Historical records about its origin remain uncertain, but the order was probably founded in the 12th century on
Mount Carmel in the
Crusader States.
Berthold of Calabria, as well as
Albert of Vercelli, have traditionally been associated with the founding of the order, but few clear records of early Carmelite history have survived. The order of Carmelite nuns was formalised in 1452.
Spiritual origin The Carmelite Order is one of the few monastic orders, if not the only one, not to refer to a charismatic founder, but to a prophet of the
Old Testament:
Elijah and his disciple
Elisha are considered by the Carmelites as the spiritual fathers of the order. Tradition indicates the presence on
Mount Carmel of a series of
Jewish and then
Christian hermits who lived, prayed and taught in the caves used by Elijah and Elisha. This is how the first Christian hermits (at the origin of the founding of the order) settled in the caves of Mount Carmel to pray to God. The first chapel built within the hermitages and bringing together this community is dedicated to the
Virgin Mary. Very quickly, the spirituality of the order turned to Mary who became the queen and mistress of Carmel.
Hermit and monastic life on Mount Carmel Before the presence of the Carmelites, in the 6th century
Byzantine monks built a monastery dedicated to Saint Elijah in a valley a few kilometers south of the present monastery. This was destroyed in 614 by the Persians of
Khosrow II. Around 1150, a Greek monk from Calabria established a community of about ten members among the ruins of the ancient Byzantine monastery which he rebuilt and renamed Saint Elijah.
Foundation of the Order on Mount Carmel Tradition indicates that the order was founded in 1185, but that is based on the story of a pilgrim in the Holy Land, the interpretation of which remains questionable. The oldest (and most reliable) written accounts of the presence of Latin hermits on Mount Carmel date back to 1220 and another text from 1263 (See ). During the
Third Crusade, a group of hermits led by
Berthold of Calabria began to inhabit the caves of
Mount Carmel following the prophet
Elijah. This first monastery was located in the east–west facing valley located south of the current monastery, and east of the "Haifa Sde Yehoshua Cemetery". At the beginning of the 13th century, their leader was supposed to be
Brocard, although written evidence is lacking. In the Carmelite rule, reference is made only to "Brother B." (in the introductory sentence of the rule) who asked the patriarch for a rule of life for hermits. Tradition has established that it was Brocard, second prior general of the order, who asked the
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Albert of Vercelli, to provide the group of hermits with a written rule of life. This rule, dated 1209, is centered on prayer and defined the way of life of hermits. The first act of the Order of Brothers of The Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel was to dedicate a chapel to the Virgin Mary under the title of Mary, Star of the Sea (in Latin:
Stella Maris). Elisabeth Steinmann considers it probable that the hermits of Mount Carmel also settled in some cities of Palestine (
Acre, Israel,
Tyre,
Tripoli, Beaulieu in Lebanon), but after a few decades, these hermits began to leave the
Holy Land as a result of the insecurity linked to the Muslim reconquests which marked the end of the
Crusades. They then returned to Europe where they spread this new monastic order. The rule of St. Albert was not approved by a pope until 30 January 1226 in the bull
Ut vivendi normam of
Honorius III. In 1229 Pope
Gregory IX confirmed this rule again and gave it the status of
Regula bullata. At the end of the first crusade led by
Louis IX of France in the Holy Land in 1254 (the
Seventh Crusade), Louis brought six Carmelites back to France who joined with those who since 1238 had started to seek and found houses all over Europe. The fall of
Saint-Jean-d'Acre in 1291, and the fall of the Latin state of Outremer led to the destruction of the last Carmelite convents in the Holy Land. The Carmelites who had chosen to remain there were massacred by the
Mamelukes.
Jerg Ratgeb painted a fresco retracing the life of the Carmelites at the beginning of the 16th century, on the walls of the refectory of the Carmelite monastery in Frankfurt.
From hermits to friars Back in Europe, the hermits of Carmel encountered many difficulties. Their
eremitic life did not adapt well to their new settlements, they were scattered in different nations, and they found themselves in "competition" with other
mendicant orders.
Pope Innocent III wished to bring the mendicant orders all together under the direction of the
Order of Friars Minor and the
Order of Preachers. In 1215, the
Fourth Lateran Council decided to group the existing Mendicant orders under the two primary ones. In 1274 the
Second Council of Lyon disestablished all mendicant orders that were founded after 1215; only four remained: the
Franciscans, the
Order of Preachers, the Carmelites, and the
Augustinians. The Carmelites, barely spared, had to change their way of life from eremitic to mendicant. Gradually, during the 13th century, Carmelite hermits returning from
Mount Carmel resettled throughout Europe, e.g. in
Cyprus,
Sicily,
Italy,
England, and southern
France. Some dates and locations are known: • in 1235, Pierre de Corbie and his companion settled in the Duchy of Hainaut (Valenciennes) • in 1242, Carmelites settled in
Aylesford,
Kent,
England • in 1244, Carmelites disembarked in
Marseille,
France, and settled in caves in Aygalades • in 1259, Carmelites settled in
Paris,
France • in 1279, Carmelites settled in
Dublin,
Ireland However, the new settlements of the Carmelites in the European cities were very different from their eremitical life on
Mount Carmel. In addition, they faced hostility from the secular clergy and even from other mendicant orders, who saw them as competitors. According to tradition, the prior general of the Carmelites,
Simon Stock, worried about the very difficult situation of the order, which was still threatened with dissolution by the Catholic Church, intensely prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary to aid the order. In 1251,
Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared to him accompanied by a multitude of angels and holding in her hand the
Scapular of the Order. In his vision, Mary said Following this vision, and the spread of the Scapular, the Order of Carmel endured and spread rapidly. The historicity of these events is disputed because of the lack of contemporary written records for the period in question; the earliest extant written records are from approximately 150 years later), and some documents contradict this narrative. In the bull
Paganorum incursus of 27 July 1247, Pope
Innocent IV officially denominated the order the "Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel" and asked bishops to kindly accept them in their dioceses. However, the hostility of the secular clergy to the Carmelites was such that it prompted repetition of this recommendation on 4 October later that year. In 1247, the Carmelites asked Pope
Innocent IV to modify the
Rule of Saint Albert of 1209 to adapt it to their new way of life in cities. In this modification, the communal dimension of their life was clearly emphasized. Pope Innocent IV clarified and corrected some ambiguities and mitigated some severities of the original Rule, and on 1 October 1247 he established the text in the bull
Quae honorem conditoris omnium. Thereafter, e.g., the Carmelites no longer ate meals in their cells separately and instead ate in common in a
refectory. Thereafter Carmelites also preached and heard confessions in secular (ordinary) churches. The last great uncertainty for the survival of the order occurred in 1274. During the
sanota vacillationis session of 17 July 1274, the
Second Council of Lyon, presided by Pope
Gregory X, suppressed all the mendicant orders that lacked regular legal status (
incert mendicita). The Carmelites defended the anteriority of their foundation, i.e. their institution before 1215, and the pertinent decisions of the
Fourth Lateran Council, and emphasized their pontifical approvals. After many Carmelite interventions during this session, the Pope confirmed their anteriority. After the General Chapter of the Order of 1287 in
Montpellier,
France, the Carmelites replaced the white and brown striped, or barred, coat of their habit with a white cloak, because of which cloak they therefore colloquially were denominated "White Friars". The assimilation of the Carmelites as a mendicant order in 1326 by Pope
John XXII ended the final hindrances, and the Carmelites could then rightly perform their apostolic mission. Nonetheless, a conflict ensued between the Carmelites who desired an eremitic life and those who desired an apostolic life in cities, including preaching. Consequently, two kinds of Carmelite monastery developed, one in the heart of cities and another outside them. Carmelites began to study theology at universities.
Mitigation of the rule on
Mount Carmel,
Haifa The mitigation of the Rule came after the great epidemic of the
Black Death in the middle of the 14th century, which brought about a collapse of the European population accompanied by a decrease of members of monastic orders. During the chapter of Nantes, a majority of Carmelites asked to appeal to Pope
Eugene IV for a second mitigation of the Rule of 1209 of Saint Albert; the reform of 1247 was considered the first mitigation. The letter, dated 15 February 1432, indicated that Two Carmelites were sent to convey this request to the Pope. The Pope responded in 1435 with the bull
Romani Pontificis, dated 15 February 1432, the date of the petition. Addressed to the Prior General, Jean Faci, the bull granted the Carmelites permission to freely and lawfully stay and walk "in their churches, and in the cloisters of these and in the places adjoining them at the appropriate times", moreover, it granted the faculty to eat meat three days a week, except during Advent and Lent and on other days when this was prohibited by general law. Pope
Pius II completed this permission on 5 December 1469 by granting the Prior General the faculty of dispensing from fasting on days when abstinence was lifted. Pope
Sixtus IV granted greater freedom, commonly known as
Mare magnum, in the bull
Dum attendant meditatatione of 28 November 1476, which conceded many advantages to the mendicant orders. However, this mitigation of the Rule was somewhat resisted. Even before its promulgation, there was some protest against "a general relaxation" of the Rule.
Attempts of reforms The advantages of the new rule were sometimes frowned upon in certain monasteries which wished to return to the old rule of 1247. The convents of La Selve (near Florence),
Mantua and Géronde (Switzerland) thrived because of their tendency to observe the ancient observant rule. The Carmelites of Mantua obtained from Pope Eugene IV the bull
Fama laudabilis, in 1442, which allowed them to be a separate congregation, governed by a vicar general and only distantly subject to the prior general. While influential during the 15th century, the "Reform of Mantua" subsequently became of marginal influence. Finally, this mitigation introduced around 1465 was definitively incorporated into the regulation of the Order of the Great Carmelites in 1783 by Pope Pius VI.
John Soreth, a friar from the Carmelite Convent of Caen, who served as Prior General in the years 1451–1471, tried to convince his subjects to lead a more rigorous religious life by developing seeds already sown and promoting movements that already existed. His motto was "Return to the Rule of Saint Albert". In his early decrees he protested against privileges and exemptions, seen as a major cause of the decline of the order. The constitutions of the order dating from 1362 were revised and the text approved by the general chapter of Brussels in 1462. They insisted on The reform took hold in some of the convents, the "observant convents", and the "mixed convents". John Soreth hoped that his reform would gradually be imposed in all the houses of the order, but this attempt at reform remained largely unfulfilled since the prior general who followed him favored a return to a mitigation of the rule, and met with the approval of Popes Pius II and Sixtus IV. In 1523 Pope
Hadrian VI appointed Nicolas Audet as vicar general. The latter organized a centralization of the government of the different provinces while ensuring the training of the religious. In 1499, the Reform of Albi aimed at a return to a more strict observance and in 1513 was approved as a "Congregation of Observance". However, this reform was suppressed in 1584 by Pope
Gregory XIII In 1603, Henri Sylvius, Prior General of the Order, went to France at the request of the king
Henri IV of France, to undertake with Philippe Thibault the reform of the province of Touraine. Pierre Behourt, Louis Charpentier, Philippe Thibault and Jean de Saint-Samson were to be the initiators and architects of this reform of the Carmelites of the Old observance. Figures of note in the
Catholic Reformation, they were supported by
Charles Borromeo, cardinal and archbishop of
Milan. On 20 June 1604, at the provincial chapter of
Nantes, Henri Sylvius published the statutes of the reform, which intended to promote the interior life and return to the ancient tradition of the order, under the patronage of the Virgin Mary and
Saint Joseph. By the middle of the 17th century, most of the French provinces had adopted the reform, which had already won over the convents of Belgium (1624) and Germany. Its constitutions were definitively affirmed in 1635. In 1645, during the general chapter held in Rome, the provincial of Touraine, Léon de Saint-Jean, was appointed a member of a committee to further revise these constitutions with a view to having them adopted by all the reformed convents of the order.
Foundation of Carmelite Nuns From the Middle Ages, women close to the communities of Carmelite friars were drawn to their life of prayer. Thus, in the Low Countries some
beguinages adopted the Carmelite rule and thus formed communities in the second half of the 15th century. Prior General John Soreth worked to transform these beguinages into Carmelite women's convents. On 7 October 1452, Pope
Nicholas V promulgated the bull
Cum Nulla introducing the Carmelites in France. Under his protection,
Françoise d'Amboise (†1485), Duchess of Brittany, erected the first convent for Carmelite nuns in France. In 1463, a house was built in
Vannes to accommodate a first community and on 2 November 1463 nine nuns arrived there from
Liège and settled permanently. While the Vannes convent, such as
Les Trois Maries, was to suffer suppression in 1792, during the French Revolution, in the meantime convents of Carmelite nuns had spread rapidly, including many in Spain and Italy.
Foundation of the Third Order John Soreth played an extremely important role in the founding of the Third Order of the Carmelites. Pope Nicholas V supported this action in his bull
Cum Nulla, too. In France, there were many Carmelite fraternities of the Third Order before the Revolution. Many died during the
French Revolution, but a few evolved and organized themselves into a religious congregation of apostolic life. Currently the
Third Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel has a large number of fraternities in many countries. Following the return of the Carmelites of the Old observance to France in 1989, at the request of the laity, fraternities began to be formed. The first fraternity was established in the diocese of Toulon in 1992. A second was in Nantes in 2001.
Teresian reform (1515–1582) Reform in Spain began in earnest in the 1560s, with the work of
Teresa of Ávila, who, together with
John of the Cross, established the
Discalced Carmelites. Teresa's foundations were welcomed by
King Philip II of Spain, who was most anxious for all orders to be reformed according to the principles of the
Council of Trent (1545–1563). But she created practical problems at the grassroots level. The proliferation of new religious houses in towns that were already struggling to cope economically was an unwelcome prospect. Local townspeople resisted direction by the nobility and diocesan clergy. Teresa tried to make her monasteries as self-sufficient as was practicable, and accordingly restricted the number of nuns in each community. (1542–1591) The Discalced Carmelites also faced much opposition from unreformed Carmelite houses, as when Carmelites from Toledo arrested and imprisoned John of the Cross in their monastery. Only in the 1580s did the Discalced Carmelites gain official approval of their status. In 1593, the Discalced Carmelites had their own superior general styled praepositus general, the first such being Nicholas Doria. Due to the politics of foundation, the Discalced friars in Italy were canonically erected as a separate juridical entity. in
Ávila (Spain) was the first foundation of the
Discalced Carmelites After the rise of
Protestantism and the devastation of the
French Wars of Religion, a spirit of reform renewed 16th–17th century France, as well as the Carmelite Order in France. In the late 16th century, Pierre Behourt began an effort to restore the state of the Province of
Touraine, which was continued by the practical reforms of Philip Thibault. The Provincial Chapter of 1604 appointed Thibault the prior of the Convent in Rennes, and moved the Novitiate to Rennes, thereby ensuring that new members of the Province would be formed by the reform-minded friars. The Observance of Rennes advocated poverty, the interior life and regular observance as the antidote to the laxity and decadence into which religious life had fallen, in addition, incorporating currents of renewal from the Discalced Reform,
the French School, and the
Society of Jesus. Thibault is said to have wished to marry the spirit of the society with the Order of Carmelites as far as possible. One of the most renowned figures of the Reform was
John of St. Samson, a blind lay brother, highly regarded for his humility and exalted spiritual life. In 1612, Br. John was moved to the Convent at Rennes and, in addition to playing the organ, served as the instructor and spiritual director of the novices. Thus John of St. Samson became known as the "Soul of the Reform." Eventually, the Observance of Rennes spread to priories throughout France, Belgium, and Germany, and became known as the Touraine Reform, after the Province from which the movement originated. Carmelite nunneries were established in
New Spain (Mexico), the first founded in 1604 in
Puebla de los Angeles, New Spain's second largest city, followed by one in the capital
Mexico City 1616. In all, before Mexican independence in 1821, there were five Carmelite convents among 56 nunneries.
Papebroch controversy Daniel Papebroch was a member of the
Bollandists, a group of
Jesuit hagiographers who produced the
Acta Sanctorum, which took an analytical approach to the "Lives of the Saints". In his preliminary commentary on
Albert of Vercelli, who is credited with the Carmelite Rule, Papebroch said that the tradition universally received by the Carmelites, that the origin of the order dated back to the prophet Elias, as its founder, was insufficiently grounded. The Carmelites took exception to this. From 1681 to 1693 there appeared between twenty or thirty pamphlets castigating Papebroch and his work. The series culminated in the large quarto volume signed by Sebastian of St. Paul, provincial of the Flemish-Belgian province of the Carmelite Order, which made serious charges against Papebroch's orthodoxy. Learning that steps were being taken to obtain a condemnation from Rome of the
Acta Sanctorum, the Bollandists responded.
Conrad Janninck replied first with open letters to Sebastian of St. Paul. The two letters were printed in 1693, followed by a more extended defense of the "Acta", published by Janninck in 1695. Papebroch published his rebuttal in 1696, 1697, and 1698 in the three volumes of the "Responsio Danielis Papebrochii ad Exhibitionem Errorum". When Rome did not issue a condemnation the adversaries of Papebroch had recourse to the tribunal of the
Spanish Inquisition, which in November, 1695, issued a decree condemning the fourteen volumes of the
Acta Sanctorum published up to that time and branding it heretical. Janninck was sent to Rome not only to prevent the confirmation by Rome of the decree of the Spanish Inquisition, but also to secure the retraction of the decree. In December, 1697, he received the assurance that no censure would be passed against the volumes condemned in Spain. On 20 November 1698,
Pope Innocent XII issued a brief that ended the controversy by imposing silence on both parties. Whether it was judged prudent in Rome not to enter into conflict with the Spanish tribunal, or whether the latter prolonged the affair by passive resistance, the decree of condemnation made in 1695 was not revoked until 1715, the year following the death of Papebroch.
Modern history Leaders of the Carmelite Order meet from time to time in General Congregation. The most recent General Congregation took place in
Fátima, Portugal in September 2016. Since the 1430s, the Congregation of Mantua had continued to function in its little corner of Italy. It was only at the end of the 19th century that those following the reform of Tourraine (by this time known as the "strict observance") and the Mantuan Congregation were formally merged under one set of constitutions. The friars following Mantua conceded to Tourraine's Constitutions but insisted that the older form of the habit – namely their own – should be adopted. In a photograph of the period
Titus Brandsma is shown in the habit of Tourraine as a
novice; in all subsequent images he wears that of the newly styled ancient observance. The
French Revolution led to the suppression of the order, with the nuns dispersed into small groups who lived out of view in private houses. At the peak of the persecution, a Carmelite convent, now known as the
Martyrs of Compiègne, were executed by
guillotine. After the end of the disturbances, the wealthy heiress
Camille de Soyécourt who became later the Carmelite Thérèse-Camille de l'Enfant-Jésus did much to restore the Carmelite life in France. The Napoleonic secularisation at the beginning of the 19th century in Germany was a strong blow to the Carmelites. After Napoleon had occupied large parts of the Rhineland, almost all monasteries were dissolved after 1806; the 16 houses of the Lower German Province disappeared. By the last decades of the 19th century, there were approximately 200 Carmelite men throughout the world. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, new leadership and less political interference allowed a rebirth of the order. Existing provinces began re-founding provinces that had become defunct. The theological preparation of the Carmelites was strengthened, particularly with the foundation of St. Albert's College in
Rome. By 2001, the membership had increased to approximately 2,100 men in 25 provinces, 700 enclosed nuns in 70 monasteries, and 13 affiliated Congregations and Institutes. In addition, the Third Order of lay Carmelites count 25,000–30,000 members throughout the world. Provinces exist in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Chile, Croatia,
Hungary, Germany, India,
Indonesia, Ireland, Italy,
Malta, the Netherlands,
Poland, Singapore, Spain,
Portugal and the United States. Delegations directly under the Prior General exist in
Argentina, France, the
Czech Republic, the
Dominican Republic,
Lebanon, the
Philippines and Portugal. Carmelite Missions exist in
Bolivia,
Burkino Faso,
Cameroon,
Colombia, India,
Kenya,
Lithuania, Mexico,
Mozambique,
Peru,
Romania,
Tanzania,
Trinidad,
Venezuela and
Zimbabwe. Monasteries of
enclosed Carmelite nuns exist in Brazil, Canada, Croatia,
Denmark, the Dominican Republic,
Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia,
Iceland, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand (in
Christchurch since 1933),
Nicaragua,
Norway,
Peru, the Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Hermit communities of either men or women exist in Brazil, France, Indonesia, Lebanon, Italy and the United States. . The
Discalced Carmelite Order built the priory of Elijah (1911) at the site of Elijah's epic contest with the prophets of Ba'al (
1 Kings 18:20–40). The monastery is situated about 25 kilometers south of
Haifa on the eastern side of the Carmel, and stands on the foundations of a series of earlier monasteries. The site is held sacred by Christians,
Druze, Jews and Muslims; the name of the area is
el-Muhraqa, an
Arabic construction meaning "place of burning", and is a direct reference to the biblical account. Several Carmelite saints have received significant attention in the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1970, Teresa of Avila became the first woman to be named a
Doctor of the Church. In 1997,
Thérèse of Lisieux became one of only four female Doctors of the Church, so named because of her famous teaching on the "way of confidence and love" set forth in her best-selling memoir,
Story of a Soul. The
Martyrs of Compiègne, murdered during the French Revolution, inspired a 1931 novella followed by a play, an
opera, and a
film. Notable 20th century Carmelites include
Titus Brandsma, a Dutch scholar and writer who was killed in
Dachau concentration camp because of his stance against
Nazism; Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (née
Edith Stein), a Jewish convert to Catholicism who was imprisoned and murdered at
Auschwitz; and
three nuns of Guadalajara who were martyred on 24 July 1936 by Spanish Republicans.
Raphael Kalinowski (1835–1907) was the first friar to be canonized in the order since co-founder
John of the Cross. The writings and teachings of
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a Carmelite friar of the 17th century, continue as a spiritual classic under the title
The Practice of the Presence of God. Other non-religious (
i.e., non-vowed monastic) great figures include
George Preca, a Maltese priest and Carmelite Tertiary. The Feast of All Carmelite Saints and Blesseds is celebrated on 14 November. ==Carmelite spirituality==