Teresa Margherita del Cuore di Maria

Maria Luisa Resende Marques was born in Brazil on December 24, 1915, in Borda da Mata, in the state of Minas Gerais. She felt she had a religious vocation but her father at first opposed it. She managed to convince him and entered the Carmel of Mogi das Cruzes on the 28^th of May 1937, as a postulant. When she entered the novitiate, she received the habit and chose as her religious name Teresa Margherita of the Heart of Mary. She made her religious vows on the 2nd of February, 1942.

Sister Teresa Margherita was elected assistant-mistress of novices and, at the age of thirty, was elected sub-prioress of the convent. She also served as organist and turn sister.

In 1962 she was sent to found and direct a new convent, the Carmel of São José in Três Pontas (MG). Together with seven nuns, she arrived in Três Pontas to begin the new foundation on July 16, 1962, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It was 400 years after St Teresa’s first foundation, the first Carmel of St. Joseph in Avila, Initially, the community lived in a small house and later, on January 22^nd, 1969, the community moved to the definitive Monastery. On several occasions she was Prioress, Sub-Prioress, Mistress of Novices. She took care of the biblical, spiritual and liturgical formation of the sisters in her community.

She died on the 14^th of November, 2005.

The diocesan inquiry into her “life, virtue and reputation for holiness” closed on May 12, 2013. On the 28^th of March 2014, the decree of validity was granted.

The decree on heroic virtues was promulgated on May 20, 2023.