Our Foundress
Blessed Maria Teresa of Saint Joseph
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph, Anna Maria Tauscher, was born on June 19, 1855 in Sandow, Germany (now Poland). She was the first child of Pastor Tauscher and his wife Pauline. Of the seven other children in the family three died in infancy.
Her father, Herman Tauscher, a descendant from a long line of ministers, was a staunch Lutheran Superintendent and a pious man. But, in Mother May Teresa's own words, he was "more of an artist that a Pastor."
Pauline van den Bosch was a woman of active charity. Her tender compassion for the poor as well as her zeal in bringing the knowledge and love of the Savior to less fortunate children, was inherited by her daughter. Her death in 1874 was a severe trial for Anna Maria.
Anna Maria was a deep, quiet child. Bashfulness, her embarrassment through life, urged her to avoid company and to seek God in solitude. Yet, this shyness did not prevent her from going out of her way to make others happy.
When attending boarding school, Anna Maria gave evidence that, at heart, she was a Catholic. Once when an Evangelical Synod was held in the Tauscher home and attended by many prominent men, she defended, to her father's utter dismay, the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope.
Anxious to prove her love for God, and having refused a prospective marriage, Miss Tauscher took a position as head nurse in a mental institution, even though she felt the greatest repugnance for the work. After studying with intense interest a catechism given her by a priest who came to visit the patients and with whom she became acquainted, she took steps toward becoming a Catholic.
After embracing Catholicism on October 30, 1888, Miss Tauscher, at age 33, found herself homeless. Dismissed from her position on account of her conversion to Catholicism, and ousted from her father's home, she was given shelter in a convent in Cologne until, through the kindly help of new-found friend, she became companion to a wealthy Catholic Countess.
For some time, the idea of founding a Congregation, which would realize her desire to radiate her love of God among souls, haunted her as a sin of pride. So she sought admission to Carmel but was advised to wait and pray. However, she was told, prophetically, that one day she would be a daughter of St. Teresa
On December 8, 1891, Miss Tauscher moved into her own "Home for the Homeless" which she opened in Berlin for poor children. God blessed her work and by the end of 1892 she had admitted 72 children. That same year she opened her second Home, and two years later a third Home. Companions were not wanting, and the young women who joined her in her work became the first Carmelite Sisters of the Diving Heart of Jesus.
In 1912 Mother Maria Teresa (Miss Tauscher's religious name) extended Carmel D.C.J. beyond the boundaries of Europe when she came to the New World and spend eight years establishing new St. Joseph's Homes.
Today, her foundations are spread over three continents: Homes, Day Nurseries, Day Care Centers and Treatment Centers for children and youth; and Homes, Day Care Centers and Independent Living Apartments for the elderly. Her Sisters also care for the lonely and for immigrants, and provide days for recollection and retreats attended by the laity.
Blessed Maria Teresa remained the Mother General of the Congregation until her death on September 20, 1938 in Sittard, Netherlands. Since then many have found help in their needs through her intercession. The Beatification of Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph, Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, was held in the Cathedral of Roermond, Netherlands on May 13, 2006.
"I would reliquish neither
the Carmel
nor the Heart
of
Jesus"
Carmelite Sisters
of the
Divine Heart of Jesus
Southwest Province
