Phone: (301) 627-5337
St. Kateri Tekakwitha Novitiate
1714 Crain Highway
Upper Marlboro, MD 20774
Upper Marlboro, MD | Novitiate House of Formation
Currently, the Novitiate is located in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, about twenty miles east of Washington, DC and within the Archdiocese of Washington.
First Stages of Formation
The two initial stages of formation take place in this community: the postulancy and the novitiate.
- Postulancy | Here a candidate begins to experience daily life in the Institute and knowledge of the charism.
- Novitiate | ‘The purpose of the novitiate…is to give the novices a greater understanding of their divine vocation.’ (Code of Canon Law, 641-645) Admission to the Institute begins with the Novitiate, which lasts one year. The novices prepare for their first profession of vows through human, spiritual, and intellectual formation.
In addition to religious and intellectual formation, the novices also participate in some apostolates of our Religious Family in the region, including organizing an oratory for children according to the spirit of St. John Bosco, teaching catechism, and visiting the elderly in local nursing homes.
Read about past events relating to our community here.
Discernment
For vocational inquiries, please contact the Vocations Director.
We also have a Contemplative Novitiate in Brooklyn, NY, where candidates can enter directly into contemplative life.
Our Patroness | Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin (1656-1680)
Among the earliest gems of the Church in North America is Kateri Tekakwitha, a young Iroquois who was born in the 1600’s of a Christian Algonquin mother and a non-Christian Iroquois chief, in Quebec, Canada. Having lost her parents at the age of fourteen, she was raised among the Mohawks in the home of an uncle. There she first encountered Christian missionaries, and was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676. Because of her baptism, her exemplary life, and her desire to remain a virgin, Kateri suffered great persecution. She died at age twenty-four known as the “Lily of the Mowhawks,” since she had given herself over entirely to care for the sick and long hours of prayer and penance. She was beatified in 1980 by Blessed Pope John Paul II, and canonized on October 21, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Her body is buried in the church of the Native American reserve of Kahnawake, Quebec.
