Today, October 30, is the memorial of Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph.
Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus.
She came from a deeply religious Lutheran pastor’s family. Many trials and experiences with society’s poor and needy led her to the road of the Catholic faith. In front of her weeping family, she declared her desire to convert to Catholicism.
On October 30, 1888 she was received into the Catholic Church. Since then, she served the Lord through the impoverished people with all her heart.
One time, she heard a voice: “Do not enter an order. You will found one yourself.” In response, she asked, “What shall we be wearing?” Instantly she had a vision of a religious sister in a brown habit, something she had never seen before.
She happened to read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and thought, “Carmel is my real vocation!” She realized that the brown habit she saw in the vision was a Carmelite habit. With her confessor’s help, she was able to discern that her vocation was “the contemplative spirit of Carmel into the active service of the apostolate.”
In time she founded the congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in 1891. Her aim was to serve the poor and neglected homeless children. Soon she extended her service to anyone who was abandoned and in need of loving care. Her motherhouse was permanently situated in Sittard, the Netherlands.
After years of working for God’s service, Mother Maria Teresa’s health collapsed, followed by a long illness. She died in 1938 at the age of 83.
She was beatified on May 13, 2006 at the Roemond Cathedral, Netherlands by Cardinal Adrianus Johannes Simonis (who died just last September 2, 2020).