The “Carmelite Sisters of Benoni”

by Admin · September 7, 2023

The multicultural Carmelites of Benoni.

Mary-Ann Alho writes about her visit to the Carmelite Sisters of Benoni, an enclosed Order of Discalced Carmelites, and tells us how they live and the history of this community.

The Carmelite Sisters of Benoni, east of Johannesburg, are an enclosed community of religious women whose order is contemplative. Being “contemplative” and “enclosed” affords the community the time to create a space for “union with God”, consistently and with utmost dedication.

Sr Therese OCD explained that the nuns’ hearts are enclosed to the Presence of God in their own lives — “a sacred space where we can pursue our contemplative life and our constant seeking of the face of God”.

The Sisters follow the Order initiated by St Teresa of Avila, who founded the Discalced Carmelites almost 500 years ago. St Teresa adhered to the value of enclosure, pervasive at the time in the Catholic Church. However, she was also a woman with a good deal of common sense and flexibility.

The Sisters of Benoni are no less astute and show common sense in transitioning, to some degree, to the modern world in which they live. They live their enclosure in a different way — one which does not preclude contact with the outside world — while still holding on to the value of enclosure and minimal material expression. For example, they do not usually leave the confines of their convent. It would therefore be inaccurate to say that the Carmelite Sisters have relaxed certain Rules regarding separation from the outside world.

60 years in Rivonia

For 60 years from the early 1930s, the Carmelites of Benoni lived in their first convent, known as The Cloisters, in Rivonia, a northern suburb of Johannesburg. From there, four Sisters went off to found the Carmel of Wynberg in Cape Town in 1952.

In 1990 Fr Camilo Maccise, the general of the global Carmelite Order, visited the community and the idea was raised to move from Rivonia, since the premises were too big and its infrastructure outdated. Some trauma followed as the community was dispersed, but the Carmel of St Therese in Benoni soon became a new home.

The political and social background of South Africa at the time was divided, and the nuns felt that more division seemed to be incongruent with the core ethos of the Carmelites. So they decided to discard the more visible physical elements of separation, such as the grilles. They retained only a simple separation in their chapel. “It doesn’t impede the witness of a united participation of the Sisters and the people at the Eucharist and the Liturgy of Hours,” Sr Therese explained.

Remarkably the Sisters have lately become a multi-cultural community. Aside from the South Africans, at present there are Sisters from Bangladesh, DR Congo, England, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This has been an enrichment to their community life. “Each one brings her own gifts and insights, challenges and weaknesses. In our diversity we are united in bearing witness to the values of the Carmelite Charism and culture,” Sr Therese said.

An integral aspect of the Carmelite Sisters’ charism is to be intercessors. The Liturgy of the Hours is a specific time and space set aside for praying on behalf of others and for the needs of all humanity. Within this ambit of “social prayer” they are in solidarity with people of all walks of life. The present author can attest to the privilege of relying on the Sisters to pray with depth and sincerity on behalf of those who request their prayers and their natural offer of friendship to those who truly seek it.

Breadwinning from altar bread

“We show our love for one another by working generously according to our strengths and abilities, both in household tasks and in earning work,” Sr Therese said. As is the case with many Carmelite communities, the Sisters’ main source of income is the production of altar bread, a task the nuns took on soon after they arrived in Rivonia in the early 1930s. The method of production of the hosts has changed from the primitive hand cutters and tiny irons of the early years; in 2017 a new, fully automatic baking machine arrived from Italy.

This important income stream has kept the community in touch with the outside world and, to some extent, in the public eye of the greater Catholic community of South Africa.

Even as encloistered contemplatives living in the 21st century, the nuns are not detached from technology. Internet and smartphones have become a necessity since banking and other operational functions of the altar bread office operate more efficiently because of them. And the Carmel of Benoni also has a website (www.carmelbenoni.co.za)

The community welcomes and invites women who hear God’s call to serve him in this way to arrange visits or to experience a live-in opportunity, at the discretion of the Sisters. The Sisters are aware of a deep thirst for God and advocate Carmelite spirituality as a means of attaining whatever spiritual help may be needed in this proposed journey.

To contact the Carmelite Sisters of Benoni, call 076 286-1461 or email

Published in the July 2023 issue of The Southern Cross magazine