Our Capuchin brothers Jim Mungovan, Mark Carter and Kip Ledger have been assigned to initiate our Provincial Hermitage in Salisbury, PA. Alverno has been a part of our Province since 1929 and has welcomed groups of friars and lay men and women throughout its history. At our Chapter of 2025, friars voted to provide a space for brothers to be assigned in hermitage and the site of Alverno was the decided location for the new community.
Renamed the LaVerna Hermitage fraternity, the brothers are in the process of planning a place for their residence on the property. 
The popular English name of the mountain is Alverno, but the brothers decided to return to the Italian name of the mountain where Francis of Assisi spent time in prayer. It was on Mt. LaVerna in Tuscany where he experienced the imposition of the Stigmata on his body in 1224.
The construction/refurbishing of their new friary began on Monday, August 3rd - and the dumpster is in place to prepare for the necessary restructuring of the residence. It will house the three men and will make space for the stay of any guest friar who can take some time for their own hermitage experience.
Our brother Jim, the fraternity's leader, reports the good news that the pool has been repaired and restored and is holding water for the first time in three or four years (below, left), thanks to the work of the friars from our fraternity in Washington, DC, who began work on the pool in late Spring when the friar students had finished their finals.
The new fraternity will live in one of the buildings on the compound, but friars will still be able to take time for a periods in the hermitage. We'll have more about LaVerna and its progress, but in the meantime, pray for the new community and the work that lies ahead.