imported>FyzixFighter: /* Life */ also per MOS:BIO

2021-03-13T22:30:34Z

Life: also per MOS:BIO

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{{short description|19th-century English Carmelite nun and foundress}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix = [[Venerable]]
| name = Mary Veronica of the Passion
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of Discalced Carmelites|O.C.D.]]
| birth_name = Sophie Leeves
| image = Veronica of the Passion (1823-1906).png
| image_size = 200px
| caption =
| titles = Founder
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1823|10|01}}
| birth_place = [[Istanbul]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1906|11|16|1823|10|01}}
| death_place = [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques]], France
| venerated_in= [[Roman Catholic Church]]
}}

'''Veronica of the Passion''' (1 October 1823 – 11 November 1906) was a [[Roman Catholic]] nun who founded the [[Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel]], a religious congregation of the [[Order of Discalced Carmelites|Discalced Carmelite]] [[Third Order]] for women based in [[India]].

==Life==
She was born as '''Sophie Leeves''' in 1823 in [[Istanbul]], capital of the [[Ottoman Empire]], to Henry Daniel Leeves, an [[Anglican]] [[chaplain]] to the [[British Empire|British]] [[Embassy]] there, and to Sophia Mary Haultain,<ref>Rev Henry Daniel Leeves married Sophia Mary Haultain on 8 Apr 1820 at St Mary, Bathwick, Somerset</ref> the daughter of a [[Colonel]] in the British army.

When Leeves was in her teens a change came over her. She spent long hours in prayers. "Easter Tuesday ended in a dark night" she wrote. "I blew out the last candles. The house was still. Suddenly a clear but soft voice broke the stillness and I heard these words distinctly 'My peace I leave you; My peace I give you'. Then all was still again, the night as well as my heart".

Leeves felt drawn to the [[Roman Catholic Church]], especially the [[sacrament]]s of [[Sacrament of Penance (Catholic Church)|Confession]] and [[Holy Communion]]. Leeves and others were annoyed at this. She broke off her engagement to a naval officer.

Leeves was received into the Catholic Church on 2 February 1850 in [[Malta]]. The following year, she went to France where she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, which had been founded in 1836 by [[Emily de Vialar]]. After completing the [[novitiate]], she was [[profession (religious)|professed]] as a member of the [[Religious congregation|congregation]] on 14 September 1851 and received the name '''Sister Mary Veronica of the Passion'''.

In 1863 Veronica was assigned to teach at the congregation's foundation in India, sent at the request of the bishop Marie Antony, who had appealed to France for assistance to hand over the education of youth to religious. As a preliminary step he had bought a house at Calicut (now [[Kozhikode]]) in 1860 and fitted it up for a convent and at the request of the people opened a school there on 1 April 1862, calling it St. Joseph's School.<ref>[http://www.stjosephsangloindianschool.org/history.htm St.Joseph's Anglo-Indian School] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728061311/http://www.stjosephsangloindianschool.org/history.htm |date=28 July 2011 }}</ref> Veronica and Mary Joseph, after a long and tiring voyage and a brief halt at Mangalore, arrived there on 27 April 1862, and took charge of the school. She served as the first Superior of the convent and spent two years teaching at both Mangalore and Kozhikode.

It was there that Veronica met the priest Marie Ephrem of the Sacred Heart Garrelon. He, along with the other [[Discalced Carmelites|Discalced Carmeltite]] [[friars]] who provided [[pastoral care]] for [[western India]], had long envisioned a group of teaching Sisters to provide an education to the women and girls of the region. The friar felt that Veronica was an excellent candidate to lead this effort, which coincided with her own inner call to join the Carmelite Order.

After much reflection and anguish, Veronica accepted the call to start such a foundation. She left the Sisters of St. Joseph and returned to France, where she entered the Discalced [[Carmelites|Carmel]] of [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|Pau]] as a [[novice]]. After her [[profession]], Veronica embarked on the formation of a small group of European women who had joined to start the foundation in India, living in a house in [[Bayonne]]. They officially formed the Congregation of the Sisters of the Carmelite [[Third Order]] Regular, known as the "Apostolic Carmel", on 16 July 1868, the feast of [[Our Lady of Mount Carmel]].<ref>[http://www.apostolic-carmel.org/founders.htm Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel "Founders"]</ref>

A small group of three sisters left for India, under the leadership of Mary of the Angels, who served as the first [[Superior General]] and [[master of novices|Mistress of novices]] of the new congregation. They arrived in India on 19 November 1870, about the same time as Ephrem was appointed as the local bishop. Shortly after their arrival, the sisters opened the St. Ann School for Girls.<ref>[http://www.carmeldelhi.com/history-apostoliccarmel.html Carmel Convent School of Delhi "History of the Apostolic Carmel Congregation"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910085930/http://www.carmeldelhi.com/history-apostoliccarmel.html |date=10 September 2012 }}</ref>

In 1873, Veronica returned to her own monastery, the Carmel of Pau, where she died on 16 November 1906, at the age of 83.

On 5 September 1892, the congregation Veronica helped to found became formally affiliated with the Discalced Carmelite Order.<ref>[http://www.ocd.pcn.net/ist_cong.htm#INDIA Order of Discalced Carmelites: Affiliated Institutes]</ref> It has grown and now has branches in various parts of India, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Pakistan, Kenya, Rome and Bahrain. The Congregation is governed under six Provinces and centrally administered by the General Team from the General Motherhouse, Bangalore, with Agatha Mary as the present [[Superior General]] since 2008.<ref>[http://www.apostolic-carmel.org/leaders.htm Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel "Our Leaders"]</ref>

Veronica's cause of [[canonization]] was taken up by the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel in 1997. Veronica has been declared [[Venerable]] by the [[Holy See]] in July 2014.<ref>[http://www.chemindamourverslepere.com/tag/marie+v%C3%A9ronique+de+la+passion Promulgation of decrees: new 'Venerables'].</ref>

== Writings ==
Veronica left an ''Autobiography'', a large number of letters and some ''Regulations for the nuns of the third order of St Teresa''.
*''Carmel in India'', London, Burns and Oates, 1895 (new edition at Mangalore, 1964).
*''Vie merveilleuse de Sœur Marie de Jésus crucifié'', Montpellier, 1903.

== Bibliography ==
* Marie des Anges: ''A short history of the apostolic Carmel'', 1890
* Mary Candida AC: ''The apostolic Carmel; seed time'', Bangalore, 1974.
* Mary Carol AC: ''A strange destiny: the life of Mother Mary Veronica of the Passion, foundress of the Apostolic Carmel'', Bangalore, 1988.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*https://web.archive.org/web/20090206212923/http://providenceghss.com/mother.htm
*https://web.archive.org/web/20091017011601/http://www.holyangelsschoolcbse.org/objectives.htm
*[http://www.stjosephsangloindianschool.org/history.php St. Joseph's Anglo-Indian Girls' Higher Secondary School "Our History"]

{{Canonization}}
{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= France}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Veronica of the Passion}}
[[Category:1823 births]]
[[Category:1906 deaths]]
[[Category:Discalced Carmelite nuns]]
[[Category:Venerated Carmelites]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns]]
[[Category:Founders of Catholic religious communities]]
[[Category:19th-century venerated Christians]]
[[Category:20th-century venerated Christians]]
[[Category:People from Istanbul]]
[[Category:Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis]]

Veronica of the Passion - Revision history

imported>FyzixFighter: /* Life */ also per MOS:BIO