I – A Providential Encounter
At the beginning of Lent in 1583, Jean de Brétigny, a gentleman from Rouen whose family, the Quintanaduenias, originated from Seville, accompanied a friend, a benefactor of the Carmel, who was going to visit the Mother Prioress, Marie of Saint Joseph, a close associate of Teresa of Jesus. The conversation that followed profoundly affected him; the documents handed to him, the successive contacts, and the “Counsels” of Mother Teresa that he meditated upon enabled him to understand more fully the specific character of the reformed Carmel: “To labour through prayer and penance for the coming of the Kingdom of God.” From that moment onward, his desire was to found a Carmel in Rouen, his native city.
Contact was made with the Provincial Father of the Discalced Carmelites, Jerome Gratian, who was as sensitive as Marie of Saint Joseph to the missionary dimension of the Order. Very quickly, he was appointed procurator of the Carmelites for the foundation of a Carmelite convent in Rouen.
The nuns began series of novenas for the success of the enterprise, but the particularly difficult political situation in France, owing to the struggles between Catholics and Protestants as well as the conflictual relations with Spain (the assassinations of the Duke of Guise and of Henry III), caused the Rouen foundation to fail.
II – A Fruitful Waiting
Jean de Brétigny, ordained priest in 1598, turned to another project. After having financed in 1588 the edition in Madrid of the works of Mother Teresa, he decided to translate them himself into French in order to make them better known in his country. On 31 January 1601, the Autobiography appeared in Paris, soon followed by The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle. He also circulated images of Teresa, and the success was impressive. Indeed, the context was favourable, for many deeply aspired to a living and authentic spiritual renewal.
III – A “Mystical Salon”: the Hôtel Acarie
The Hôtel Acarie responded to these aspirations by offering a place for meetings, exchanges, and meditation to all those men and women who desired to live a demanding and authentic spirituality through the deepening of the interior life. King Henry IV himself supported and encouraged this initiative. Certain great ladies of the Court, including the Princess of Longueville, frequented the place assiduously, as did scholars such as Father André Duval, who would become the superior of the Carmelites of France together with Father Pierre de Bérulle, the future founder of the Oratory.
It was the reputation for holiness of Madame Acarie that attracted them. Desiring to enter the Augustinians of the Hôtel-Dieu, she was nevertheless married by her father at the age of sixteen and a half to Pierre Acarie, counsellor to the King and master of the Chamber of Accounts. They would have six children, three of whose daughters would become Carmelites. A great mystic, she frequently experienced ecstasies beginning in 1588. Directed by Father Benoît de Canfeld, a Capuchin, as well as by Dom Beaucousin of the Paris Charterhouse, she was initiated, together with the devout elite whom she gathered in her home, into German mysticism, particularly through Ruysbroeck.
From 1601 onward, Madame Acarie read the writings of the reformer, but it was only after a vision of Mother Teresa herself that she understood she was called to the foundation of the Carmel in France. A secular foundress was needed; she would find her in the person of the Princess of Longueville, who undertook to provide an income of 800 écus.
Everything was transformed: the French foundation would take place in Paris; it would be a monastery of Carmelite nuns; it was not desired that Carmelite fathers should be established there, while the problems with the League and the Devout Party were still far from resolved.
IV – The Foundation
Three superiors were appointed: Fathers Jacques Gallement, André Duval, and Pierre de Bérulle. The King granted the letters patent on 18 July 1602.
Madame Acarie found a house in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, the Priory of Notre-Dame-des-Champs, but the agreements with the Benedictines were long in being obtained.
On 29 April 1603, the Duchess of Nemours, the Princess of Longueville, and the Princess of Estouteville laid the first stones; Pierre de Bérulle laid the first stone of the choir a few days later. The new monastery was to conform absolutely to the norms established by Mother Teresa.
It was still necessary to obtain the bull of canonical erection from Pope Clement VIII. Following the petition drawn up by the Princess of Longueville and the twelve postulants, and the letter of King Henry IV, the bull was finally granted, with the assistance of Francis de Sales, on 13 November 1603; yet it was only on 4 August 1604 that the Carmelite Father General of the Spanish Congregation, Francis of the Mother of God, signed “the patent authorising four Spanish Carmelites to leave their homeland in order to found in France.”
Everything was now prepared for the arrival of the Spanish Carmelites who would implant in France the spirit of the Teresian reform.
V – The Future French Carmelites
In the Congregation of Sainte Geneviève, situated opposite the church of the same name, Madame Acarie had prepared a certain number of postulants desirous of entering the future congregation of the reformed Carmel. She received there in particular Madeleine de Fontaine-Marans, already accompanied by Pierre de Bérulle and who would become the future Madeleine of Saint Joseph, soon prioress of this first French Carmel, the Carmel of the Incarnation, and foundress of many others. Marie d’Hannivel, a relative of Brétigny; Marie of the Trinity, who, through her knowledge of Spanish, would serve as secretary and interpreter to the Spanish prioress Anne of Jesus; Louise Jourdain, who would take part in the journey to Spain; Louise of Jesus; and Andrée Levoix, chambermaid of Madame Acarie, Andrée of All Saints, would receive the habit on 1 November 1604.
The spiritual formation of the Congregation was ensured by the Capuchin Fathers; Jean de Brétigny initiated them into life in the Spanish Discalced Carmels; Monsieur Gallement and Monsieur Duval gave conferences; Pierre de Bérulle was their confessor.
Bibliography:
• Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France, vol. 2, Henri Brémond (out of print)
• Pierre de Bérulle et les Carmélites de France, Stéphane Marie Morgain OCD, Cerf
VI – The Time of Negotiations
The démarches undertaken to obtain the foundation in France were not simple, and it was not without difficulties that the Spanish Carmelites (whom Father de Bérulle had chosen, for it was out of the question to send just anyone to France) left their country in order to found in Paris the first monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns.
Monsieur de Brétigny was still consumed by the desire to establish in France the Carmel of Saint Teresa of Avila, so concerned for the “salvation of France” and the “blows struck against the Catholic faith,” as she wrote in The Way of Perfection. Endless negotiations had been successfully conducted during this more than troubled period in the relations between our two countries. Since using the Constitutions did not seem sufficient, it was decided to seek on the spot companions of Saint Teresa who would make it possible to absorb as fully as possible the demands of this new life.
Three French ladies departed with Monsieur de Brétigny: Madame Jourdain, the future Louise of Jesus, one of the first three postulants; Madame du Pulcheu, whose brother was Doctor of Theology in Spain; and Rose Lesgue, who would also become a Carmelite; as well as Monsieur Gauthier, counsellor of State charged with presenting to King Philip III of Spain the request of Henry IV, King of France.
VII – The Incredible Expedition
Departure from Paris on 26 September 1603, in the greatest secrecy. Even the names of the participants were changed. Carriage to Orléans, descent of the Loire by boat, arrival at Nantes where the plague was raging but with the impossibility of putting to sea for six weeks. After ten days of a storm-tossed sea, they could not reach the port of Laredo on the Cantabrian coast. Having eaten nothing for a week, the travellers, still greatly inconvenienced, saw all their books confiscated by the Inquisition… In the mountains, icy rain, precipices, rearing mules, lodging that had to be shared with animals… Burgos, at last: what joy to be there, to enter a Carmel, the last founded by Saint Teresa, the first into which the French had entered! They reached Valladolid on the first Sunday of Advent, not without embarrassment: the wheels of the vehicles broke, the coachman received a dagger wound… (one might think one were reading the Book of Foundations of Teresa herself). They would remain there for months, for the Carmelite fathers were not inclined to allow the sisters to depart, especially not those whom Father de Bérulle had chosen: Anne of Jesus, an elite figure described as “captain of the prioresses”; Anne of Saint Bartholomew, lay sister and faithful companion of Saint Teresa until her death; Eleanor of Saint Bernard; Isabella of Saint Paul; Isabella of the Angels; and Beatrix of the Conception. Only the Nuncio would, by threat, overcome the refusal of the Father General.
VIII – A Promising Return
Salamanca, Avila, Burgos… the journey towards France could begin. Two Carmelite fathers accompanied the nuns; they would remain in Paris for fifteen days and would give the habit to the first three novices. On the return journey, mishaps again multiplied: the carriages could not advance, one of them fell into a river, there were bedbugs in the beds of the inns, problems with drawbridges; in Bordeaux the wheels came off in the middle of the city…
But the Spanish Mothers were ready for anything; they were determined to suffer all martyrdoms, for they imagined that they would soon encounter heretics at every turn of the road, and they brandished rosaries and crucifixes at the carriage windows.
On 15 October 1604, almost a year since the departure, they reached Paris, within the octave of Saint Denis. The Princess of Longueville and Madame Acarie, the principal architects of this foundation, came to meet them at the Petit Châtelet. From there they proceeded to the Abbey of Saint-Denis in France, famous for its relics.
A complete reversal of situation! Anne of Jesus showed herself astonished by the architecture of the place, its riches, the fervour of the 300 religious who sang in choir without interruption, and even exclaimed that “all that is seen at the Escorial is but trifling.” Her admiration doubled the following day at Montmartre, in the Abbey of the Benedictine nuns, where she declared that they were saints because they had reformed themselves through the reading of the books of Saint Teresa and “that in many things they seem Discalced.” No more apprehension: the Spaniards even admitted that the king was very Catholic, that in Paris there was “a frequency of the sacraments [which] resembles that of the primitive Church.”
On 17 October 1604, the nuns settled in their new monastery, arranged in the Priory of Notre-Dame-des-Champs. Very quickly, the first seven French Carmelites received the habit and placed themselves at the school of the Spaniards, impressed by their holiness and their human qualities. Life was organised; the Spanish Mothers initiated them into Carmelite life, and in the heart of Paris they would henceforth live as in a Spanish Carmel of Saint Teresa.
Vocations flowed in; a second convent would be founded in Paris, Rue Chapon, then in Pontoise, Dijon, Amiens, Tours, Rouen, Bordeaux, Châlons, Besançon, and Dieppe in only ten years. The expansion was under way; Carmel radiated in France and fulfilled the desires of its founders.
IX – The Spanish Carmelite Nuns
Thus, with many difficulties and after twenty years of hesitation, Monsieur de Bérulle and Jean de Brétigny finally obtained from the Father General of the Carmelites and from the Superior of the Carmelites of Spain permission to bring Carmelite sisters back to France, and especially nuns of their own choosing. They desired that these nuns should have been very close to Mother Teresa so that the traditions and the spirit of the reformed Carmel might be transmitted with the purest authenticity.
Anne of Jesus was chosen to be the Founding Mother; Anne of Saint Bartholomew, a lay sister, the faithful and holy companion of Teresa until her death, left her Carmel of Saint Joseph of Avila; two professed nuns from Salamanca, Isabella of the Angels and Beatrix of the Conception, followed; the youngest, Eleanor of Saint Bernard from the Carmel of Loeches, was particularly suitable, for she was the only one who spoke French. The Carmel of Burgos would provide Isabella of Saint Paul.
X – Anne of Jesus (1545–1621)
Ana de Lobera, deaf and mute from birth, was, it is said, miraculously healed by the Virgin Mary at the age of seven. Highly esteemed and sought after in society, she nevertheless knew how to live there a life full of piety, penance, and charity.
At the age of twenty-four, she received the habit of the Discalced Carmelites at the Carmel of Saint Joseph of Avila.
“Be welcome; I shall not regard you as my novice but as my co-worker in the work of God,” wrote Teresa of Avila to her, and she would consider her one of the pillars of her work. She made profession on 22 October 1571, and as early as 1574 she founded the Carmel of Beas in Andalusia, of which she became prioress. Of exceptional energy, she took an active part in the struggle that opposed the Discalced Carmelites to the Mitigated. Favoured with numerous graces, she quickly acquired the reputation of being a saint.
“When I see Mother Anne of Jesus, I believe I see a seraph,” said John of the Cross, her spiritual director.
She participated in the foundations of Granada in 1582 and Madrid in 1586. At the death of Mother Teresa of Jesus, she had the complete works printed and, by a brief, had the Constitutions and Laws of the Discalced Carmelite nuns approved and confirmed.
It is easy to understand that the Spanish superiors long resisted before allowing her to depart to found in Paris the Carmel of the Incarnation in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. She would later go to Pontoise, Dijon, and Amiens. Her strictness and firmness were sometimes difficult to accept. Seeing that the Carmelite fathers still did not arrive, she often allowed herself to be overcome by bitterness. It is doubtless for this reason that, in 1607, once more requested by the Infanta Isabella, the Venerable Anne of Jesus definitively left France in order to found other Carmels in the Low Countries, territories belonging to Spain at that time.
XI – Anne of Saint Bartholomew (1549–1626)
“If we wish to succeed in walking straight towards the perfection that we seek and to which we are called, let us take our Holy Mother as our advocate.”
Anne Garcia, orphaned at the age of ten, humble and filled with great tenderness, knew how to resist the marriage plans that were made for her. At twenty-one she entered the Carmel of Saint Joseph of Avila, becoming the first lay sister. She made profession on 15 August 1572 and would never again leave Mother Teresa of Jesus. She served her as nurse and secretary, learning to write in order to relieve Teresa, burdened by the weight of correspondence. She later wrote extensively, particularly numerous letters and a manuscript, Instructions for Novices. Teresa died in her arms ten years later at Alba de Tormes; she then returned to her original Carmel at Avila. Chosen to be among the founding sisters for France, at the age of fifty-four she accepted the imposition of the black veil of the choir nuns in order to be prioress at Pontoise and even became prioress of the Carmel of the Incarnation in Paris. She founded at Tours in 1608 and, at the end of her mandate, at the insistence of Anne of Jesus, departed for the Low Countries and founded the Carmel of Antwerp, where she died on 7 June 1626. She maintained a very active correspondence with the prioress of the neighbouring English Carmel, in which advice for the spiritual life was mingled with practical directives.
Gentle and patient in all things, she was especially appreciated by the novices and was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1917.
XII – Isabel of the Angels (1565–1644)
“She loved the Frenchwomen as much as she was loved by them.” Indeed, she was the only Spanish religious among the foundresses who remained in France until the end.
Born on 5 February 1565 at Villacastin, she entered the poorest Carmel of the Order, Salamanca, in 1589. Professed in 1591, she became sub-prioress in 1602. Sub-prioress of Paris in 1604, she followed Anne of Jesus to Dijon in 1605, then founded Amiens in 1606, Rouen in 1609, Bordeaux in 1610, Toulouse in 1616, and Limoges in 1619, where she died on 14 October 1644.
Isabel of Saint Paul and Beatrix of the Conception remained only a short time in the monastery of the Incarnation and did not exercise any office there.
Eleanor of Saint Bernard was entrusted in Paris with the novitiate because of her knowledge of the French language, but from 1605 she was replaced by Anne of Saint Bartholomew, who later became prioress.
XIII – The Future French Carmelites
In the Congregation of Sainte Geneviève, situated opposite the church of the same name, Madame Acarie had prepared a number of postulants desirous of entering the religious life and, in particular, the future congregation of the reformed Carmel. She received there Madeleine de Fontaine-Marans, already accompanied by Pierre de Bérulle and who would become the future Madeleine of Saint Joseph, soon prioress of this first French Carmel, the Carmel of the Incarnation, and foundress of many others.
The spiritual formation of the Congregation was ensured by the Capuchin Fathers; Jean de Brétigny initiated them into life in the Spanish Discalced Carmels; Monsieur Gallement and Monsieur Duval gave conferences; Pierre de Bérulle was their confessor.
The first French Carmelites issued from this cenacle: Marie d’Hannivel, a relative of Brétigny; Marie of the Trinity, who, through her knowledge of Spanish, would serve as secretary and interpreter to the Spanish prioress Anne of Jesus and, for that reason also, would accompany Anne of Saint Bartholomew for the foundation of Pontoise; Madame Jourdain, Louise of Jesus, who took part in the journey to Spain; Andrée Levoix, chambermaid of Madame Acarie, Andrée of All Saints, who received the habit on 1 November 1604.
Mademoiselle Deschamps, Aimée of Jesus, Madame du Coudray, Marie of the Trinity, Charlotte Sancy, and Marie of Jesus soon followed them.
XIV – Madame Acarie (1566–1618)
Barbe Avrillot, daughter of a counsellor of the King, was drawn very early to the religious life, but in obedience to her parents she married at sixteen Pierre Acarie, Master of Accounts, to whom she bore six children. She was a perfect wife, peaceful and joyful. She possessed an extreme charm that made her an exquisite lady of high society, which nicknamed her “the beautiful Acarie.” She lived an intense interior life: “Too avaricious is he to whom God is not enough,” she used to say, adding, “When one gives time to God, one finds it for everything else.” She carried on simultaneously a very active life as a mother of a family and a profound life of prayer.
The very troubled political situation of the time and the commitments of her husband, who was arrested for political opposition, placed her in a very difficult situation; yet her town residence quickly became a spiritual centre whose influence was very great, where one met scholars of the time and great Churchmen such as Saint Vincent de Paul, Francis de Sales, and Monsieur de Bérulle, her cousin, who initiated her into the reading of the mystics. She contributed to the establishment of the Ursulines and to the foundation of the Priests of the Oratory. She worked for the reform of certain monasteries, particularly the Benedictines of Montmartre and the religious of the Order of Fontevrault.
Following the reading of the works of Teresa of Avila, and especially after a vision of her, she undertook to found in France the reformed Carmel, a project approved by Francis de Sales and by Bérulle. The Carmelites arrived in Paris in 1604. With her help, foundations would follow one another: Pontoise, Dijon, Amiens, Tours, Rouen. Three of her daughters entered the new foundations. After the death of her husband, having settled her children, she entered the Carmel of Amiens, where she became Marie of the Incarnation, a simple lay sister. She courageously performed domestic tasks despite the after-effects of a fall from a horse that greatly handicapped her, with admirable obedience and charity. Transferred to the Carmel of Pontoise, she entered into the peace of that God who sufficed her so greatly in 1618 and was beatified by Pius VI in 1791.
She maintained with her chambermaid, Andrée Levoix—Sister Andrée of All Saints, approximately her own age—privileged relations; they lived together like two sisters. Her parents had given her to serve and accompany her. She followed Barbe into the house of Monsieur Acarie and remained with her until the foundation of the Carmelites. She was among the first to enter the Carmel of the Incarnation and the first there to receive the habit. Stricken with a painful illness, she died six months later, on Good Friday, after having made profession on her deathbed. The desire to advance on the path of perfection profoundly united them. It is said that they had the habit of accusing themselves every evening, one after the other, of what they had done reprehensible during the day. Madame Acarie, kneeling at the feet of her chambermaid, confessed her smallest faults and begged her to tell her if she had seen her commit any others.
XV – Madeleine of Saint Joseph (1578–1637)
Favoured from early on with special graces, she intended to enter the Capuchin nuns, but during a visit to her home she was noticed by Monsieur de Bérulle, who spoke to her about the Order of Carmel reformed by Teresa of Avila. He recommended her to Madame Acarie, who presented her to the Spanish Carmelites. Because of health problems, she could receive the habit only on 11 November 1604, the feast of Saint Martin, patron of Touraine, her native region, to which she was very attached. Her father, deeply affected by her departure, underwent a path of conversion on that occasion. At the death of his wife, he became a priest and entered the Congregation of the Oratory founded by Monsieur de Bérulle. From 1605 until 1608 she became an extraordinary mistress of novices. She wrote “Counsels for the Guidance of Novices,” in which her very pure Teresian ideal shines forth, a faithful echo of the teachings of the Spanish foundresses. Her constant concern was to inculcate the eremitical and apostolic spirit of Carmel.
She became the first French prioress on 20 April 1608, participated in the foundation of the Carmel of Notre-Dame de Pitié in Lyons, then returned to Paris for the creation of the second Parisian Carmel, that of Rue Chapon. She would again be prioress of the Carmel of the Incarnation from 1624 to 1630. Queens—Marie de Medici and Anne of Austria—and many great personages came to consult her, yet her humility was very great. She died in the odour of sanctity on 30 April 1637 and was later declared “Venerable.”
“She impressed upon souls what she desired, and everything yielded so gently to her wishes that it was a heaven on earth to live under her guidance. One felt nothing there but peace.”
This is what the religious thought of their prioress.
Carmel in Australia
Carmel in Australia is a French foundation. We trace our roots back to Holy Mother St Teresa via Mother Isabel of the Angels, who entered in Salamanca, and who later went with Mother Anne of Jesus and the Foundresses of the Teresian Carmel in France. When Mother Anne and three of the other Spanish Foundresses took the Teresian Carmel to Brussels in 1606, Mother Isabel remained in France, making foundations at Amiens in 1606, Rouen in 1609, Bordeaux in 1610, Toulouse in 1616 and finally Limoges in 1618, where she would later die in 1644.
In 1654, Angouleme Carmel was founded from Limoges. During the French Revolution, the Carmelites of Angouleme were subjected to the same rigorous persecution as other religious Orders, and in 1872 they were finally forced to abandon their Carmel with no option but to disperse, most of them seeking refuge with their families. Following the Revolution, the last of the surviving nuns went to God in 1834.
Around the year 1850, the Holy Spirit moved the Prioress of Lectoure Carmel, Mother Teresa of Jesus, to seek to restore the Carmel of Angouleme. She would lead the re-foundation there 4 years later with the Bishop blessing the house, celebrating Holy Mass and reserving the Blessed Sacrament on the feast of Our Holy Father St John of the Cross, 24th November 1854. One of the first postulants received in the new Carmel was Julie Philomene Portet, who would later lead the Foundation to Australia as Mother Mary of the Cross.
Meanwhile in the still young colonies of Australia, the nascent Church needed much support and bishops were anxious to strengthen the faith in their fledgling dioceses with the presence of religious Orders. The then Archbishop of Sydney, Roger Bede Vaughan OSB, requested the foundation of Carmel in his Archdiocese, though he died suddenly and unexpectedly before this became a reality. It would be his successor Archbishop (later Cardinal) Patrick Francis Moran who would see the birth of Carmel in this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit.
The Founding Sisters boarded the SS Oceanien on 3rd June and embarked on an almost two month journey across the seas. They were treated with utmost respect and consideration during the voyage, including a special dinner hosted by the ship’s Commander on the Carmelite Order’s Patronal feast on 16th July somewhere in the Indian Ocean, with a richly decorated cake bearing the words ‘Vive N.D. du Mt. Carmel’, and plentiful French sweets and precious old wines procured for the occasion. They first sighted Australia on 22nd July as they re-coaled the ship at Adelaide. After a further stop in Melbourne, they arrived in Sydney Harbour on 30th July 1885 at 10am, while the nuns sang “Ave Stella Maris”. After a final dinner with the ship’s Commander and crew, the Founding nuns finally set foot on Australian soil for the first time at 2pm.
After the inevitable trials and tribulations experienced on any new foundation, the original Carmel at Dulwich Hill in Sydney was eventually strong enough to make new foundations. The first of these was to Melbourne in 1922, and from there in 1935 Carmel was founded in Adelaide, South Australia. In 1948, six Sisters led by Mother Mary Teresa of Jesus, herself a Tasmanian, brought the Teresian Carmel to our Island State of Tasmania, Deo gratias!
The Carmel of the Child Jesus of Prague and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Goonellabah, was founded on 25th April 1966 from Dulwich Hill Carmel, Sydney.
Goonellabah, meaning red flame tree, is an Aboriginal name for an attractive tree that flourishes in our area. Once farmland, Goonellabah has developed into a residential area, while retaining the beautiful scenery provided by the lovely northern mountains. The northern view from Carmel is of the Night Cap Range, part of the Great Dividing Range. Our monastery church is part of Saint Carthage’s Cathedral Parish, Lismore, and parishioners come here daily for Mass.
In 1966, the founding sisters travelled by train from Sydney to Casino, where they were welcomed by Father Donnelly on behalf of Bishop Farrelly, and by many local people. They completed the remaining 32 kilometres to Lismore by car – Goonellabah is just outside Lismore, so often is called “Lismore Carmel”.
Because the building of the new monastery was not quite complete, the Carmelites accepted the generous hospitality of the Presentation Sisters before moving into their new home. After one week the move into the new building was possible, though many finishing touches had to be made! During this time, the sisters met people who were to remain friends throughout the years, many becoming members of the Friends of Carmel Auxiliary. Official Inauguration with the establishment of Papal Enclosure took place on 19th June, 1966. A timber cottage that had stood on our site for over 100 years was still in excellent condition in 1966, so was incorporated into the building. This cottage had been the venue for the first ecumenical prayer meeting in the area. The cottage provided us with space for a choir, sacristies and workrooms, as well as a room for visiting priests. It was demolished only when a new and larger church was built in 1991. Dedication of the new church took place on 22nd March, 1992. This was a day of great joy for us all. Over the years we have extended the area of our enclosure. In the 1980s a hermitage was built in our grounds. We have our own cemetery, in the centre of which stands a beautiful statue of Our Lady. Beyond the cemetery is an area that we call “Little King’s Park” because at its centre is a shrine of the Child Jesus of Prague. We are very grateful for the blessings we have received as the years have passed. Five of our foundresses have died, but the Lord has called young women to take their place. We thank Him in advance for the blessings of the future.