Wall at Carmelite Monastery damaged in storm

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - No one was hurt, but the twister destroyed part of a concrete wall around the facility.

 CHRISTMAS NIGHT AT THE CARMELITE MONASTERY

The Carmelite Monastery is in the 700 Block of Dauphin Island Parkway.

Many people pass by it without even knowing it’s there.

The sisters who live here were commemorating Christmas when the tornado struck.

Sister Regina Bradley said, "We were in the choir saying our prayers Christmas evening, and the noise, like the freight train, started, and the sisters were scared, so some of them ducked down on the floor and began to pray more.  As quickly as it came, it went. All the doors slammed in the monastery, and then we came outside to look around, and we saw the entire wall on Gosson Avenue had been knocked down."

Sister Bradley said the tornado knocked down more than 400 feet of the ten foot high concrete wall that surrounds the monastery.

But, she said the wall provides more than just security.

Sister Bradley said, "Its part of our enclosure. It's part of our enclosure. Of course, nuns need solitude and silence, and the wall helps to keep things quiet, and we can say our prayers better that way for everybody.

SISTER NGUYEN'S STORY

Sister Caroline Nguyen was one of a group of Carmelite Nuns who came to live in the monastery from Vietnam a couple of years ago.

She talked about what it was like when the tornado passed through.

Sister Nguyen said, "We were praying in the chapel, and we hear a noise, and, we're scared, and then, we come out to see the wall fallen down."

Work crews have put up a temporary fence until they repair the wall.

MONASTERY HISTORY

Sister Regina Bradley said, "This monastery was founded in 1943 with four nuns from Philadelphia Carmel. They came down at the request of Archbishop (Thomas) Toolen, and Archbishop Toolen was asked by Father Frank Casey of the Edmundites, who served here in the diocese for years and years, to have a contemplative monastery of nuns, especially to pray for his priests in the missions."