About
History: The Carmelite Order comes into recorded history around 1207 with the approval of its Rule by Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem. They were originally a community of hermits on Mount Carmel in Palestine. Because of danger from the Saracens (the last group on Mount Carmel were all martyred), they had to move back to Europe, where they adopted a lifestyle more like the Franciscans, combining contemplative prayer life with a ministry of preaching and hearing confessions.
- Women were admitted to the Order beginning around 1450. They professed the same Rule, but lived it in a purely contemplative way.
St. Teresa of Avila was inspired to found a reformed monastery of Carmelite Nuns in Spain in 1562. That was the beginning of what became the “Discalced Carmelites,” both Friars and Nuns.
Today both branches of the Order coexist aimiably: The friars and nuns “of the Ancient Observance,” and the “Discalced” or “Teresian” Carmelites.