Carmel in Australia
Carmel in Australia is a French foundation. We trace our roots back to Holy Mother St Teresa via Mother Isabel of the Angels, who entered in Salamanca, and who later went with Mother Anne of Jesus and the Foundresses of the Teresian Carmel in France. When Mother Anne and three of the other Spanish Foundresses took the Teresian Carmel to Brussels in 1606, Mother Isabel remained in France, making foundations at Amiens in 1606, Rouen in 1609, Bordeaux in 1610, Toulouse in 1616 and finally Limoges in 1618, where she would later die in 1644.
In 1654, Angouleme Carmel was founded from Limoges. During the French Revolution, the Carmelites of Angouleme were subjected to the same rigorous persecution as other religious Orders, and in 1872 they were finally forced to abandon their Carmel with no option but to disperse, most of them seeking refuge with their families. Following the Revolution, the last of the surviving nuns went to God in 1834.
Around the year 1850, the Holy Spirit moved the Prioress of Lectoure Carmel, Mother Teresa of Jesus, to seek to restore the Carmel of Angouleme. She would lead the re-foundation there 4 years later with the Bishop blessing the house, celebrating Holy Mass and reserving the Blessed Sacrament on the feast of Our Holy Father St John of the Cross, 24th November 1854. One of the first postulants received in the new Carmel was Julie Philomene Portet, who would later lead the Foundation to Australia as Mother Mary of the Cross.
+Patrick Cardinal Moran, Archbishop of Sydney
Meanwhile in the still young colonies of Australia, the nascent Church needed much support and bishops were anxious to strengthen the faith in their fledgling dioceses with the presence of religious Orders. The then Archbishop of Sydney, Roger Bede Vaughan OSB, requested the foundation of Carmel in his Archdiocese, though he died suddenly and unexpectedly before this became a reality. It would be his successor Archbishop (later Cardinal) Patrick Francis Moran who would see the birth of Carmel in this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit.
The Founding Sisters boarded the SS Oceanien on 3rd June and embarked on an almost two month journey across the seas. They were treated with utmost respect and consideration during the voyage, including a special dinner hosted by the ship’s Commander on the Carmelite Order’s Patronal feast on 16th July somewhere in the Indian Ocean, with a richly decorated cake bearing the words ‘Vive N.D. du Mt. Carmel’, and plentiful French sweets and precious old wines procured for the occasion. They first sighted Australia on 22nd July as they re-coaled the ship at Adelaide. After a further stop in Melbourne, they arrived in Sydney Harbour on 30th July 1885 at 10am, while the nuns sang “Ave Stella Maris”. After a final dinner with the ship’s Commander and crew, the Founding nuns finally set foot on Australian soil for the first time at 2pm.
Glen Osmond Carmel, South Australia, from which Carmel in Tasmania was founded.
After the inevitable trials and tribulations experienced on any new foundation, the original Carmel at Dulwich Hill in Sydney was eventually strong enough to make new foundations. The first of these was to Melbourne in 1922, and from there in 1935 Carmel was founded in Adelaide, South Australia. In 1948, six Sisters led by Mother Mary Teresa of Jesus, herself a Tasmanian, brought the Teresian Carmel to our Island State of Tasmania, Deo gratias!