Immaculate Heart Novitiate - Calabasas - vintage postcard - gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gerald Fecht 2009 Over my years in the San Fernando Valley, the Claretian Seminary in Calabasas has changed hands many times. We'll need a Calabasas expert to fill us in on the several organization who have called the property in Malibu Canyon their home. For some years people referred to the place as Claretville. It was in actuality a novitiate (training school) for the Claretian Order of the Roman Catholic Church.
This postcard in the Religion Collection of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (Chaired by Liane Schirmer) shows the main chapel of the Immaculate Heart Novitiate. The Claretians were founded by Saint Antonio Maria Claret in 1849. Their initial work began as missionaries in Catalonia and the Canary Islands. San Antonio Claret became the Archbishop of Cuba and focused the order as missionaries in Spain and Latin America.
How and when the Claretians came to California and Calabasas isn't known by your Museum at this time.