The Mary Lake Augustinian Monastery, also known as Mary Lake Monastery, Mary Lake Shrine, or simply Mary Lake is an Augustinian

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

 monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 in King City

King City, Ontario

King City is an affluent, unincorporated village in King Township, Ontario, Canada, located just north of Toronto. It is the largest community in King Township, with 1,629 dwellings and a population of 4,902.-History:...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The campus is nearly 1000 acres (4 km²), residing on Keele Street, just north of 15th Sideroad (Bloomington). It is part of the Province of Saint Joseph. Mary Lake is the chief foundation of the Augustinians in Canada, and is now well known as a spiritual centre for the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto is a Roman Catholic archdiocese that includes part of the Province of Ontario. Its archbishop is also the eccesiatical provincial for the dioceses of Hamilton, London, Saint Catharines, and Thunder Bay. The Archbishop is Thomas Christopher Collins, with...

. Mary Lake generally refers to the complex which includes the property, the monastery and shrine, and which operates the retreat centre. The shrine is named the Our Lady of Grace Shrine, whose title is taken from an Augustinian shrine in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. The monastery motto is One mind and one heart unto God.

In 1999, the mendicant order

Mendicant Orders

The mendicant orders are religious orders which depend directly on the charity of the people for their livelihood. In principle, they do not own property, either individually or collectively , believing that this was the most pure way of life to copy followed by Jesus Christ, in order that all...

 established a school on the property, St. Thomas of Villanova College

St. Thomas of Villanova College

St. Thomas of Villanova College is a middle school and high school in King City, Ontario, Canada. It was established at Mary Lake by lay educators Paul Paradiso and Grant Purdy in 1999 at Mary Lake Augustinian Monastery as a Catholic school together with the Order of Saint Augustine's friars of...

. The school campus is within the grounds of this Augustinian monastic foundation. It uses the house system, with houses such as St. Augustine, St. Nicholas, St. Rita, and St. Monica.

History

Originally, the property was the farm and summer home of Sir Henry Pellatt

Henry Pellatt

Major-General Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, C.V.O. was a well-known Canadian financier and soldier....

, and was named for his wife Lady Mary Pellatt

Mary Pellatt

Mary, Lady Pellatt was the first Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides of Canada. She was awarded the Silver Fish.Mary Dodgson was born on 1857-04-16 in Toronto, Canada. On 1882-06-15, she married Henry Mill Pellatt, later Sir Henry Mill Pellatt. She was created Chief Commissioner of the...

.

An agricultural school was established on the grounds in the 1930s by the Basilian fathers

Congregation of St. Basil

The Basilian Fathers, also known as The Congregation of Saint Basil, is an international order of Catholic priests and students studying for the priesthood, who focus on education and ministering through oratories....

, and in 1942 the Archbishop of Toronto

Roman Catholic Archbishops of Toronto

This is a list of the Roman Catholic Archbishops of Toronto.The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto was created out of the Diocese of Kingston December 17, 1841....

, Cardinal McGuigan, "invited the Augustinians to establish a shrine and to offer a program of weekend retreats for lay people" The success of this program resulted in the construction of the shrine in the 1960s, which was dedicated on November 30, 1978 by Cardinal Carter.

The building consists of split fieldstone

Fieldstone

Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...

native to Mary Lake, based on designs by J. Stuart Cauley.

Mary Lake held its first mass in 1945.