Cloistered Nuns in Fairfield, Pennsylvania, Building a Monastery by Hand to Last 1,000 Years: 48-Acre Project Due to Finish in 2041
In Fairfield, Adams County, Pennsylvania, a group of cloistered nuns is building, almost entirely by hand, a large stone monastery intended to stand for 1,000 years.
According to an October 25 report in the New York Post, the 48-acre Carmelite Monastery of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is expected to be completed in 2041 at a cost of $100 million, and the whole vision comes from 41-year-old Mother Therese, the daughter of a firefighter from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The monastery is being built entirely with traditional methods and materials: alongside their daily prayers and their care of livestock and vegetable gardens, the nuns lay the foundations themselves, brick by brick, while heavier work is done with outside help, including well-known New York architect Ricardo Vicenzino and local contractor Joe Bonifet, who is in charge of fundraising.
In an interview given from behind the iron grille of the monastery's guest room, Mother Therese said: "We have a vision, a dream, an interior intuition that we need to do something different; we are building a real building." The nuns trace their history back to 16th-century Spain, and they hope to leave behind, through traditional craftsmanship, a building that can withstand the test of a thousand years.
Source: GSM·USA
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 宾夕法尼亚州费尔菲尔德的一座教堂（资料图）。图片来源：Smallbones / Wikimedia Commons，CC0。A church in Fairfield, Pennsylvania (file photo). Photo: Smallbones / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
