Posted August 1, 2017

The Carmelite Monastery of St. Joseph and St. Anne hosted an overflowing congregation for a Latin Mass celebrated in the Extraordinary Form on Wednesday, July 26. The Mass prayerfully welcomed 10 new nuns into the cloistered community on Old York Road in Philadelphia. Read about the Mass and the growth of the order in the city and in Pennsylvania and Nebraska, here. (Photos by Sarah Webb)

  • Faithful young and old prayed at the Mass celebrating the addition of 10 new women religious, mostly young, to the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia.

  • Father Scott William Allen, F.S.S.P. (left), blesses Father Gerard Saguto, F.S.S.P., before he proclaims the Gospel reading.

  • Women follow the Mass with the aid of a booklet for the Mass in Latin.

  • A large group of altar servers assist during the Mass.

  • Bishop Michael Fitzgerald preaches the homily for the Mass.

  • The cloistered sisters of the Carmelite Monastery participate in the Mass from behind a screen behind the main altar.

  • Father Scott W. Allen, of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, celebrates a Solemn High Mass July 26, 2017 at the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia. The Mass was in Latin in the Extraordinary Form, which predates the liturgical norms of the Second Vatican Council. (Photo by Sarah Webb)

  • A view of the monastery’s chapel from the choir loft.

  • Celebrant Father Scott William Allen, F.S.S.P. (center), elevates the Eucharist as Father Harold McKale, left and Father Gerard Saguto, F.S.S.P., act as subdeacon and deacon for the Mass, respectively.

  • Faithful receive holy communion along the altar rail in the chapel.

  • Father Scott W. Allen, F.S.S.P., distributes holy Communion to faithful at the altar rail in the chapel of the Carmelite Monastery July 26.

  • The monastery displays the relics of the one of the Carmelites’ most famous saints, St. Therese of Lisieux, and her parents, Saints Louis and Zelie Martin.

  • Faithful who could not fit inside the chapel worshiped instead in a courtyard outside, aided by the video on a large television screen.