The Order of Carmel has been blessed with nearly seventy Saints and Blesseds. In addition to the great patrons of the Order St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross, the following are a few examples of blossoms from the vine of Carmel.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France. While still young she entered the Carmel of Lisieux, where she lived in the greatest humility, evangelical simplicity and confidence in God. By her words and example she taught the novices these same virtues, offering her life for the salvation of souls and the spread of the Church. Her autobiography is the popular Story of a Soul and is well known for its relating of her Little Way. St. Thérèse was made a Doctor of the Church in 1997 by Pope John Paul II.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family in Breslau, Germany. Through her passionate study of philosophy she searched for truth and found it in reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Jesus. In 1922 she was baptized a Catholic and in 1933 she entered the Carmel of Cologne where she took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was gassed and cremated at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942 during the Nazi persecution and died a martyr for the Christian faith after having offered her holocaust for the people of Israel. A woman of singular intelligence and learning, she left behind a body of writing notable for its doctrinal richness and profound spirituality. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II at Rome on October 11th, 1998 and subsequently named co-patroness of Europe together with St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Siena. For a time, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross belonged to the same province as the friars who founded the monastery at Holy Hill.
St. Rafael of St. Joseph
Raphael Kalinowski was born to Polish parents in the city of Vilnius in 1835. Following military service, he was condemned in 1864 to ten years of forced labor in Siberia. In 1877 he became a Carmelite and was ordained a priest in 1882. He contributed greatly to the restoration of the Discalced Carmelites in Poland. His life was distinguished by zeal for Church unity and by his unflagging devotion to his ministry as confessor and spiritual director. He died in Wadowice in 1907.
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
Elizabeth Catez was born in 1880 in the diocese of Bourges in France. In 1901 she entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery of Dijon. There she made her profession of vows in 1903 and from there she was called “to light, to love and to life” by the Divine Spouse in 1906. A faithful adorer in spirit and in truth, her life was a “praise of glory” of the Most Blessed Trinity present in her soul and loved amidst interior darkness and excruciating illness. In the mystery of divine inhabitation she found her “heaven on earth,” her special charism and her mission for the Church.
St. Mariam of Jesus Crucified (“The Little Arab”)
Saint Mariam Baouardy (also spelled Mariam Bawardy) is known in religion as St. Mariam of Jesus Crucified, was born in Ibillin, located in the hill country of upper Galilee, Palestine. Her family originated in Damascus, Syria. They were Catholics of the Melkite Greek-Catholic Rite, descendants of the Archeparchy of Antioch, the place where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians
St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Juanita Fernández Solar was born at Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. From her adolescence she was devoted to Christ. She entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Los Andes on May 7, 1919, where she was given the name of Teresa of Jesus. She dies on April 12 of the following year after having made her religious profession. She was beatified by John Paul II on April 3, 1987, at Santiago, Chile, and proposed her as a model for young people. She is the first Chilean and the first member of the Discalced Carmelites in Latin America to be canonized
St. Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi
Born in Florence in 1566, she had a religious upbringing and entered the monastery of the Carmelite nuns there. She led a hidden life of prayer and self-denial, praying particularly for the renewal of the Church and encouraging the sisters in holiness. Her life was marked by many extraordinary graces. She died in 1607
