Alhambra, CA
Carmel of St. Teresa
Discalced Carmelite Nuns
August 25 Bl. Mary of Jesus Crucified, Virgin
Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified was born of the Baouardy family, Catholics of the Greek Melchite Rite, Abellin in Galilee in 1846.
In 1867 she entered the Discalced Carmelites at Pau in France and went with the founding group to the Carmel of Mangalore in India where, in 1870, she made her profession. She return to France in 1872. In 1875 she went to the Holy Land where she built a monastery in Bethlehem and began planning for another at Nazareth. Noted for her supernatural gifts, especially for humility, for her devotion to the Holy Spirit, and her great love for the Church and the Pope. She died at Bethlehem in 1878.
August 26 Transverberation of St. Teresa of Jesus
The transverberation is a mystical grace wherein the Saint's heart was pierced with a dart of love by an angel.
In 1559, at the age of 44, St. Teresa of Jesus experienced one of the most sublime of her many mystical ecstasies. In a vision, she saw an angel, and in his hand he held a golden spear tipped with fire.
He penetrated her heart and caused a very sharp pain that was at the same time exquisitely beautiful. Signs that the piercing were real are visible in her heart, which is incorrupt and kept in the glass reliquary located in the Carmelite convent in Alba de Tormes, where St Teresa died in 1582 on her way back to Avila.