At the origin of Teresian or  « discalced » Carmel and at the heart of its vocation in the Church, there is the specific charism of our holy parents, Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross.

Carried by the love of Christ, our Mother Saint Thérèse is part of the great living tradition of those who, for centuries, have been drawn to Carmel by the search for God in solitude and silence. But hurt by the division of the Church of her time, also sensitized by the discovery of new missionary horizons, she renewed Carmel by essentially giving it a strong apostolic dimension.

The first monastery was founded by Teresa in her town of Avila, Spain, on August 24, 1562, on the feast of the apostle Saint Bartholomew. That morning, the sound of a bell announced a double birth: that of a monastery and that of a new style of life in the Church.

Since then, other monasteries – which Thérèse affectionately called  «  the dovecotes of the Virgin » – have flourished throughout the world. Today there are more than 800 of them, with approximately 12,000 nuns who continue to provide the service of continual prayer in the Church, being, in the words of John Paul II,  «  the throbbing heart of the Church  »