Our Roots

Bl. Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph

The spirit of our Carmel DCJ comes from the faith experience of Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph. Anna Maria Tauscher, as she was known then, was born on June 19, 1855, in Sandow, Germany (now in Poland), and grew up in a deeply religious family. Her father, a Lutheran pastor, disowned her when she converted to the Catholic faith on October 30, 1888. Through meditating upon the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded and bleeding, yet burning with love for mankind, a desire was born in her to love the Sacred Heart with her whole being and make Him loved in every heart He had created. She desired to place her life in the service of God.

Through reading the life of the great Carmelite reformer, St. Teresa of Avila, Anna Maria found a spirituality that corresponded to her own heart. To spend her life in union with God, living for Him alone and offering all for the glory of the Divine Heart and the salvation of souls was her ardent desire. But God did not will that her zeal remain entirely hidden.

Founding the Carmel of the Divine Heart of Jesus on July 2, 1891, in Berlin, Germany, Mother Maria Teresa received the grace to put the contemplative spirit of Carmel into the active apostolate. Intimately united with Jesus through prayer, silence, and solitude, yet ever aware of the needs of her time, she brought her contemplative life to bear on the direct apostolate, fulfilling her dream to provide a “home for the homeless.” Her concern was aimed especially at poor and neglected children, above all those who had no home. Her loving dedication was further directed to families and individuals who had left the Church, to the lonely, the aged, to immigrants and transient workers—all who were homeless in any way.

After a long life of tireless service despite sufferings and persecutions, Mother Maria Teresa died at the age of 83 on September 20, 1938, at the Motherhouse of the Carmel DCJ, in Sittard, Holland. Bishop W. Lemmens opened her beatification process in Sittard on February 2, 1953. On December 20, 2002, Pope John Paul II declared Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph venerable. In December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle necessary for her beatification and declared that her Feast be celebrated on October 30th. Mother Maria Teresa was beatified on May 13, 2006, in Roermond, Netherlands. Today, her remains lie in a side chapel off of the main chapel at our Motherhouse in Sittard.

Before her death she wrote: "To be able to dry tears, to heal wounds of souls from the heights of heaven, this is my ardent wish." This is the mission her daughters carry on today. We are, in the words of our Foundress, "Servants of the Divine Heart," consecrated to Him for our own sanctification, the salvation of souls, and reparation.

Read more about her life

Learn more about obtaining a prayer card and relic

Prayer:

O God, our Father, You purified Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph through suffering and afflictions. Her great faith, her firm trust and unselfish love made her, through Your grace, a pure instrument in Your hand with which You could do great things.
Encouraged by her example and her trust in Your help we ask, through her intercession (name your intention here)
May Your holy Will be done Lord.
Make our hearts ready to accept what You send. Then we know that we pray in the spirit of Mother Maria Teresa.
This we ask through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

(With Ecclesiastical approval, Roermond, NL, February 2, 2006, Msgr. F.J. Wiertz)

Please communicate all favors granted
though Blessed Maria Teresa's intercession to:

Carmelite Sisters DCJ
10341 Manchester Rd.
Kirkwood, MO 63122

Prayer cards of Bl. Maria Teresa of St. Joseph and/or a second-class relic may be obtained upon request. Her autobiography, The Servant of God Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph: An Autobiography translated by Rev. Berchmans Bittle, O.F.M. Cap., may be obtained by those within the U.S. per written request including a donation to cover postage – wt. 1 lb. 12 oz.

A Beloved Daughter

Venerable Sr. M. Theresia of the Most Holy Trinity

Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph spent September of 1912 to July of 1920 establishing our Carmel in Canada and North America. During that time, she who had a special love for suffering encountered the heroic suffering of one of her daughters, Sr. M. Theresia of the Most Holy Trinity. So edified by Sr. M. Theresia was she, that after Sister’s death, Mother trusted firmly in her intercession and eagerly desired her beatification.

Sr. M. Theresia was born on November 13, 1897, in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, the daughter of a faith-filled Catholic family. After a 6-year stay in Ochtrup, Germany, where her father died, she lived with her family in Enschede until she entered the convent.

Theresia suffered much from her childhood on, and began very early in life to love her suffering, for, as she said, Jesus also suffered much for us. From her pious mother she learned to love the Mother of God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When her health improved, she asked to enter our Carmel of the Divine Heart of Jesus.

She entered our convent in Tilburg on October 2, 1917, and professed her vows on July 2, 1919. Impelled by a great zeal for the missions, she travelled to America with seven other Sisters in December 1919.

Soon after her arrival in the New World, she was afflicted with an illness, a severe kidney disease, discovered too late by the doctors. She suffered for five years in the convent in St. Charles, Missouri, with indescribable patience and a smile on her lips. She wanted to serve God in the Order, working in silent union with Him. When work was no longer possible, she bore her pain silently, hidden from the world.

On March 10, 1926, she died a holy death in St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis. Soon after her death, many healings and answered prayers were attributed to her intercession.

The blessed Foundress of the Order revered her already as a saint. Holy Mother Church found her virtues to be heroic and declared her Venerable on April 27, 2026. Now from Heaven may she help others to learn the meaning of suffering and to find God in silence.

Prayer:

God, our heavenly Father, You filled Sr. M. Theresia of the Most Holy Trinity with a great love for the Sacred Heart and for Mary, the Mother of God. Out of love for You, she courageously bore great and painful suffering and saw Your love in this.
Through her intercession help us courageously to bear the adversities of life and hear us in our need . . .
We ask that You glorify Your true servant here on earth as we hope that You have already glorified her in Heaven. Amen.

Please communicate all favors granted though Sr. M. Theresia’s intercession to:

Carmelite Sisters DCJ
10341 Manchester Rd.
Kirkwood, MO 63122

Prayer cards of Sr. M. Theresia of the Most Holy Trinity may be obtained upon request. The small biography of Sr. M. Theresia entitled The Passion Flower may be obtained by those within the U.S. upon request.