14 nuns build stone monastery they saw in 'visions' with hand-made nails

A group of 14 women living in Fairfield, Pennsylvania, are building a stone monastery with their own hands and say that this structure will remain standing for 1,000 years. The women include externs, aspirants and Sisters. The women are using hand-forged nails for the monastery, with no electricity and nothing to make the stones stick to each other. Named Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the structure is expected to cost $100 million and the nuns have raised $22 million till now.

The money is largely coming in from small donations. The structure is about one-third complete, with EWTN News reporting that 20 per cent of it was done by September 2026. According to the New York Post, the monastery will be spread over a 48-acre area, with some reports suggesting the number is 39. The striking point about the structure is that it is being built just as a monastery would have been constructed 1,000 years ago.

It was envisioned by Mother Thérèse of Merciful Love, who told The Post that they "had a vision" about such a building, which will be made using traditional methods and nothing that involves the use of machines.

Sisters live in a traditional community

According to Global Sisters Report, the finished structure will be like a village where the sisters can raise animals, tend fields and gardens, spin wool and sew. The place will also be used to hold Mass for the public, sacraments, weddings and funerals. The community already lives a self-sufficient life where they raise pigs, sheep, chickens, cows and a donkey named Fidelis. The Fairfield Carmelites are vegetarian and use the pigs for waste management, also trading the animals traded locally for feed and supplies.

The structure is expected to be finished by 2041. Right now, 14 women live here, and the monastery will house 50. This means that till the time it is over, the nuns will be living on an active construction site.

Many other American communities are constructing monasteries using traditional methods. The Archdiocese of Miami is building a Discalced Carmelite monastery in Florida, while Carthusians USA notes is building one in Vermont. It is being made using rough-hewn granite carried up a mountain from a local quarry.