Remembering the Two Annes of Belgium

Our community recently gathered to celebrate our Community Feast, and if you stepped into our antechoir, you would have found yourself transported across the miles and centuries! In honour of two extraordinary mothers of our Order, our antechoir was beautifully transformed with a Belgian theme—a visual tribute to the land where their holy journeys culminated.

This year has given our global Carmelite family an unprecedented abundance of graces, focusing our hearts directly on the heroic foundations in northern Europe.

Celebrating the two Annes

Our antechoir decorations held a beautiful, dual significance this year:

• The 400th Anniversary of Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew: We marked the quatercentenary (1626–2026) of St. Teresa’s beloved nurse, secretary, also known as the “Defender of Antwerp.” Four centuries later, her spirit of unceasing prayer and total fidelity continues to inspire us.
• The Beatification of Blessed Anne of Jesus: Adding to this, we are still basking in the grace of Pope Francis’s historic journey to Brussels to beatify Blessed Anne of Jesus! She was St. Teresa’s trusted “captain”, binding Spain and Belgium forever in our holy history.

Our Community Feast days coincided perfectly with the opportunity to mark these events, remembering how these two Spanish daughters of St Teresa walked hand-in-hand into the unknown. Together, they crossed the Pyrenees to bring the Teresian reform to France, and together, they found their final resting places in the soil of Flanders—Anne of Jesus in Brussels, and Anne of St. Bartholomew in Antwerp.

We thanked God for their enduring legacy, and may Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew and Blessed Anne of Jesus continue to intercede for our community, that we may inherit a double portion of their missionary zeal and deep, contemplative love!