Caryana is a community started in 1972 by a group of high school students from an exclusive Catholic girls' school. They did not see themselves as starting anything new or novel or establishing a new religious order. They simply meant to live a simple and unassuming life, taking up the sure path marked out by the Fathers, Doctors and Saints of the Catholic Church. They were eventually followed by the rest of their families.

Guided by such Saintly Fathers as John Cassian, Basil the Great, Pope Gregory the Great, John Climacus, and Benedict of Nurcia, the community began observing the austere and disciplined life of the early Christians...which they eventually shared with others in their publications.

Though stricter than most monastic orders today, the members remain as laymen bounded only by personal, private vows rather than canonical vows. Their monasteries are walled in, almost self-sufficient and having all things within the monastery, including their works of mercy.

The community was privileged by the Abbot of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico, to propagate devotion to her in the Philippines and in Asia. On June 24, 1994, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, blessed the Pilgrim Image for Asia and the Philippines, and the community gifted the Pope with an actual-size replica of the Image executed in canvass.

(updated 01-05-02)