Apostolic Carmel nuns complete 100 years in Sri Lanka

By Thomas Scaria

Mangaluru, Feb 7, 2022: The Apostolic Carmel Sisters on February 5 celebrated 100 years of their services in Sri Lanka.

Known for their quality education, especially in the empowerment of girls and women, the congregation was invited by the Sri Lankan Church to establish educational institutions there and thereby empower women. The nuns went from Mangalore, a southern coastal town, to Colombo.

In the past century the congregation has grown to be one of the largest missionary networks in Sri Lanka engaged in education of the girls.

Sister Lydia Fernandes, the superior of the St. Agnes College in Mangalore (now Mangaluru) and a senior member of the congregation spoke to Matters India on their Sri Lankan expansion.

Matters India: Your congregation has completed 100 years of mission in Sri Lanka. What are your thoughts?

Sister Lydia Fernandes: The Catholic Church of Sri Lanka has a long heritage in the island nation. Generations of dedicated priests and nuns have served the Church with compassion, reflecting the love of Almighty God. The Apostolic Carmel sisters on February 5 celebrated a hundred years of service to the Church and people in Sri Lanka. Let me congratulate and wish our sisters a happy centenary.

How did the Sri Lankan mission begin?

It is very significant that the divine providence had chosen Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to be one of our first overseas destinations. When our pioneer — Sister Veronica of St. Joseph of the Apparition — undertook the long and arduous voyage to India in 1872, to begin a convent at Calicut on the Malabar Coast, she had to stay at Ceylon’s Point de Galle for eight days, waiting for a ship that would take her to Cannanore (now Kannur). She had said “At the next departure I shall get ready a little parcel of Church articles for this Church (Point de Galle), I have a great desire to do this since I love Ceylon and its missionaries”. It was in God’s providence that the first destination of the Apostolic Carmel after Mangalore and Malabar, was Sri Lanka.

Tell us more about your congregation and missions?

The Apostolic Carmel is the first Carmelite congregation that ventured out of a strictly cloistered order into education of girls in the nineteenth century (July 16, 1868) in France. It was established in Mangalore on the western Indian coast in 1870. It was the vision of an English woman — , Sophie Leeves. This tall, stately, good-looking Anglican woman drawn by the Real Presence of Jesus in the Catholic Church converted to Catholicism at the age 27, much to the dismay of her high society Anglican mother. She then joined the Sisters St. Joseph of the Apparition and became Sr. Veronica.

How did she become a Carmelite and found the congregation?

As a young member of the St. Joseph of the Apparition, Sister Veronica was sent to serve the Carmelite mission in Calicut in Kerala in 1862. The Malabar region was then under the Carmelite missionaries; The Jesuits came later. In Calicut she was drawn to the Carmelite spirituality. She returned to Europe as a woman of deep prayer with great devotion to the Eucharist. She then sought dispensation from her original congregation and joined the Cloistered Carmels at Pau, France. She made her profession as Sr. Veronica of the Passion, and founded the third order of Carmel, the Apostolic Carmel congregation at Bayonne, France on July 16, 1868.

How was the beginning of the Apostolic Carmel mission in Mangalore?

Sister Veronica trained a group of European novices for the mission of education in India. On November 19, 1870, the first group of pioneering sisters arrived in Mangalore, under the leadership of Mother Mary Marie des Anges, who was the first superior general and novice mistress, to start the Mission at St. Ann’s Convent, which became the motherhouse and the cradle of the Apostolic Carmel in India.
How did you expand to Sri Lanka?

The history of the Apostolic Carmel in Sri Lanka began with the appointment of Jesuit Father L. Dupont of Trincomalee as a visitor of the Society of Jesus houses in Kanara and Malabar in India. When the priest came to Mangalore he approached the then Apostolic Carmel superior general Mother Aloysia with a message from Jesuit Bishop Gaston Robichez of Trincomalee. The prelate requested her to take over schools, homes and orphanages from the Sisters of Cluny, who were unable to continue their work in Trincomalee for the lack of new members. God’s divine will for the Apostolic Carmel in Sri Lanka took shape on February 2, 1922, when the pioneer band of Sisters Mary Lourdes, Cresence, Clare, and Justin left India. They arrived in Trincomalee three days later. Our second convent in Sri Lanka was also a Cluny — St. Joseph’s Convent in Batticaloa, on May 8, 1922. Interestingly, the Cluny Sisters came back to Sri Lanka and set up a small mission in Velanai, Jaffna.

Have you taken over institutions of other congregations?

Bishop Bede Beckmeyer, the second Bishop of Kandy, invited us to work in his diocese. We took over St. Ursula’s Convent in Badulla and the school attached to it. We have also took over schools such as St. Mary’s College Trincomalee, St. Cecilia’s College Batticaloa, St. Anthony’s Vidyalaya Dematagoda, Carmel Central College Chilaw, All Saints College Colombo, St. Paul’s Balika Vidyalaya Kelaniya, St. Anthony’s Balika Vidyalaya Colombo, St. Theresa College Atchuvely, Holy Cross Tamil Vidyalaya Kalmunai, Sacred Heart College Muttur, Don Bosco School Jaffna, St. Benedicts Vidyalayam Jaffna and the Apostolic Carmel School Maharagama.

What is the current face of Apostolic Carmel in Sri Lanka?

At present, some 250 Apostolic Carmel Sisters work through 36 convents in Sri Lanka. It is from Sri Lanka that we went to Pakistan in 1981 with four convents in Lahore, Faisalabad and Issanagri. We manage eight schools there catering mainly to the lower middle class Catholic children in the missions set up by the Belgian Capuchins when it was in the undivided India.

In the past one century, we have touched thousands of Sri Lankans, especially young female students, orphans, poor tea estate workers, prisoners and the aged, following the exemplary obedience, faith and courage of Venerable Veronica. The Apostolic Carmel sisters carry on their mission with the “God alone Suffices.”

How strong is your presence around the globe now?

The Apostolic Carmel has spread to eight more countries — Kuwait, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda in East Africa, Rome, Bahrain and finally in Pau, France. The congregation has six overseas provinces and a region [East Africa]. They all function under our headquarters in India’s Bengaluru with Sister Maria Nirmalini as the superior general, who also heads the Conference of Religious India, the national body of some 125,000 Catholic religious sisters, brothers and priests.