The Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration came to Alabama in 1962 when Mother M. Angelica established Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in the Birmingham suburb of Irondale.

As a young religious, Mother Angelica made the Lord a promise when faced with a serious spinal operation: "God!  You didn't bring me this far just to lay me out on my back for life.  Please, Lord Jesus, if You allow me to walk again I will build a monastery for Your glory.  And I will build it in the South."  

After four months of hospitalization, Mother Angelica WALKED through the door of the Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton, Ohio.  And so Mother kept her promise.  

After receiving all necessary permission and raising funds through making and selling fishing lures,  Mother Angelica and four other sisters (Sister Mary Raphael, Sister Mary Joseph, Sister Mary Michael, and Sister Assumpta) headed South.  This new foundation was officially established on May 20, 1962.  

The first postulant the Monastery received was Mae Francis (Sister Mary David), Mother Angelica's natural mother.  A few months later Sister Mary Veronica, the former Abbess of the Sancta Clara Monastery, transferred to Our Lady of the Angels Monastery.  

It was at this location in Irondale that Our Lady of the Angels Monastery began to flourish.  It was also there in the "monastery garage" that EWTN began and continues to this day.