Mrs. Emilee Thorn King Post, great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was determined to bring Carmel to Rhode Island.

Born in 1873, (same year as St. Thérèse). Mrs. Post converted to the Catholic faith in the early 1900’s. Following the death of her husband in 1915, she took a unit of six nurses to France during WWI. It was at that time that Mrs. Post became acquainted with the Carmelite nuns in the city of Compiegne and provided for their needs while working with the military and founding hospitals for the wounded.

In 1924 she moved to Lisieux; it was there that she met and developed a relationship with the biological sisters of Thérèse. Mrs. Post was received in the secular order in the chapel of Thérèse’s Carmel.

After her return to the states in 1927 she worked tirelessly to found a Carmel in Rhode Island. She offered her Manor House, Stoneleigh, in Newport for a new Monastery. A Carmelite community from New Orleans responded to Mrs. Post’s invitation and in May of 1930 settled into their new home.

In July of 1930 Mrs. Post organized the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites of Newport, and later the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites of Barrington, RI. We took the same title as that of the monastery to which we belong as OCDS: ‘Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus.’ The first secular member, Miss Mary Barry of Hartford, CT was clothed on July 16, 1930. When the Newport Carmel closed in 1957 there were 93 members.