First Diocesan Hermit Consecrated

October 28, 2025

Bishop William Joensen consecrated the Diocese of Des Moines’ first hermit.

The former Victoria Carver, now known as Sister Teresa Charbel, was consecrated as a diocesan hermit on Oct. 16 at the Basilica of St. John.

She’s taken a circuitous path to consecrated life. At age 79, she's a mother of four, grandma to 11 and great-grandma to five. She was divorced in 1980, and her marriage was annulled by the Church in 1984.

She’s a recovering alcoholic who converted to Catholicism in 2000.

“Recovery is rooted in regular prayer and other daily practices that build virtue and foster humility,” she said. “As I surrendered to God in desperation and continued in faith, his power enabled me to do what I could not, and I began to experience miracles in my life.”

Intense and committed intercessory prayer, when one of her children faced a health crisis, led her deeper into prayer, as she called on St. Teresa of Avila and St. Teresa of Kolkata (also known as Mother Teresa) for heavenly help.

“People began asking me to pray for their intentions, and my heart got bigger, growing in charity, as I prayed for others,” she said. Involvement in a lay religious movement led her to a spiritual director, daily adoration, and praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

She committed her life to the Lord on retreat and thought she was called to found a women's religious order in the Diocese of Des Moines.

 “Many desire to see women’s religious life flourish here again, as it once did. Our diocesan priests and parishes need it. Families and young women need it,” she said.

"Though Bishop (Richard) Pates agreed and, in 2015, supported the concept I proposed, my efforts bore little fruit.

“I’ve had to learn the hard way that God doesn’t lead me by giving me the end point. If he did, I would plan my route to get there,” she said, "and I'm not a very good planner. Instead, he just leads me to the next stop. I needed to learn to follow him and his shepherds with docility and trust.”

So, she met regularly with Monsignor Larry Beeson, who patiently guided her with wisdom, knowledge of canon law, and local church history and led her to others who could help.  Her pastor at the Basilica of St. John, Father Aquinas Nichols, shared steady support and experience. Her spiritual director, Benedictine Father Boniface Hicks confirmed her call to consecrated life, eventually recommending she inquire with her bishop about becoming a diocesan hermit, as he recognized that seemed to be the way of life she was living with Jesus.

She met Father PJ McManus, pastor of Christ the King Parish, who, helped her write a proposal for consecration as a diocesan hermit. Father Ray Higgins, co-vicar for those in consecrated life, to provide fellowship and ongoing formation along with the international sisters serving the Diocese.

"The next year, I met with newly installed Bishop Joensen, who was open to exploring my request for eremitic consecration, helping close the door on founding a new order. Father McManus continued as my delegate from our new Bishop."

For the next few years, Sister Teresa received rigorous formation through much solitary prayer in adoration and study.

When it came time to write a Plan of Life to present to Bishop Joensen — which she didn't know how to do — two diocesan hermits from a Nazareth Hermitage, in Ava, Missouri, sought overnight accommodations in Des Moines. The elderly sister, with 30 years at the hermitage, stayed with Sister Teresa, and the younger brother hermit, her driver, stayed with Father McManus. These were the first hermits she had ever met in person.

"Sister Maria Dara affirmed my eremitic vocation, taught me to write a Plan of Life, and I presented it to Father McManus. Bishop Joensen read it, consulted Father and other priests, and asked me to live with some experienced hermits in formation for at least four months. One hermitage was vacant at the Nazareth Hermitage compound and I was enthusiastically welcomed there.. . . which ultimately led to my consecration this month."

During her consecration, Sister Teresa made vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Bishop. After her name will be the letters ER.D., for “erimetic,” a descriptor of a hermit and "diocesan.” She wears a white habit that stretches from her hair down to her feet.

She spends most of her time praying for the needs of the Diocese of Des Moines, including vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church and for the world. She provides spiritual direction to a few people, and has supporters who help her continue to live in a hermitage/home in Urbandale.

A few days before her consecration, Pope Leo XIV spoke to diocesan hermits during the Jubilee of Consecrated Life on Oct. 11. To be a hermit, he said, “is not an escape from the world, but a regeneration of the heart, so that it may be capable of listening, a source of the creative and fruitful action of the charity that God inspires in us.

“This call to interiority and silence, to live in contact with oneself, with one’s neighbor, with creation and with God, is needed today more than ever, in a world increasingly aliened by the media and technology,” he said. “Your distance from the world does not separate you from others, but unites you in a deeper solidarity.”

Sister Teresa admits she had some dysfunctional behaviors and made wrong choices years ago.

“They promised satisfaction and fulfillment, but failed to deliver,” she said.

Her life’s journey, disappointments, wrong turns and all, have led her to where she is today.

“I just want to give God everything, all I got. Sometimes, my everything is puny, but He loves me, he's rescued me, and he’s called me to follow him. How could I say 'No?'"