Santa Teresita was founded in 1930 as a sanatorium for women with tuberculosis.[/caption]
Name of Church St. Joseph Chapel, Santa Teresita Medical Center
Address 819 Buena Vista Street, Duarte
Phone number 626-359-3243
Website www.santa-teresita.org/saint-joseph-chapel
Mass times Sundays, 10 a.m. The public is welcome to attend Sunday Masses. Masses are sometimes offered during the week, but due to the intermittent availability of priests, the sisters do not advertise the weekday Masses and the chapel is not open to the public on these days.
Priest A priest of St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado has been offering the Sunday Mass; as of this writing it has been Fr. Thomas Nelson.
Facility Santa Teresita is an assisted living facility for seniors operated by the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart, whose Motherhouse is in Alhambra. They wear the full habit and have remained faithful to Catholic tradition. They have 120 sisters and their apostolates include retreats at their motherhouse and health care. Those attending the St. Joseph Chapel Masses are seniors, the sisters, the staff and volunteers and people from the local community.
Parking There is ample parking in front of the chapel and on the grounds.
Acoustics Good.
Cry room No.
Additional observations St. Joseph Chapel is a beautiful church with attractive artwork. The grounds are well maintained with many traditional statues located throughout. Many of the statues are creations of Mexican artist Rudolph Vargas (1904-86). Inside the chapel itself Vargas carved panels depicting the Nativity and St. Joseph in his carpenter’s shop. He created images of St. Therese and St. Teresa of Avila, patroness of the Carmelite order, and the Stations of the Cross. And, above the altar, is the centerpiece of the chapel, the crucifix Vargas created. (See many of his images here.) The chapel is a prominent feature on the campus. Mother Maria Luisa Josefa, or “Mother Luisita,” founder of the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart, established Santa Teresita in 1930. It was originally a sanatorium for women with tuberculosis and later became a hospital before becoming a assisted-living facility for the elderly.
This medical center was once served by Fr. Cornelius Buckley SJ, after the Jesuits at USF and Santa Clara U. wanted to get rid of him. He served well and later became chaplain for St. Thomas Aquinas College, before retiring to the Jesuit’s center in Los Gatos. This chapel seems to have been blessed with good chaplains.
The Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart exude a deep, contemplative spirit — rather like bringing the cloister to those to whom they minister.
I’ve known Norbertines since the 1970s when I’d drive from the Seminary in Camarillo to Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana to do “Field Education”. I was impressed with their dedication, open faith, hope and love and their good sense of humor. I still see them at St. Stephen’s German/Hungarian Church in south central Los Angeles when I do a German Mass there and they do the Hungarian Mass after that. They are “No-nonsense” but not grouchy. Rather they seem to have am inner joy while being dedicated and serious about their work. I’ve been to their large Abbey in Silverado, California. It’s a wonderful and beautiful place with a wonderful expression of the tradition of the Church in architecture and the Priests and others there.