The Carmel of Rochester traces its foundational roots to the first American Carmel of Port Tobacco. In 1930 the revered Mother Beatrix of the Holy Spirit, who had entered the Baltimore community in 1868 and founded several Carmels in the US, set out for a new foundation in Rochester, New York.  Mother Beatrix was 84 years old at the time, but heard the call of the Lord in the request of Bishop John F. O’Hern of Rochester to found a Carmel in his diocese of northern New York. Mother arrived from the Philadelphia Carmel with four Sisters in June 1930 and established the Community in a modest house on Saratoga Avenue in downtown Rochester.  The new Monastery was formally opened on June 19th 1930 which was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

By the late 1930’s, as the Community grew, the nuns moved to a larger house within the city on East Avenue.  Again, in the 1950’s, due to increased urbanization and the growing number of Sisters it was necessary to find a more suitable and permanent location.  In 1956, the nuns entered their newly built Monastery at 1931 West Jefferson Road in Pittsford, New York, a suburb of Rochester.  The beautiful Monastery, modeled on historic Carmelite monasteries in Spain, was constructed specifically to accommodate the Discalced Carmelite way of life. Dedicated as the “Monastery of Our Lady and St. Joseph”, it provides a “paradise set apart” for a contemplative life of prayer, silence, solitude and community, according to the ideal of our Holy Mother St. Teresa.  It is here, on our own Mount Carmel, that each Sister abandons herself to God for the sake of His Church.