A Brief History of the Apostolic Carmel

A Brief History of the Apostolic Carmel

The Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel took birth at Bayonne, France in 1868, when Mother Veronica of the Passion, founded the Congregation. She did so, in response to the divine call, experienced by her through prayer and the growing realization of God’s all sufficing love, to serve the Christian community on the West Coast of India by giving a Christian education to the young girls of the region.

Mother Veronica’s life was full of trials and hardships. but her pioneering spirit, courage, dedication and complete faith in God’s love and help, as well as her divine vocation helped and strengthened her to undergo all hardships, to make her dream a reality.

The daughter of a Protestant Pastor, she embraced the Catholic faith which brought bitter opposition from her family. Her courage and faith in God were not shaken. In response to the call of God to lead the life of a religious, she broke off her engagement to a young sailor, to enter the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1851. When in prayer she experienced the call to Carmel, a congregation of cloistered sisters, she again made a difficult choice of leaving her Congregation to join the Carmel of Pau. Again it was terribly difficult for her to leave the peace and happiness of the cloister to set about the task of founding a new Carmelite Congregation for India.

The need for the Third Order was very urgent, because in those days education was meant only for boys in India which brought great 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 objective, together with Father Marie Ephrem, a Carmelite who had come as a missionary to serve the Indians.

She founded the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel in Bayonne, France. But God’s will for her was different. She was denied the privilege of coming to India as a sister of the Apostolic Carmel. The final decision to end her days in the anonymity and silence of Carmel was again made in response to God’s will. When the Apostolic Carmel was established in Mangalore she left the Congregation her spirit, the profound urge to do good and serve the masses through apostolic work.

The pioneering spirit made itself felt from time to time in the Congregation, when there was need for higher education for women of South Kanara, it was the Apostolic Carmel that started the first Women’s College in this region in 1921. The same need in Bihar was satisfied by the starting of Patna Women’s College in 1940. The Apostolic Carmel extended its mission to Ceylon in 1922 and to North India in 1940. The work of the sisters has been mainly limited to the running of Schools, and Colleges though in various regions it has branched out into social work. Today there are over 185 institutions of the Congregation- Schools, Colleges and Orphanages. Mother Veronica’s work lives in the 1600 sisters who serve God and his people throughout India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa.