1. The canonical norms concerning the procedure to be followed in the Causes of Saints are stated in the Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister promulgated by John Paul II on 25 January 1983 (AAS LXXV, 1983, 349-355).

2. To initiate a Cause it is necessary that at least five years pass after the death of the candidate. This is to allow for greater balance and objectivity in the evaluation of the case and to allow the emotions of the moment to decant. There must be a clear conviction among people about his/her sanctity (fama sanctitas) and about the efficacy of his/her intercession with the Lord (fama signorum).

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Teresa Adelaide Cesina Manetti, was born in Campi Bisenzio, in the then hamlet of San Martino, to Gaetano Manaetti (a poultry farmer) and Rosa Bigagli, on March 2, 1846.

At the age of three she lost her father. This event profoundly marked the life of the family, as well as the character of little Teresa, who would grow to be strong and strong-willed, as well as open and generous. Strength in the time of trial, from her experience of poverty, abandonment to Providence, the sense of sacrifice...: these were the attitudes that Teresa learned from an early age, especially thanks to the example and education from her mother, a strong woman of deep faith.

After a self-assured and lively adolescence, carried away even be how to dress and behave, at the age of 19 she irresistible felt God’s call and decided to follow the example of Teresa of Avila, who would appear to her in a vision.

In 1874 she began her first communal living together with two friends in the so-called 'Conventino', a small house under the Bisenzio embankment, and shortly after they became members of the Teresian 'Third Order', she taking the religious name of Teresa Mary of the Cross; in this period the young religious could count on the help and advice of Don Ernesto Jacopozzi, the chaplain of the church of San Martino, who followed her until her untimely death in 1894.

Teresa decided at the same time not to dedicate herself exclusively to a contemplative or ascetic life, but to open out her emerging Order, the «Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa», to the world, thus developing a remarkable charitable work, in particular aimed at the formation of young women, the care of abandoned girls and missionary activity. The success of the Order and its rapid expansion, first in Tuscany and then in the rest of Italy, made a new headquarters necessary and in a few years in 1887 the new Convent with adjoining church was built, always in San Martino. On July 12, 1888, Teresa and her companions were clothed in the Carmelite habit.

In 1904, the Congregation received approval from St. Pius X (Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, 1903-1914) and, also in those years, the first foundations abroad were opened, in Lebanon and Palestine.

In 1908 Mother Teresa Mary of the Cross was struck by an incurable disease that led to her death on April 23, 1910.

Her beatification ceremony was held on October 19, 1986.

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1. The canonical norms concerning the procedure to be followed in the Causes of Saints are stated in the Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister promulgated by John Paul II on 25 January 1983 (AAS LXXV, 1983, 349-355).

2. To initiate a Cause it is necessary that at least five years pass after the death of the candidate. This is to allow for greater balance and objectivity in the evaluation of the case and to allow the emotions of the moment to decant. There must be a clear conviction among people about his/her sanctity (fama sanctitas) and about the efficacy of his/her intercession with the Lord (fama signorum).

Anna Maria Tauscher van den Bosch was born on 19^th of June 1855 in Sandow, Brandenburg, (then in Germany, now in Poland), to deeply believing Lutheran parents.

Her father was a pastor of the Evangelical Church. At a certain point, however, dissatisfied with the religion of her father, Anna Maria, entered the Catholic Church. This happened on October 30, 1888, when she made her profession of Tridentine faith at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Cologne. This considered decision caused her, however, numerous humiliations and sufferings, so much so that she was soon expelled from her father's house and dismissed from her position as director of nursing at the psychiatric hospital in Cologne.

Left homeless and without work, abandoned by all, Anna Maria wandered for a long time before arriving at a refuge in a religious institute. Later she worked instead as a lady-in-waiting for a family. It was then that the young woman realized how in the streets of Berlin many children, mostly children of Italians too busy at work to look after their family, were miserably abandoned to themselves. Moved by compassion, she began to take care of them. In order to achieve this arduous goal she decided to found a religious community: the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. She began her first Work near Berlin, where on July 2^nd 1891 she opened the first house, which she baptized «Home for the homeless» and on 1^st of August began to welcome the first three poor children, as well as gathering around her other companions eager like herself to help the most unfortunate.

Her charity, however, was not limited exclusively to children. Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph, this is the name she took in religion, also took care of the elderly, of those who were alone, abandoned, far from the Church, of emigrants, of simple workers who in some way found themselves homeless.

In 1897 she was aggregated to Carmel at the Generalate of the Discalced Carmelites. She founded the first house in Holland in 1898, the first novitiate in Sittard in 1899 and yet another novitiate in Maldon in 1901. Her great devotion to St. Joseph led her to place all the houses of the Work under the protection of the Spouse of Mary.

In 1903 she made her first trip to Rome, and after a few months she went to Cremona to start the activity in favour of poor children, in the house of the Honourable Ettore Sacchi. In 1904 Mother Maria Teresa of Saint Joseph returned to Rome for the third time, to inaugurate the Mother House in Rocca di Papa, opened with the help of Cardinal Francesco Satolli and the Discalced Carmelites. It was precisely on that occasion that her congregation received its definitive name, already mentioned above.

Mother Maria Theresa of St. Joseph finally died on September 20, 1938 near Sittard, Holland.

The beatification ceremony took place on May 13, 2006. 

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