The Provincial Council in 2004

Provincial Council: Anita Mendoza from Houston, Nancy Thompson from Cedar Rapids, Gerald Alford from Lafayette LA, Amelia Wilken from Sioux City, Pascal Alfano from New Orleans, and Elizabeth Korves, our president, from University of Texas in Austin.

What is This?

The Oklahoma province of the Discalced Carmelites is an area of the United States. Our friars were thrown out of Torreon Mexico in April 1914, and accepted into the United States by the bishop of Oklahoma. Thus the name "Oklahoma Province." Pictured at right is the Bishop of Oklahoma who accepted us into his dioese in 1914. We first tried Kansas, but the bishop there was in Europe when our immigrant friars passed through. When Bishop Meerschaert appeared in his top hat he struck an imposing figure. When he came to town for a solemn Mass, the Baptists would counter by hastily scheduling a revivial. The ploy rarely worked, because not even the most eloquent hell-fire-and-brimstone preacher could complete with the pomp and pagentry of the Catholic bishop.

Our friars today have monasteries in Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Dallas, San Antonio, and New Orleans. Our cloistered nuns have convents in Piedmont OK, Sioux City IA, Little Rock AR, San Antonio and New Caney TX, and in Covington LA.

Our Seculars have communities that meet once a month in Sioux City [Scy] and Cedar Rapids [Cdr] IA, Topeka [Tpk] KS, Piedmont [Okc] OK, Little Rock [Lit] AR, Dallas [Dal], San Antonio [Sat], New Caney [Ncy], Austin [Aus], McAllen [McA], Lubbock [Lub], Amarillo, Georgetown, Killeen, Waco and Houston TX; Jackson [Jak] & the Gulf Coast [Gfc] of Mississippi; Knoxville [Knx] Tennessee, New Orleans [Msy], Covington [Cov], Lafayette [Laf], Baton Rouge [BRg], DeRidder [new], Vidalia [Vid], Alexandria [Alx] and New Iberia [NIb] LA; St. Louis [Stl] Missouri; Birmingham [Bir], Madison [new] and Mobile [Mob]AL; Conyers [Cny], Atlanta [Atl], Lawrenceville [Lib], Savannah [Sav], and in Thomasville [Thv] Georgia. Our two new Study Groups are located in northern Alabama between Birmingham and Knoxville (Madison), and in SW Louisiana north of Lake Charles (DeRidder).