Ave Maria, Florida is hard to locate on any conventional map. I discovered that when I tried to drive there from Sarasota in the North rather than from Miami to the Southeast, as I had done once before when I had been given directions. On this occasion I had no luck with Hertz' "NeverLost" tracking system. Never Lost was Lost. Google and Yahoo! declared the town non-existent. I found out later that the U.S. Post Office doesn't think the town exists, either, which is why they have it enrolled as a neighborhood of Immokalee, five miles distant.
Ave Maria's problem is that it is very new. Only a couple of years ago the community was the dream of Thomas S. Monaghan, the Michigan businessman, and otherwise it was thousands of acres of Collier Country scrub brush--palmetto palm bushes and pine trees--in the farming area north of Naples, hugging the Everglades.
But in 2009 Ave Maria already is home to 2,000 souls, most of those souls orthodox Catholic students at Ave Maria University ("the only university that takes its name directly from a line in the Bible," as I once heard Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., theologian in residence, tell a mostly Christian group). In what history would describe as an instant, a Florida version of an Italian piazza has sprung up, graced in its center by an "Oratory", a large, modern church with Gothic sentiments in stone and steel, dominating the landscape for miles in any direction.
Recently the Oratory was the scene of the beginning of a massive new front sculpture of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, putatively the largest Carrara marble sculpture that can be found anywhere. Marton Varo, a Transylvanian (Hungarian) sculptor, is in charge. You can get a picture of what it is to be from this university press release.
Meanwhile, non-students who would like to live in such a town --glorious in winter, hot in summer, beautiful in concept and initial realization of that concept, stimulating whenever the students are around--or even to enjoy a part time residence, have helped through their home purchases to pay for the university's endowment. Sales are slow just now, with only a few new houses going up each month rather than the scores that were typical of the first couple of years. Given the hideous real estate market elsewhere--especially elsewhere in Florida--having any new construction underway is remarkable.
It is not hard to see why the inflow continues. The tourist/pilgrims who visit daily are testimony to the lure of a unique faith-based new town. They can't help but admire the new student halls and dormitories going up before their eyes, but they also must be noticing the new stores, restaurants, schools, fitness center, swimming pool and golf courses. A new, professional quality soccer field has been announced.
Five miles away is the largely immigrant town of Immokalee, population 20,000. As Ave Maria's president Nick Healy told me over lunch, these are the folks who pick your winter tomatoes and make your beds if you are visiting the fine hotels of Naples. He says they are law abiding, quiet and potentially great partners for the neighboring university.
Whether you are religious or a New Urbanist or just a curious connoisseur of the novel, keep an eye on Ave Maria.
