Carmelite
, one of the four great
mendicant
orders (those orders whose
corporate
as well as personal poverty made it necessary for them to beg for alms) of the
Roman Catholic Church
, dating to the
Middle Ages
. The origin of the order can be traced to
Mount Carmel
in northwestern Israel, where a number of devout men, apparently former pilgrims and Crusaders, established themselves near the traditional fountain of
Elijah
about 1155. Their rule was written between 1206 and 1214 by
St. Albert, Latin
patriarch
of Jerusalem, and approved in 1226 by Pope
Honorius III
. The monks hoped to continue on Mount Carmel the way of life of the prophet Elijah, whom early Christian writers depicted as the founder of
monasticism
.
The early Carmelites were
hermits
: they lived in separate cells or huts and observed vows of silence, seclusion, abstinence, and austerity. Soon, however, the losses of the Crusading armies in Palestine made Mount Carmel unsafe for the Western hermits, and around 1240 they set out for
Cyprus
,
Sicily
,
France
, and
England
. The first general chapter (legislative meeting) of the Carmelites was held in England in 1247 under St.
Simon Stock, and the order was adapted to the conditions of the Western lands to which it had been transplanted: the order transformed itself from one of hermits into one of mendicant friars. In this form the Carmelites established themselves throughout western
Europe
, becoming popular as an order closely
analogous
to the
Dominicans
and
Franciscans
. The first institution of Carmelite nuns was founded in 1452.
Of all the movements in the Carmelite order, by far the most important and far-reaching in its results was the reform initiated by
St. Teresa of Avila
. After nearly 30 years in a Carmelite convent, she founded in 1562 a small convent in
Avila
wherein a stricter way of life was to be observed. Teresa’s order became the order of
Discalced Carmelite Nuns (O.D.C.). In spite of opposition and difficulties of many kinds, St. Teresa succeeded in establishing not only convents but also, with the cooperation of Juan de Yepes (later
St. John of the Cross
), a number of friaries that followed this stricter observance. The aim of the reform was to restore and
emphasize
the austerity and contemplative character of primitive Carmelite life. Because Reformed Carmelites wore sandals in place of shoes and stockings, they came to be called the
Discalced
, or barefooted, Carmelites, to distinguish them from the older branch of the order. In 1580 the reformed monasteries were made a separate province under the prior general of the order, and in 1593 this province became by papal act an independent order.
Both orders suffered severely from the
French Revolution
and from suppression by both
Napoleon
and the liberal governments of the 19th century, but they have since been restored in most countries of western Europe and in the
Middle East
,
Latin America
, and the
United States
. The original order (Order of the Brothers of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
of
Mount
Carmel;
White Friars; O.Carm.) is engaged primarily in preaching and teaching. The Discalced Carmelite Fathers (Order of Discalced Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel; O.C.D.) is active in parishes and in foreign
missions
, having become primarily a pastoral and devotional order. Both branches have been important promoters of Marian devotion. Besides the cloistered nuns, in recent times, numerous congregations of active sisterhoods, Third Order Carmelites, have been formed, devoted to teaching, care of the sick, and other charitable works.