Conventual Friars have served our St. Anthony Parish since 1867. Today this tradition carries on with the Friars of Our Lady of Consolation Province. In 1926 the Province of Our Lady of Consolation was formed to serve in the Midwest. It is centered at Mount St. Francis, located in the hills of southern Indiana across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. Because the friars in Ohio had been guardians and ministers at the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio since 1912, the name Our Lady of Consolation was chosen for our province.

The Friars of Our Lady of Consolation serve throughout a wide swath of the United States stretching from northern Ohio and central Minnesota, down through Indiana and Kentucky, and into the southwest in Texas and New Mexico. They also have Friars working in Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, and Illinois.



In addition to staffing parishes, the Friars work in retreat ministry, serve as chaplains in hospitals, nursing homes, military bases, prisons and have theologians and scientists teaching in seminaries
and universities.