Holy Angels’ ISC School

Every need in the Church is supplied in God's good time and according to His plan. Towards the end of the 19th century education of girls was the crying need of the hour, in South India. It was through the instrumentality of Mother Mary Teresa Veronica that this need was met.
   paragraphseperatorof this text is usedMother Mary Teresa Veronica (Sophie Leeves) was born at Constantinople on 1 st Oct. 1823. Her parents were devout Christians, her father an Anglican clergyman and her mother a staunch Protestant. They paid great attention to the education of their children, shielding them from all unhealthy influence. All this was actually a preparation for the great destiny God had in store for Sophie. While still a Protestant Sophie was blessed with her first mystical experience in 1840. In 1845 Rev. Leeves died during a visit to the Holy Land. Sophie was now the strength and support of her mother.
A growing awareness of a vacuum in Protestantism set Sophie and her sister Mary Ann on a journey in search of the Truth, which led them to the Catholic Church. Their baptism, source of peace and tranquility for them brought sorrow to their mother and brother; nevertheless they remained steadfast.

Sophie now received a series of calls, each one uniting her more closely to Christ and to each of which she responded wholeheartedly. After entering the Catholic Church she was drawn to religious life and sought admission to the Congregation of the sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition. Her transfer to Calicut in South India was an indirect call to Carmel (and the words "I want you in Carmel" resounded in her ears).

She met Fr. Marie Ephrem at Mangalore and being received by him into the Third Order (secular) of Carmel, realized that her vocation to Carmel was genuine. The Carmelite missionaries recognized in her a prospective Foundress of the Third Order to be established for the education of girls.