About: Ann Teresa Mathews

Ann Teresa Mathews (religious name, Mother Bernardina Teresa Xavier of St. Joseph; 1732 – June 18, 1800) was a nun from Port Tobacco, Maryland who in 1790 founded the first Roman Catholic religious order for women in the United States. In 1754 she had entered a convent of English-speaking Discalced Carmelites in modern-day Belgium and was elected prioress there twenty years later. In 1790 she was offered land in Maryland and returned to establish what became known as Mount Carmel Monastery in Port Tobacco. In the 19th century, the congregation relocated to Baltimore, Maryland.