TERESA di SANT'AGOSTINO, venerable. - Discalced Carmelite, better known by the name Madame Louise de France, daughter of Luigi XV and Maria Leczinika, b. at Versailles on 15 July 1737, d. at Saint-Denis on 23 Nov. 1787.
As a child she was taken to the abbey of Fontevrault and educated in piety and learning. She returned to court in 1750, devoting herself, in contrast to her father's life, to prayer and works of charity. In 1770 she entered the Discalced Carmelites of Saint-Denis, where she professed on 12 Sept.
1771, offering herself in sacrifice and penance for the conversion of her father, who, after 30 years' separation from the Sacraments, died a good Christian in 1774. For several years she was prioress, a zealous advocate of the total observance of the Rule, devoted to the Pope and to the Church, of which she made herself an apostle among all in order to combat triumphant Gallicanism. The granting of civil status to Protestants in 1787 was the blow that shattered the life of this daughter of the Church. Pius IX signed, on 19 June 1873, the “commission” for the introduction of the cause of beatification.
Her spiritual works were published posthumously: Méditations Eucharistiques (Paris 1789, Lyons 1810, Paris 1879), Recueil des testaments spirituels à ses filles religieuses carmélites (Autun 1856).
Valentino di Maria