Heavenly Peace

Carmel Community Faithfully Tends a Sacred Refuge

- Kathleen Ward

In 1886, a small group of European Catholic monks set out from Texas to Louisiana, united in their charge to build a monastery and school to help a rural community of landowners, farmers and former slaves still struggling two decades after the Civil War.

The young monks embraced the Carmelite philosophy of prayer, community and service. Led by German priest Anastasius Peters, they selected a fertile remote property near Bayou Pierre, east of Mansfield. The missionaries had little knowledge of the area and few resources, but the early years were productive and promising.

They built the monastery, renovated a home for nuns, opened a post office and school, and erected a secluded chapel they called “The Riches of Mary” for their private worship. Eventually, there were 31 priests and nuns with 60 students, and the citizens of Bayou Pierre renamed their community Carmel.

Within a few years, many of the Carmelites had died from yellow fever, malaria, and the harsh conditions of their hardscrabble life. A school for blacks led to confrontations with the white community and two monks were attacked by a white man with a pistol.

Depleted and discouraged, Father Peters returned to Texas. Later a fire destroyed the monastery. Dreams destroyed, the Carmelites abandoned their mission. Only one thing remained as a tribute to their utopian vision, the small chapel on a hill.

Built in 1891 in the Gothic style from local rocks and mud mortar, with a roof of wood shingles, it was one of three chapels built by the Carmelites; the Rambin and Gloster chapels are gone. As the years passed, the abandoned chapel deteriorated from vandalism, time and neglect.