
Corpus Christi Monastery is the oldest Dominican monastery in the United States, currently located in the Bronx at Lafayette Avenue. This is a 115-year old branch of the first monastery of nuns founded by St. Dominic de Guzman in Prouilhe, France, in 1206. The original monastery was founded by Mother Mary of Jesus (Julia Crooks of New York City) in Newark, NJ, in 1880. Nine years later, she and five other Sisters came to the Bronx, at the invitation of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan.