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Why Santa Teresita is Named After St. ThereseIn 1927, a small group of Carmelite Sisters from Mexico found refuge in California from the religious persecution taking place in their home country. Three years later, they opened a very small Sanatorium in Duarte, California to care for girls suffering from tuberculosis. The Sisters, without financial resources and with many things to be learned in a new country, turned to Saint Therese for help. Since Saint Therese also died of tuberculosis, they prayed earnestly to her who, in their native Spanish, was Santa Teresita, "Little Saint Therese."
The patients in Santa Teresita were girls of all ages, young children and teenagers. They were to lie quietly in bed, some for months, some for years. Some would get well and go back to their homes. Others, of course, came to the sanatorium to die. For all these girls of various ages and conditions, Santa Teresita became a real person. She, too, suffered from the same illness. They knew her promise:
"I will spend my heaven doing good upon the earth."
Here was a friend, someone who had lived not very long ago and who would not only understand their particular problems but had literally offered to help.
Saint Therese taught through word and deed that each individual action and the sum of all activity, whether of mind, soul or body, could be used by everyone as a direct way of bringing us to God. She lived her life in the truth that God is our Father and that He loves us. Therefore, the foundation of our lives is built on the love of God, our Father. The Carmelite Sisters, with the assistance of over 200 staff and volunteers, continue this spirit of love and confidence that Saint Therese so beautifully taught.
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