After Ian destroyed Fort Myers Beach monastery, nuns seek new members for Naples rebuild

Four Florida nuns who survived Hurricane Ian are hoping to rebuild a permanent home in Naples but a 2018 Vatican edict meant to consolidate resources could see them sent out of Florida.

The cloistered sisters of the order of St. Clare, also known as the Poor Clare nuns, lost their Fort Myers Beach monastery to Hurricane Ian's floodwaters last fall. More than a year later, they learned they may finally be able to rebuild after a generous land donation in Naples. But first, it seems, they need more nuns.

San Damiano Monastery, their home on the Beach, had to be demolished after Ian's 14-foot waves and 155-mile-an-hour winds far outmatched the 8-foot wall that surrounded the property.

Paul Bruno, a Naples real estate agent and devout Catholic, has offered to donate 5 acres of undeveloped land in Naples for a new monastery. Bruno, who grew up in Alabama near the Catholic television network EWTN's station, now lives in Ave Maria. He said he was, in part, motivated to do so because he knew the impact nuns had on a community.

Bruno had also provided shelter to the Poor Clare sisters after the storm in a Naples rental home he owned, turning down Boston Red Sox coaches who asked to rent the house for spring training.

He said he felt called to help the nuns find a permanent home.

"It was desperate, dire –– not for them, but for me," Bruno said. "I just felt that I really needed to help them."

They're just waiting on Rome's approval of the new monastery. With only four sisters stationed in Southwest Florida and a decision from Rome to combine dwindling Poor Clare communities, that approval is up in the air.

If they do not attract more vocations, or sisters, Rome may relocate the four nuns from Florida to existing monasteries. The sisters, Bruno, and others volunteers are working to recruit new members but so far, have not met with success.

"It's God's calling," said Sister Mary Frances, 79, a founding member of the Fort Myers Beach monastery who has lived in Southwest Florida for 35 years. "If he wants to call somebody and send them here, he will. That's something you depend on the providence of God for. You can't anticipate that."

'We need them'

More than a year ago, Ian came to town. The sisters planned to stay in their monastery to wait out the storm. They'd done it before, Sister Mary Frances said. But Ian was different.

"Ian was devastating," she said.

Late in the morning on Sept. 28, she said, as they were waiting out the storm together, they saw the water rushing into the parking lot, mud swirling. The water slowly began rising, overtaking benches, a cross, and finally spilling over the 8-foot wall that surrounded the property.

Traditionally, Poor Clare monasteries are surrounded by high, brick walls to keep the monastery grounds from the rest of the world. But in the face of Ian's storm surge, the wall could no longer keep the world at bay.

Sister Mary Frances recalled watching in disbelief as water flooded in, rising and filling the entire first floor. It killed the generator, overtook the windows, and slowly ascended the stairs. Out the window, she said, they watched boxes of communion hosts floating away on the waves.

Luckily, she said, the storm surge reached its apex just one stair below the second floor the nuns and two parish priests were sheltering on.

By the evening, Sister Mary Frances said, the worst of the storm was over. The next day, they went outside, bearing witness to the changed landscape. The house next door had turned to matchsticks; slick, sucking, sticky pluff mud was everywhere, turning every step into a struggle.

But the sisters did not yet know the longstanding impact Ian would have on their lives: their chapel would have to be torn down. The home they sheltered in during the storm did not have electricity, water, or sewer, and began to deteriorate rapidly.

"It was a sad day when it dawned on us the beach monastery would be no more. Where would we go to continue our life?" she asked.

They moved between a few homes –– including Bruno's rental –– before settling in a northeast Naples house. The two-car garage has become their chapel, and they've continued their life of prayer from there.

Earlier this year, Bruno stepped in with his offer of land for a new monastery in hopes that it might help keep the sisters in Southwest Florida.

"To me, they're more important than anything right now," Bruno said. "We need their prayers. We need them."

A Vatican edict meets a natural disaster

The Poor Clare nuns, who belong to an 800-year-old order spread across monasteries all over the world, have taken a vow of poverty and remain cloistered, leaving the house only when necessary. Their mission is to pray for the church, those within the church, and the world. The monastery on Fort Myers Beach was canonically erected in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

"It's a life of prayer," said Sister Mary Frances, who joined the order just a few days shy of 18 years of age. "It's a silent witness, if you want. God chooses you, and you love that. You love your life. It's very rewarding to know that you're praying for people who don't even know it."

The sisters in Naples range in age from 79 to 54. They are the only Poor Clare nuns left in Florida, after the Delray Beach monastery closed. Before the storm, they made their living by making and distributing priestly vestments and clothing for clergy within the Diocese of Venice, which covers Catholic churches from Sarasota to Marco Island, as well as distributing the communion hosts to the same churches. They also made and sold Christmas cards to the public.

Ian's floodwaters destroyed their sewing machines and computers, though. Now, they subsist solely on the proceeds from distributing the hosts, as well as donations, which can be made out to San Damiano Monastery of Saint Clare and sent to the sisters at 593 39th Ave. NW, Naples, FL, 34120.

The Order of Saint Clare, which was founded by St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare in 1212, allows for women to live a contemplative expression of the Franciscan spirit, in the Rule of Saint Clare. There are several expressions of this rule, including the Poor Clares.

Today, there are 27 monasteries of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration around the world in countries such as the Philippines, France, Bangladesh, Poland and India.

But in recent years, some Poor Clare communities have been combined after the Vatican issued "Cor Orans," an instruction on women's contemplative communities. Cor Orans dictated that unattached communities –– ones sans monasteries –– that want to continue following the Rule of Saint Clare must belong to a community of Poor Clares with greater existing facilities.

Communities that decrease by more than five sisters are being relocated and consolidated by Rome, largely due to aging sisters and aging facilities, Sister Mary Frances said.

"Many of our monasteries are aging and the sisters are dying," she said. When that happens, "they can't continue the monastery; they just don't have enough people."

Numbers of Poor Clare nuns are dwindling as fewer and fewer seek a life of contemplation. In Evansville, Indiana, only seven sisters remained in their monastery by 2017; sisters estimated roughly one in four remained more than a year in the cloister.

At its peak, the monastery in Fort Myers Beach held eight sisters. Today, they are only four. If they do not garner more vocations, or sisters, Rome could deny the building of a new monastery and send Southwest Florida's Poor Clare nuns elsewhere.

Although the sisters on Fort Myers Beach survived the storm, their community may not survive the loss of their monastery.

'A beautiful life'

The sisters hope to remain, and Sister Mary Frances worries for the future of her monastery.

"Our contemplative life is most important to the church and the world. It would be sad to lose it in the Diocese of Venice," Sister Mary Frances said.

They support the community through their work, and now, Bruno said, they need support in return. If Rome sends them elsewhere, the area would lose something unique and special, he added.

"It's amazing how your life can change when you have sisters like that praying for you every day. I wish that's something everybody could experience," said Bruno. "It's been a blessing."

Bruno and his son are helping the sisters recruit new vocations through social media, and priests at Ave Maria University have also taken young women to meet the sisters and get a sense of what a religious life can offer. Sister Mary Frances also put out the call for new vocations through her annual newsletter, and offered to let any girls who are interested in a life of joy and contemplation visit them in their home.

The sisters hope that exposure helps call young women to the order of St. Clare, and grow their numbers in Florida.

"It is a beautiful life, and one for which we give thanks to God every day," she said. "If I had all the money in the world, it wouldn't matter. There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Sister Mary Frances asked people pray for the chance to rebuild the monastery.

"We will need all the help we can get," she said, adding that St. Francis once said a giver is blessed many times over –– by the receiver, by God, and by the very act of giving.

Kate Cimini is the Florida Investigative Reporter for the USA TODAY-Network Florida, based at The News-Press and The Naples Daily News. Contact her at 239-207-9369 or kcimini@news-press.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: SW Florida nuns recruit, rebuild after hurricane destroyed monastery