Community of Nazareth

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man of the house of David, named Joseph. The virgin’s name was Mary.
(Luke 1: 26-27)

The Carmel of the Holy Family is located in the heart of Galilee, in Nazareth , the place of the Incarnation, the place in which the Holy Trinity was revealed. Our monastery owes its origin to Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified. In 1876, Sister Mary began to speak of the foundation to Bishop Vincent Bracco, who was then the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In 1878, the authorizations arrived from Rome . In the month of May, the prioress of Bethlehem explored the terrain for possible construction, accompanied by Sister Mary of the Crucified and another nun.

On 28 July 1907, the first stone was laid, blessed by Father Cyril, a Discalced Carmelite, Vicar of the community of Mount Carmel . In 1910, after the construction of the monastery, the new community was formed by religious coming from the Carmel of Bethlehem.

It was the Patriarch who chose the title of “The Holy Family” for our monastery. The group of the eleven founding nuns, who left the Carmel of Bethlehem on 24 October 1910, was composed as follows: six were French, three Palestinian, one Italian and one German. They were accompanied by Fathers Roy and Lahon (of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram) and Baouardy, nephew of Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified.

On 27 October they arrived in Nazareth . The monastery, built in white stone, halfway between the center of the village and the crest of the hill, received them. From Carmel , they were able to see the Sanctuary of the Annunciation and, a little further along, Tabor, the plain of Esdrelon and the first foothills of Carmel .