By Joseph Tek Choon Yee
A Carmelite Beginning in Sabah: Half the Price, Twice the Grace
The story of the Carmelite Monastery in Kota Kinabalu begins not with stone walls or grand plans, but with seven women of prayer. On Dec 18, 1930, seven Spanish Carmelite nuns arrived at the invitation of Msgr. August Wachter, the first Prefect Apostolic of North Borneo. Their names; Mother Josephine Mary of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sisters Mariana of the Angels, Maria Teresa of the Virgin of Pilar, Mary Joseph of the Sacred Heart, Margaret of Jesus, Casilda of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and Novice Conception of the Most Blessed Trinity, read like a litany of devotion.
They landed in Jesselton, a colonial outpost on the South China Sea, and were housed in a rented bungalow on a hill fittingly called Mt Carmel. The owner, Joseph Yong Ah Hoi, was willing to sell, but not to bargain. His firm price: 20,000 Straits Dollars. It was far beyond the means of the mission, which had more faith than funds. Negotiations stalled. The dream of Carmel in Borneo seemed headed for the ‘impossible’ file.
Then came the nuns, and with them, their greatest resource: prayer. For three quiet weeks, they stormed heaven with psalms, petitions and trust. And then, something remarkable. On Jan 7,1931, just 21 days after their arrival, Yong suddenly relented. Not only did he agree to sell, but he cut the price in half to 10,000 Straits Dollars. A sudden, inexplicable change of heart. Coincidence, some might say, but for the Carmelites, it was divine providence. A quiet miracle, born of cloistered prayer.
Msgr Wachter wasted no time. That same day, he secured the purchase, declaring the land would one day be “a great asset to the mission.” And history proved him right. On those 11.3 acres rose the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception (1930), the Carmelite Monastery (1930), Kung Min School (later renamed Shan Tao in 1963), St Francis Convent Secondary School (1959), and most recently, the Catholic Archdiocesan Centre (2022). With further acquisitions, the Church now holds over 22 acres of green hills and foothills – an ecclesiastical campus and a green lung for the city.
What began with seven nuns and whispered prayers in a bungalow blossomed into a center of Catholic life in Sabah. Yong may have lost half his price, but heaven’s arithmetic works differently: the Mission gained not just land, but a legacy. From this seedbed of prayer, Carmelites would later found new communities in Kuching (1948) and Guam (1966).
Today, the Carmelite Monastery in Kota Kinabalu remains what it was always meant to be: a hidden lamp on a hill, where lives are offered to God in silence and intercession. The ideals remain unchanged, to glorify God, pray for priests and offer young women a chance to embrace the Spirit of Carmel. And to think, it all began with a bungalow, a firm landlord, and the unstoppable prayers of seven nuns.
Carmelites During WWII
The war years cast a long shadow over the Catholic mission in North Borneo. Though cloistered and far from politics, the Carmelite nuns could not escape the tide of tragedy. Their Jesselton monastery was seized by the Japanese and turned into a strategic defence post on the hill.
The Carmelite Sisters, all believed to be Spaniards and thus technically neutral, were caught in the bitterirony of Axis alliances and forced to abandon their home. Plans were made to send them to Kuching, but Msgr. August Wachter intervened, and they found fragile refuge at St Michael’s Mission in Penampang.
On May 18, 1945, Japanese soldiers announced they would take over St Michael’s. Msgr Wachter resisted and sent envoys to negotiate, but it was hopeless. The Carmelites, already displaced once, were the first to hear the grim news. That night, the mission hill filled with villagers; priests heard confessions late into the night, while the Sisters prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, tearfully begging God to avert the storm.
The next morning, Masses were celebrated under a cloud of dread. By afternoon, Japanese officials arrived. The Sisters pleaded in vain for the priests to stay. The order was final: the clergy were to be sent to Tenom.
Msgr Wachter, with quiet courage, begged to remain, declaring his life belonged to his people. The Japanese refused. Soon after began the sorrowful road to martyrdom, priests and faithful perished in witness, as told in Fr Cosmas Lee’s Ultimate Sacrifice. The Carmelites survived, but their survival was soaked in grief, bearing in silence the loss of their shepherds and the desecration of their home.
Carmel Calls
In an age flooded with noise, notifications and curated lives, the Carmelite vocation offers something radically different: a life poured out in love, hidden in silence, and ablaze with prayer.
Whether as OCD nuns or friars, or as OCDS lay men and women living the Carmelite charism in the world, this spiritual family continues a centuries-old mission, to be love in the heart of the Church through prayer, sacrifice, and deep union with God.
At the heart of this vocation burns a divine fire: “The charity of Christ urges us” (2 Cor 5:14). Fittingly, this was also Msgr. Wachter’s motto when installed as the first Prefect Apostolic of North Borneo in 1927.
This love, poured out by Christ and encountered in contemplation, compels the Carmelite to live for Him alone, while carrying the world’s needs in silent prayer. It is not withdrawal, but participation in Christ’s redemptive love.
This is no escape from the world, but a bold entry into its heart through intercession. Carmelites pray not only for themselves, but for the Church, the forgotten, the unbelieving, and those who cannot pray.
And who knows? Among today’s bright, searching young people may be tomorrow’s contemplative, ready to trade scrolling for the eternal feed of grace, and fleeting applause for the quiet joy of being known by God alone.
If you feel a stirring, toward the cloister, the friary, or secular Carmelite life, don’t ignore it. It may be the Spirit’s whisper, inviting you not to more, but to less, so that God may be your all.
The world needs our prayers. The Church needs our love. “The charity of Christ urges us.”
Carmel is calling. Will we answer?
