Charism, Origin and Early History

The charism, or spiritual focus, of the Carmelite Order is contemplative prayer. The Order is under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and thus has a strong Marian devotion. As in most of the orders dating to medieval times, the First Order is the friars (who are active/contemplative), the Second Order is the nuns (who are cloistered), and the Third Order consists of laypeople who continue to live in the world, and can be married, but participate in the charism of the order by liturgical prayers, apostolates (ministries), and contemplative prayer. There are also offshoots such as active Carmelite sisters.

Carmelite tradition traces the origin of the Order to a community of hermits on Mount Carmel that succeeded the schools of the prophets in ancient Israel, although there are no certain records of monks on this mountain before the ninth decade of the twelfth century. A group of men gathered at the Well of Elijah on Mt Carmel. These men, who had gone to Palestine from Europe, either as pilgrims or as a crusaders, chose Mount Carmel in part because it was the traditional home of Elijah. It was but natural that this community of Eastern hermits in the Holy Land should gain constant accessions from pilgrims, and between 1206 and 1214 they received a rule from the patriarch and Papal Legate Albert of Jerusalem.

The original Carmelite Rule of St. Albert addresses a Prior whose name is only listed as “B.” When pressed the Brothers would point to both Elijah and the Blessed Virgin as founders or early models of the community. Later, under pressure from European Mendicant orders, the name “Bertold” and details of his life were either invented or remembered.

This consisted of sixteen articles, which enjoined strict obedience to their prior, residence in individual cells, constancy in prayer, the hearing of Mass every morning in the oratory of the community, poverty and toil, daily silence from vespers until terce the next morning, abstinence from all forms of meat, except in cases of severe illness, and fasting from Holy Cross Day (September 14) to Easter of the following year.

This rule received the approval of Pope Honorius III in 1226. With the increasing cleavage between the West and the East, however, the Carmelites found it advisable to leave their original home, and in 1238 they settled in Cyprus and Sicily.

In 1240 they were in Aylesford, Kent, England, and four years later in southern France, while by 1245 they were so numerous that they were able to hold their first general chapter at Aylesford, where Simon Stock, then eighty years of age, was chosen General. During his rule of twenty years the order prospered, especially by the establishment of a monastery at Paris by Saint Louis in 1259.

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