Memorial of Bl Maria Teresa of St. Joseph

"Anna Maria Tauscher -- was born on June 19, 1855 in Sandow, Germany, which is now in Poland.  She came from a deeply religious Protestant pastor's family.  God guided this richly talented and capable woman on steep and stony roads to the Catholic faith.  On October 30, 1888 she was received into the Catholic Church.  From then on she herself became poor for the sake of the poor, homeless for the sake of the homeless.  She placed her life in the service of God.  In order to realize this goal, she founded a religious Congregation, the Carmel of the Divine Heart of Jesus on July 2, 1891.

Mother Maria Teresa took for a model St. Teresa of Jesus, the great Spanish Mystic and Reformer of the Order of Carmel.  Mother Maria Teresa took the Carmelite spirit of prayer and coupled it with apostolic service.  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--simply all who were homeless in any way.  So it was that contemplative prayer coupled with active charity became the distinguishing mark of the Carmel of the Divine Heart of Jesus.

After a long life of dedicated service, Mother Maria Teresa died at the age of 83 on September 20, 1938 at the Mother House 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 Mary Teresa of St. Joseph venerable. In December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle necessary for her beatification. Mother Maria Teresa was beatified on May 13, 2006 in Roermond, Netherlands.

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.'"

-- From the website of the Congregation of Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus