She spent a brief period of time with the Benedictines at Viseu and travelled from parish to parish to encourage people to make their faith an integral part to their lives. This saw men propose to her - though she refused each offer - and she even received death threats for her active apostolate. In 1877 she joined the sole functioning religious order at that time - the Sisters of Charity - but did not find it to be fulfilling so left it. On 24 September 1880 she founded the "Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph" in order to dedicate her time to the care of poor and abandoned girls. In 1910 - after the establishment of the Republic of Portugal - there was a period of persecution of Christians and so with the sisters managed to move the children their parents before something violent ensured.