Once buried at now-closed Erie monastery, 9 Carmelite nuns get new resting place
Nine Carmelite nuns who had been buried at the now-closed Carmel of the Holy Family Monastery on East Gore Road now once again been laid to rest — this time at a cemetery in Fairview Township.
The Catholic Diocese of Erie has confirmed that the nuns are now buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 5711 West Lake Road.
A rite of committal ceremony took place at Gate of Heaven on July 12, according to Catholic Diocese of Erie spokeswoman Anne-Marie Welsh.
The Rev. Michael Kesicki, associate vice president for mission and ministry at Gannon University, officiated.
The sisters were identified in the reinterment service’s program as Mother Mary of Jesus Crucified; Mother Elaine of the Mother of God; Mother Emmanuel of the Mother of God; Sister Joseph of Jesus and Mary; Sister Marie Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face; Sister Christine of the Cross; Sister Pauline of Our Lady of Sorrows; Sister Agnes of Jesus; and Mother Maureen of the Precious Blood.
Carmel of the Holy Family, which had been the only cloistered, contemplative community of nuns in the Catholic Diocese of Erie, closed in December 2020 in response to new Vatican norms for contemplative communities.
Carmel of the Holy Family:East Lake Road monastery closed
Those norms require that communities with fewer than six members close or affiliate with a larger, viable community.
At the time of its closure there were just three sisters living at the East Gore Road monastery, which was established in 1957 at the invitation of Archbishop John Mark Gannon.
What's next for the Holy Family Monastery property?
The St. Joseph’s Association, to which the Erie monastery belonged, and the affiliated Carmelite Monastery of Rochester, New York, will determine what to do with the shuttered East Lake Road property.
Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico said that since the East Gore Road property "is under the jurisdiction of the Carmelites in Rochester," and that property could be sold and/or redeveloped someday, the sisters who were buried there had to be relocated.
"Now they are on consecrated ground in a Catholic cemetery," Persico said.
Welsh said it’s “a nice turn of events that the sisters are now buried at Gate of Heaven,” where the public can pay their respects.
The environment in a monastery or convent largely encloses its religious community away from the rest of the world.
“For all those years they prayed for us,” Welsh said. “Now that they are no longer buried in the cloister, we have the opportunity to visit their graves and pay our respects in person.”
Kesicki called the service beautiful.
"It's what we do to give honor to the person, anyone who wants a Christian burial," Kesicki said. "It's held to show proper respect. And it was public... People can go out and lay a flower or pray at their graves and give tribute. It's a perpetual resting place for the sisters, and it's in here in Erie."
Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Nuns buried at shuttered Carmelite monastery in Erie are re-interred
