Our potluck picnic will be on Sunday, August 31st, 2025, at 4 pm, in the monastery basement. There will be no Vespers and no formation classes.

Are you looking for a more spiritual life, deep contentment, and a community to help you get to heaven?

Then look no further… you’ve arrived:

Welcome to the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, Our Lady Queen of Peace Community!

We hope you enjoy our site!  Please note that you may access the Pages of this website on the top right if you cannot see the tabs above.    If you have any further questions, please contact us on the last Page of this site.

If you are interested in joining the Secular Carmelites, you would have to be between 18 - 55 years of age, attend a prescribed amount of meetings, and then ask the Director of Formation to provide you with an application for joining.  In addition, you would present us with your Baptismal Certificate and Confirmation Certificate, plus a letter (form letter is fine) from your parish certifying that you are a member there.  Also, you need to be fully able to receive all the sacraments.  The council would then look at these materials and vote on your acceptance.

Upon acceptance, you would begin attending formation lessons (before or after the meetings).  After one year, you would receive your Scapular and choose a predicate name; after two years, you would make your First Promises; and after three years, you would make your Final Promises.

A holy, third-order Discalced Carmelite from the Cracow Province, Kunegunda Swiec (1876-1955), has been made Venerable in the line of canonization by the Vatican.  Kunegunda lived her whole life in the village of Stryszawa in the mountain regions of Poland.  The tenth child of Jan and Wiktoria Siwiec, Kunegunda was a mystic and visionary, who had conversations with Jesus, Mary, and other saints.  She worked at least one miracle through her prayer to God: During World War II, Nazi soldiers were headed toward Stryszawa when the bridge they were riding on collapsed with no prior warning and the soldiers had to retreat.  Her village was spared.

Kunegunda was also a lay catechist who donated land to the Sisters of the Resurrection in order to take care of orphans from all over Poland.  Her favorite saint was St. Thérese of Lisieux, a Discalced Carmelite nun from nineteenth-century France; she practiced the “little way” that St. Therese had made famous.  Kunegunda made a vow of chastity and to honor that, remained unmarried throughout her life.  Her reputation as a spiritual advisor in the mountain region soared.  Sadly, Kunegunda lost sight in her right eye, then contracted bone cancer, and died in 1955, having offered her life to Our Lord for the sins of the world.

The next step for Kunegunde Siwiec toward sainthood is to become beatified and regarded as a Blessed, by virtue of a miracle attributed to her, as well as demonstrating “heroic virtue or offering of life” (USCCB) and, finally, canonization or sainthood, which demands a second miracle (USCCB).

Sources:

Carmelite Quotes: https://carmelitequotes.blog/2025/02/25/venkunegunda/

Kalniuk, Tomasz, “Folk mystic: A narrative of a Polish Highlander Cunegonda Siwiec,” https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2018.74.kalniuk

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), “Saints”: https://www.usccb.org/offices/public-affairs/saints

Here is a link to a wonderful article on a brave Secular Carmelite who was a Holocaust hero:

https://aleteia.org/2025/07/28/the-carmelite-cyclist-who-defied-the-nazis/

Corpus Christi 2025: Images of the decorators and our OCDS altar, near the St. Therese statue on the monastery grounds.

Some photos from our Carmelite pilgrimage to Spain 25- February to 6 March, 2025.

Some photos from our Spiritual Director’s party for the 30th anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood and his birthday…

Our OCDS Corpus Christi altar: June 2, 2024

The Shrine of Our Lady of the Scapular in Burundi, Africa, established and directed by Carmelite Missionaries (Images provided by Fr. Fryderyk Jaworski, OCD).