The religious family of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was born from the meeting of the ideals of Mother M. Crocifissa(Rosa Curcio, Ispica, RG, 30 January 1877) and Father Lorenzo van den Eerenbeemt ( Ettore Cristiano, Rome, 3 May 1886).
While still an adolescent, Rosa became a Carmelite Tertiary under the name of Sister M. Crocifissa. She understood her vocation through reading the Life of St. Teresa of Ávila which opened the Carmelite horizon to her and revealed her divine mission: “I felt the great mission for which the tender Mother of Carmel had destined me: I had to join with other companions and make Carmel flourish again in my country and in many others.”
Later, in 1925, when the way was open for establishing the Congregation in Santa Marinella, Jesus helped her understand her mission: “To offer herself as a victim of expiation together with the great Martyr of Love. Jesus needs these souls who restore poor humanity; the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus repeats this to me constantly, in a thousand different and ever-new expressions. It is one of the important missions he has entrusted to us in this new institution .”
As early as 1909, she had begun an experience of community life in her family home with the blessing of Bishop Giovanni Blandini of Noto. With her companions, she had moved to Modica in 1912, taking over the management of the “C. Polara” institute for orphaned girls in need and facing for many years the firm opposition of the new bishop, Giuseppe Vizzini, who did not accept the establishment of new Institutes.
To carry forward the divine plan, Mother M. Crocifissa sought help from the Carmelite Fathers of Sicily through their Provincial, Fr. Alberto Grammatico, who put her in correspondence with Fr. Lorenzo, whose desire to found an institute of religious sisters for the missions he knew.
Ettore Van Den Eerenbeemt, born in Rome on 3 May 1886, became a Carmelite friar in the Netherlands on 30 September 1907 under the name Fr. Lorenzo Maria and was ordained a priest on 1 June 1912. He continued his studies in Rome, where he remained as a distinguished professor of Sacred Scripture and a zealous coordinator for the missions. He wanted to leave for the missions, but, unable to go and aware of the needs of his missionary confreres in Indonesia, he unsuccessfully sought the help of a congregation of sisters; he therefore began to consider founding one devoted to foreign missions.
Sister M. Crocifissa and Father Lorenzo began corresponding on 23 June 1924; they first met in Naples and a second time on 17 May 1925 in Rome, where Mother Crocifissa attended the canonization of Thérèse of Lisieux, and on 18 May they visited Santa Marinella together, (in the province of Rome, near Civitavecchia), where the father celebrated for the people during the summer months in the small church of the Vittorie. On 3 July 1925 she moved to Santa Marinella after receiving the verbal consent “ad experimentum” of the local Ordinary, Cardinal Vico. On 16 July, the small group was affiliated with the Carmelite Order.
Father Lorenzo, full of missionary plans and aspirations, was a man of great culture and human and spiritual sensitivity; Mother M. Crocifissa, with the “great ideal dreamed of since childhood: to make Carmel flourish again in every part of the world”, devoted herself to young people in need of love and education, to “restore” the image of God in them and in every person. Both were authentic and generous children of Carmel: immersed in contemplation of the living God and burning with prophetic spirit, devoted to evangelization through the mission of educating young people and caring for the family; charisms that were not opposed but complemented each other and gave life to a new spirituality within Carmel.
Beginning in 1926, several Carmelite missionary communities opened in Italy and, a few years later, in France and Belgium as well. The difficulties caused by the World War were immense; nevertheless, in December 1947 the first sisters left for the mission in Brazil; despite countless difficulties, the presence of the Carmelite missionary sisters in that land is now a gift to the Church.
In February 1957 a community was opened on the Maltese island of Gozo.
Mother M. Crocifissa served as Superior General until 1957. Surrounded by her spiritual daughters and assisted by Father Lorenzo, on 4 July 1957 she joined the heavenly community.
Father Lorenzo accompanied the Congregation’s growth and development, giving all of himself to strengthen its identity. He rejoiced in the Congregation’s pontifical approval, granted on 3 October 1963. Through correspondence and circular letters, he oversaw the sisters’ spiritual and missionary formation; through personal letters, he supported and encouraged the sisters in the new missions. On 7 October 1977, the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, joyful at having once again worn the Carmelite habit (5 October 1969), and assisted by his spiritual daughters, he crossed the threshold of Heaven.
In 1967 the first house in Canada was opened in Toronto; in 1984 missionary Carmel began in Africa, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, while in September 1987 the daughters of Mother M. Crocifissa and Fr. Lorenzo took their first steps in the Philippine Islands, in Quezon City (Manila).
The Congregation’s governance structure was renewed in accordance with the new Constitutions (approved on 8 December 1986) , through the establishment of circumscriptions: on 4 July 1989 the province of Italy–Malta “Mary, Mother of Carmel” was established and, on 20 July, the Brazilian province of “St. Thérèse of Lisieux” was created. During the same period, the following delegations were also established: Canada “St. Joseph”, Tanzania “St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus” and the Philippines “Father Lorenzo”.
In 1996, after the fall of the communist regime in Romania, a Carmelite community opened in Bacau. In 2013, communities were opened in Indonesia and Vietnam.
