In 1862, Eliswa spoke about her desire to serve God to her parish priest, a young Italian named Fr. Leopold. The rest has gone into the history of how the Third Order of the Carmelite Discalced (TOCD) was formed.
In 1866, the first nuns from Kerala formed the Congregation of Teresian Carmelites (CTC) under TOCD. The first convent was a simple bamboo-mat house at Koonammavu, and the congregation, under Blessed Mother Eliswa, was given the task of teaching girls who had no means to pursue education. St. Joseph’s LP School at Koonammavu was set up in 1868 as the first Catholic school for girls in Malabar. Blessed Mother Eliswa’s mission in life was to educate young girls and she set up several girls’ schools here.
When she moved to Varapuzha after the separation of the Latin and Syrian rites of the Church, St. Joseph’s School for Girls at Varapuzha was set up. Blessed Mother Eliswa breathed her last on July 18, 1913, at the convent near the Varapuzha school.
Today, the order has around 1,400 nuns in 171 convents around the country. Over the 100 years after the death of Blessed Mother Eliswa, the Carmelite order in the country grew in size and extended its operations in the field of women’s education and welfare.
