A SHORT STORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CARMEL

The ardent desire to be one with the creator, urged Mother Veronica to serve humanity with generosity, courage and determination which gave birth to the Apostolic Carmel in 1868.

MotherVeronica, nee Sophie Leeves was born in 1823 to pious and cultured, Anglican English Parents in Constantinople. She was blessed with the gifts of mind and heart which were nurtured by sound education and wide experience. Though the daughter of a Protestant Pastor, she embraced the Catholic faith in 1850, amidst bitter opposition from the family. God took possession of her heart so powerfully that she courageously and generously responded to the call to religious life. She entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition in 1851, taking the name Sister Veronica of the Passion. She came to India in 1862 and worked in Calicut. When in prayer, she experiencedyetanother divine call to enter Carmel.She made the difficult choice of leaving the congregation of St. Joseph of Apparition to join Carmel, a Congregation of cloistered sisters at Pau in France. Again it was terribly difficult for her to leave the peace and happiness of the cloister to set about the task of foundinganewCarmeliteorderforIndiatoservetheneed of all round education of the young girls of the West Coast of India. The need for a third order - Carmelite as well as Apostolic combined in one, was very urgent because in those days education in India was meant only for boys which broughtgreat dissatisfaction to the Indian women, who cried out for knowledge and the light of education. So God in His infinite wisdom chose Mother Veronica to realize this objectivetogether withFatherMarie Ephrem,a Carmelite, who had comeasamissionary to serve the Indians.She founded the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel at Bayonne in France in the year 1868 and established it in Mangalore, India in 1870.