One of their own on the path to sainthood

Just before 7 on a recent Monday morning, while the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus were in the midst of grand silence at their convent in Kirkwood, Sister Mary Michael’s phone buzzed with an unexpected text message.

Half-distracted by the day’s responsibilities ahead, she opened a message from a priest friend, Father Joe Weber: “Congratulations. What a day of celebration it must be for all of you … wonderful news from Rome today.”

She raced to the chapel sacristy, where Archbishop Emeritus Robert J. Carlson was preparing to celebrate Mass, to tell him the news: One of their own, Sister M. Theresia of the Most Holy Trinity, who lived in the St. Charles area in the last years of her life, had been declared venerable, the next step on the path to sainthood.

As the Carmelites celebrated the news, Sister Mary Michael, serving as the community’s provincial vicar, noted that Sister M. Theresia’s canonization cause has been an opportunity to learn more about her heroic virtues and how they might relate to our lives.

“We do have cause and reason to believe she is with the Lord now,” she said. “And she wants to be intimately present and help all of the body of Christ grow in sanctity.”

Born Teresa Ysseldijk on Nov. 13, 1897, in the Netherlands and later raised in Germany, Sister M. Theresia of the Most Holy Trinity entered the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in 1917 and professed her vows on July 2, 1919. That same year, she and six other Carmelites came to the United States as missionaries. After a brief period in Wisconsin, Sister M. Theresia came to the St. Louis area, where the community had apostolates for the elderly and children in St. Charles.

Not long after her arrival in the United States, she was diagnosed with a severe kidney disease, which was discovered too late for doctors to intervene. After five years of living with the sisters in St. Charles, she died at the age of 28 on March 10, 1926, at St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis.

In late April, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints announced Pope Leo XIV declared her “venerable,” which recognizes that she lived the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity to a heroic degree. It is the second formal step in the canonization process after being declared a “servant of god.” Now, the sisters and the wider Church will be watching for miracles attributed to her intercession to be considered for beatification and eventual canonization.

For the Carmelite sisters now living and serving in the same apostolates in Kirkwood — just miles from where Sister Theresia spent her final years — the news from Rome carried a special weight.

“Here is this sister of mine, who’s now being lifted up by holy mother Church as venerable, as having these heroic virtues,” Sister Mary Josefa said. “It wasn’t like she was performing extraordinary miracles during her life, these big deeds, but she was obedient to the Lord’s will and what was laid before her. Being obedient to the Lord’s will in so many simple ways is a reminder that in those simple, ordinary ways, is where the Lord is calling us to holiness.”

Throughout her suffering, Sister Theresia remained joyful and obedient, according to “A Passion Flower,” a short biography on her life that the sisters published in 2012. She performed small tasks within her community whenever she could and she professed her perpetual vows while already very sick, calling it “the happiest day of my life.”

Shortly after her death, the community’s foundress, Blessed Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph, had encouraged the sisters to invoke her intercession and had holy cards and biographies printed. After Mother Maria Teresa’s own canonization cause advanced and she was beatified in 2006, attention returned to Sister Theresia. Her cause was formally opened in 2010 in the Diocese of Roermond, Netherlands, where the sisters’ motherhouse is located.

In 2015, Sister Mary Michael was one of several Carmelites who gave testimonies about her life, which was included in a nearly 500-page positio, a comprehensive document that presents the formal evidence for a person’s canonization. That was completed in 2021 and sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

With the idea that Sister Theresia practiced faith, hope and charity in a heroic way, “I just remember the main questions being: How did you see that manifested in her life? How has that struck you?” Sister Mary Michael recalled.

Sister Theresia also had a special devotion to another well-known Carmelite sister, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. As St. Thérèse’s canonization approached on May 17, 1925, the sisters in St. Charles held a novena in her honor and also prayed for Sister Theresia’s healing. On the afternoon of the canonization, her superior sent her to pray before the shrine of St. Thérèse in the chapel, hoping the Little Flower might intercede for her recovery. When she returned to her room, Sister Theresia said she felt as though St. Thérèse had spoken to her: “You will never be well again. You will live only a short time, but must suffer much.”

“After that point, her motto became ‘to suffer quietly and to thank God loudly,’” Sister Mary Michael said.

While the original convent and home for the elderly in St. Charles no longer exists, the property remains under different ownership as Mount Carmel Senior Living. On the 100th anniversary of her death in March, the Carmelite sisters visited the chapel at Mount Carmel to begin a novena for her canonization cause.

The sisters also are working with their community to possibly transfer Sister Theresia’s remains from Holy Cross Cemetery in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, to St. Louis and are planning a new side chapel in her honor as part of the community’s plans to renovate the chapel.

The news hits close to home for Sister Mariana Joy, who described Sister Theresia as a model of holiness and said she prays that she can follow in her footsteps.

“She’s this sister who labored in the same place, and she followed our same rule and constitutions,” she said. “It’s striking, just how she lived our way of life, and we have the same gift that’s been given to us by the Church. If we remain faithful to that — we want to be with her in heaven for eternity.”

Mass of thanksgiving

A Mass of thanksgiving in honor of Venerable Sister M. Theresia of the Most Holy Trinity will be celebrated at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at St. Agnes Home Chapel, 10341 Manchester Road in Kirkwood. A reception will follow in the social hall at St. Agnes Home and will include a short presentation on her life.

To RSVP, visit www.carmelitedcj.org or scan the QR code.

Prayer cards of Sister M. Theresia and copies of “The Passion Flower,” a small biography on her life, also may be requested from the Carmelite sisters.