Beaterio de Terciarias Agustinas Recoletas

The Beaterio de Terciarias Agustinas Recoletas was the oldest convent for the Order of Augustinian Recollects meeting the material and spiritual needs of pious women in the early 18th-century Philippines. The beaterio was founded by Dionisia de Santa María Mitas Talangpaz and Cecilia Rosa de Jesús Talangpaz, two biological and religious Filipino sisters from Barangay San Miguel in Calumpit, Bulacan. The convent's name was later changed to Beaterio de San Sebastián de Calumpang, now the Congregation of the Augustinian Recollect Sisters. It is one of the three continuing congregation founded for native women in Asia after the Amantes de la Croix founded in Vietnam in 1670, and the Beaterio de la Compañía de Jesús (now the Religious of the Virgin Mary) founded in Manila in 1684. The original site of the beaterio was located inside Saint Rita College - Manila, one of the first three houses of the Augustinian Recollect Sisters, before it wasdamaged.

The two Talangpaz sisters, who belonged to a religious bloodline, decided to leave their comfortable life in pursuit of their spiritual calling even after their request for permission to wear the habit of mantelata were repeatedly turned down. When they heard that the Recollects admitted Filipino women into their Third Order, they proceeded to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Church of San Sebastián in Manila and rented a nipa hut in Bilibid Viejo behind the church apse in which two other native beatas soon joined them. By the help of Fray Juan de Santo Tomás de Aquino, OAR, they revealed to the priests their desire to don the habit of mantelata. After their credentials were carefully checked and their petition for the habit was approved, they were incorporated as tertiaries of the Order. They received the habit on the 16th day of July 1725. The nipa hut they rented together with the other beatas was the beginning of the congregation. An unexpected crisis happened in the beaterio when it drew the attention of more aspirants than it could manage. To resolve the crisis, Fray Diego de San José, OAR, the prior of San Sebastián, impulsively demanded back the habits he had bestowed on the Talangpaz sisters and ass

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