History of the Carmelite Sisters in Malaysia

Background | Preparations | Inauguration | 1982-2002

Five Carmelite Sisters left Singapore Carmel on the morning of 12th October 1982, arriving in Mantin in the afternoon.

On the 15th October 1982, the Mass in honor of Our Mother St. Teresa was celebrated in the Chapel of the Mantin Carmel by four priests; Father John Wang, Father Hsiong, Father Simon Tang, and Father Leo Chang to whom this Carmel is indebted for his help in various ways.

During the three days of "Open House", the visitors went around the whole monastery eager to see what was behind the walls. At 11 a.m. on 17th October 1982, the inauguration ceremony of the Carmel began in the Parish Church of St. Aloysius with the concelebrated Mass by His Grace Archbishop Vendargon and twelve priests in the presence of over a thousand people who filled the Church and its grounds. At the Offertory, Father John Wang's youthful Parishioners offered a beautiful wooden almost life-size crucifix. It has since become the centerpiece of the Chapel of the Carmelite sisters. Mass was followed by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament from the Church to the Monastery Chapel.

The nuns and two postulants entered the Choir. After blessing the people with the Monstrance, His Grace, the Archbishop, installed the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle. Then he read the Rescript from the Sacred Congregation for the Religious and Secular Institutes in Rome, authorizing the foundation of the Carmel in Mantin. He declared the Papal Enclosure of the nuns and locked the door of the Choir Grille and handed the key to the Vicaress. The ceremony ended with the hymn "Teresa" composed specifically for the occasion of the 4th centenary celebration of the death of St. Teresa of Avila.