St.Teresa of Avila, Our Holy Mother Teresa, was born on the 28th March 1515 to Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda and Dona Beatriz De Ahumada. When Teresa was 12 years old her mother passed away. Feeling alone Teresa turned to Our Holy Mother Mary and exclaimed spontaneously
“Our Holy Mother Mary I’ve lost my mother from now on you are my Mother”
After the death of her mother she went to live for a few months as a student with the Agostinian sisters. At the age of 20 she escaped from her father’s house and entered as a postulant in the Monastery of the Incarnation outside the walls of the city of Avila. After her profession she became seriously ill and had to leave the convent for special care. Back to her monastery a new phase in her life began with mystic graces. Once she was talking to other sisters about her dream to found a new poor and small convent with few number of sisters but true friends of God. After so many tribulations St. Teresa of Jesus founded and inaugurated the first reform monastery on the 24th August 1562.
These were the first founding Teresian Nuns.
The monastery of St Margaret in Cospicua is one from the many Teresian monasteries around the world. In Malta there are 7 cloistered monasteries and one in Gozo. But only two of them are Teresian monasteries, ours which was founded in 1726 and another one still in initial phase of foundation at Rabat, Malta.
Presently we are a small ageing and sick community of 11 nuns. The eldest is 90 years old and the youngest is 53 years old. The eldest sister entered 70 years ago while the youngest entered 24 years ago. With an increase in dependency of the sick sisters and unable to handle them more, unwillingly we had to admit two of our sisters to an Old People’s Home
All of us have different skills and gifts but together within our diversity we create a family environment. Some of the gifts we were born with but some of them were discovered in religious life. However there is something which is common to all of us…together we pull the same rope and strive to love Jesus with all our hearts. Consequently we radiate this love to all those whom we encounter in our lives. In this way our lives is transformed to intimate love with our Beloved Jesus.