Congregation of the Mother of Carmel

The Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (C.M.C.) is a Syro-Malabar religious institute of Discalced Carmelite Religious Sisters founded in 1866. It was the first native congregation for women in that Church.

The congregation was founded by the Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, T.O.C.D., in collaboration with Father Leopold Beccaro, O.C.D., the Master of novices for the Discalced Carmelite friars in India. It was founded as the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of the Order of Discalced Carmelites on 13 February 1866 at Koonammavu in the southern state of Kerala.

Chavara, who was Vicar General of the Church at the time, was also a social reformer, an educator and had played a major and significant role in educating women and people of lower sections of society. He had envisioned a community of Religious Sisters who would work in this field, among the poor of the Church.

The first house of the new community was opened in Koonammavu with four women: Eliswa, a widow, her daughter Anna, Eliswa’s sister Tresa and another young lady named Clara. They were given the rules of the Discalced Third Order under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Verapoly, the Most Rev. Bernardine Baccinelli, O.C.D.

In May 1887, the Holy See established the Syro-Malabar Church in India as independent of the hierarchy of the Latin Rite. This caused problems for the young congregation, as both Latin and Syrian bishops claimed authority over them. This had to be settled by Rome, which ruled that the Sisters were part of the Syro-Malabar Vicariate Apostolic of Trichur. The Sisters who belonged to the Latin Church separated and formed a new congregation in the Roman Catholic Church called the Congregation of Theresian Carmelites (C.T.C.).

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