Having worked in several schools in Europe, she was sent to Calicut, India in 1862. She showed a special love for the less fortunate. She wanted both the rich and the poor to enjoy all the ‘goods of the land’ – God’s gift for his people. She learnt Malayalam, eager to fit herself to give an all-round development to the girls in this new field of labor where Malayalam was the chief language.

It was while here that she heard another call – a call to enter ‘Carmel’. Relying on God and empowered by Him, she surmounted all difficulties, ridicule and insult and went back to France in 1867. She started a small house in Bayonne and there the Apostolic Carmel Congregation was born on July 16,1868. She trained a batch of three sisters and sent them to India.

Once again, the history of the Apostolic Carmel proves the truth of the Biblical maxim: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn.12:24) The house in Bayonne had to be closed. But this closure gave the A.C. a singular characteristic – making it completely indigenous. It was on 19th November, 1870 that the three Sisters landed in Mangalore and started the St. Ann’s School for girls. Mother Veronica had fulfilled the purpose God had called her for – “A Carmel for the Missions”.

She had yet another call – a call to the cloistered Carmel. Truly she could say she lived up to her maxim: “Obedience is my life”. For the next 33 years of her life, until her saintly death on November 16, 1906, she continued to water the tiny plant that she transplanted in India on November 19, 1870, with her prayer and sacrifice.