Carmelite nuns may be moving from Buffalo monastery to Florida

The nuns intend to put their monastery, with a listed address of 75 Carmel Road, up for sale, and move to St. Augustine, according to a Buffalo Diocese source and a woman who raises money for the Carmelites in Florida.

“It’s a decision that has been made and approved, and it’s going to happen. The sisters in Buffalo will be moving to St. Augustine,” said Catherine Hensley, who, with her husband, co-founded a Florida nonprofit called Friends of the Carmelite Nuns of Northern Florida Inc., based in Ponte Vedra, Fla.

Hensley told The Buffalo News that the Buffalo nuns intend to sell their monastery, a sprawling two-story brick building that stretches along Carmel Road and Tacoma Avenue.

When asked Friday afternoon by a News reporter when the move will take place, Hensley answered: “It will happen on God’s timetable.”

Officials of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Buffalo, and their parent organization based in Italy, have not responded to questions from The News about the potential move.

The nonprofit headed by Hensley and her husband, William, was formed earlier this year to help the Buffalo nuns finance their move to St. Augustine, according to Florida records on nonprofit organizations.

The state record states that Friends of the Carmelite Nuns was formed to “provide financial and other assistance to a community of the Order of Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Roman Catholic Church which currently resides at the Monastery of the Little Flower in Buffalo, New York, to a monastery to be acquired or established within the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, and thereafter to provide ongoing financial and other assistance to that Order and monastery.”

When asked why the nuns are leaving Buffalo, Hensley said: “The people in Buffalo have been wonderful to them … This…