ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — One of St. Augustine’s longest-living communities is selling their home.
The Sisters of St. Joseph – the nuns who live in St. Augustine -- announced Monday they are putting their historic motherhouse on the market. They are also selling two other buildings they own.
The Sisters of St. Joseph have lived in the motherhouse on St. George Street for 150 years.
The three-story motherhouse has a chapel where mass is held daily, a kitchen, a TV room, even a swimming pool for water therapy, humble bedrooms with twin beds and long balconies. Personal touches such as plants and seashells on tables sit on some of the balconies.
The Sisters of St. Joseph came from France to teach freed slaves in the 1860s. The cornerstone for the motherhouse was laid in 1974.
So why sell it?
General Superior Sister Kathleen Carr said the decision was not made quickly. She said that it is a choice to be "the best stewards of our property. The building is very, very large. We do not need this much space to live in."
The historic building needs constant, costly maintenance, and those costs "continue to get higher and higher and higher," Carr said.
Twenty-six sisters live in the motherhouse. Nine sisters who need more medical care live in the Lady of Lourdes Convent next door. Carr and a leadership team of other sisters and laypeople made the decision to put the motherhouse, as well as the Lady of Lourdes convent, and the St. Joseph Renewal Center across the street on the market. They are all in downtown St. Augustine. No price has been set yet.
And where will they live next? Carr said, "We don’t know yet. We don’t know where we’re going. We hope it’ll be in this area."
They plan to build another motherhouse that is more suited for "the care of the elderly and for those of us who don’t need to be cared for yet."
Carr said it could be two to three years before they move to a new building.
The Sisters of St. Joseph are simply part of St. Augustine. Truly, since the 1860s, right after the Civil War, they have been living in Downtown St. Augustine. You see them strolling the streets. You see them at community events.
Frank Castillo is the Chief Operation Officer for the Sisters of St. Joseph in St. Augustine. He said, "The announcement is not about ministries coming to completion. It really is about safeguarding those two different priorities in the best way possible. Could they have continued here? Yes. They could have. But it may not have been optimal for those first two priorities: care of the congregation and their ongoing ministry."
The Sisters of St. Joseph have been restoring their old St. Benedict the Moor Schoolhouse in Lincolnville for the last two years, turning it into a neighborhood center. The Sisters will still be busy there and at a list of other places in town. So you’ll still see them in St. Augustine.
"I’m going to keep my little, golfcart over at the neighborhood center," Carr said, "and we’ll be zipping around at Nights of Lights. They’ll know we’re around!"
The Sisters of St. Joseph have a saying that goes like this: Take care of the good neighbor. And they believe that by selling these assets, caring for their neighbor, and providing for their fellow sisters, and being good stewards of their resources will happen.