After the completion of at least their high school training, the young men, candidates for the priesthood or for brotherhood in the Carmelite Order, come to Williamstown for one year. On admission they are invested with the religious robes of the Carmelite friar: they receive a new name in testimony of their new life; they are considered as novices. During their novitiate year the novices are tested for suitability for the religious life and are trained in the spirit of the Carmelite Order. With the completion of this year at the novitiate house the novices, if accepted, are permitted to promise the customary religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Now as newly professed members of the Carmelite Order, they are sent to Washington, D.C. for four years of college work and four more years of theological studies prior to ordination of priesthood.

Visitors are welcome

Williamstown Historical Society