A letter to Carmelite Friars, Contemplative Sisters, Sisters and Brothers of Congregations of Apostolic Life, Members of the Carmelite Third Order, Lay Carmelites in general and all who celebrate the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel with special devotion:

Mary kept all these things in her heart. Lk 2,52

Dear sisters and brothers in Carmel,

On this day of celebration, as we rejoice in being brothers and sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, I reach out to each one of you, in the bond of love.  These days we are thinking a lot, pondering like Mary, everything that is happening in our world. Mary kept all these things in her heart (Lk 2,19) and pondering what was happening in her world, she found the will of God. Mary the contemplative, Mary full of grace, full of God, full of Gospel: That is the type of person who can respond to what is happening in today’s world.

In our time of confinement, it is possible that we as people with a sense of God, capable of pondering, found in these new conditions new opportunities for solidarity and for the evangelization of the world. Here there are new manifestations of God’s will, helping us to grow and mature as custodians of our world and one another.

We have grown together in our communities. Forced to remain indoors, by pondering alone or with others, we have discovered so much of the truths of our faith and of our Carmelite vocation. While some of us had the Eucharist all the time, others had to rely on the internet and use the prayers for spiritual communion. This raised questions about how we value the Eucharist. For people who normally celebrate the Eucharist everyday, it was difficult to adapt to its absence. For people who were faithful to the Sunday Eucharist, it was something very new to be told that they are not to go to Mass. When we return to the normal celebration of the Eucharist, it may be that we will do it with greater conviction and understanding, on account of what became a Eucharistic fast.

We have lived with restrictions and with some fear now for many months. Families are grieving. Hospitals are still taking care of victims of the virus. Doctors, nurses and the whole medical profession and staff have shown all their dedication, professionalism and zeal, beyond the call of duty.  People have made sacrifices to make sure there was bread on our tables, and as everywhere people are counting the toll that the virus has taken on their lives through bereavement, illness, loss of employment and livelihood, we might say that we are seeing an explosion of humanity.

If it was all behind us, we could take a different view. However, now that we are learning to co-habit with the virus, and we try not to give in to the fear that there is more to come, we all have to ask, how are we to take care of one another, how are we to act in the future, to limit the negative effects of this virus, and a create a society in which we are not bound by fear, and no one is left in need?  It may well be simply a question of caring and sharing.

I am on fire with zeal for the Lord (I Kg 19,10)

Generating, caring and protecting are among the charisms that we see in Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother.  As I think about the various Carmelite communities of both men and women around the world, I am struck by how important this feast is to us all. In some places it is just the day itself; in some places it is three days of reflection and prayer and in other places it is the full nine days of the novena. The celebrations are imbued with warmth and devotion, and with conviction that makes us think that perhaps this is a moment when we as Carmelites are most zealous.

The world of today is asking us to be zealous. Down through the centuries, Carmelites have echoed and repeated the words of the Prophet Elijah, “I am on fire with zeal for the Lord God of hosts”.(I Kg 19)  Our celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel may be a very good time for us to renew, revive and direct our zeal. Four days later, we will have another opportunity, when we celebrate the feast of the Prophet himself. 

Zeal is a gift. As such we must pray for it. We must ask God to give us zeal, to make us who we say we are. But, zeal is not always an attractive word. It sometimes suggests extremism.  We do not automatically feel that we want this gift. I recall the zeal of John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness, living on locusts and wild honey (Mk 1,7) and I compare that to the calm of Jesus speaking to the people in the Synagogue. (Lk 4,21-22)   I think of the Gospel, where we see Christ on the Cross, Mary and John standing by. These are all moments of zeal, if by zeal we mean a heart burning with desire for all that is good and a spirit that will work hard and make sacrifices to achieve it. The globalization of zeal for the things of God might be the antidote to the globalization of indifference that Pope Francis so often talks about.

And no one was left in need. Acts 2,45

As we become aware of one another’s needs, we are entering a new age of sharing. Within our family, we are aware that many communities have lost some of their sources of income. Among lay Carmelites there are those who have lost their jobs, and whose homes may be threatened. New projects in our family will always need funding. In the face of the needs that are emerging, we have to look again at the model of the early Christian community, an image and reality that inspired the Carmelite Rule. That community was built on prayer, the pondering of the Scriptures, the breaking of bread, and the sharing of all that people possessed so that no one was left in need. (Acts 2,42-45) As we become aware of one another’s needs, we can help one another and be an example to others of the kind of sharing that will be needed in our society in the future, if no one is to be left in need. The dialogue in John’s Gospel (Jn 6,9-10) comes to mind: Andrew said, “There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish, but what is that between so many? In the end no one was left in need. In our zeal for the things of the Gospel, we will take up the challenge of Mary at the wedding feast of Cana, “Do whatever he tells you to do”. (Jn 2,5)

This year’s celebration will be different to that of other years. As a family, we have been spared in many ways, but we do not forget those who have died in the Netherlands and in Italy. Let our celebration this year be marked by our prayer for the individuals, families and communities who suffered the worst effects of the Coronavirus.

On this feast may each one hear again the words from the cross, “Behold you son”, “Behold you mother”, (Jn 19,26-27)   and know that as our Saviour gave us to one another and to Mary, we may know how to take care of one another in the common home that is blessed by the presence of Mary our Mother and Sister.

Míceál O’Neill
Prior General

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The Carmelite General Curia is the administrative center of the Order of Carmelites and is located in Rome, Italy. The Curia Community is an international group with members representing the various areas around the world. While the Prior General and the members of the General Council are the principal leaders of the Order, they are assisted on a daily basis by other Carmelites as well as lay women and men serving the Order.

Accompanying the call to return to the roots of the Order has been a renewed interest in both the spirituality and the history of the Order. Institutes and libraries have continued to spring up around the world, especially in new areas where the Order is serving. There has been serious attempt to use the new forms of communication and social media for evangelization as well as contact between the far-flung ministries and communities of the Order.

There is much attention to the various branches and manifestations of Carmel as a family— drawing support from one other in our ministries and communities. In the last 50 years, a number of new foundations have been made outside the established bounds of the provinces. Most provinces not have responsibility for at least one such area. Many have two areas of responsibility. But the Order has seen growth in Africa, South and Central America, and Asia-Oceania while the Carmelite presence in Europe and. In two of three countries in North America.

Some of the already established congregations and institutes expanded to new lands in order to New congregations and institutes of active religious sisters sprung up around the Order. They provided ministries which greatly serve the pastoral needs of the people—education, medical needs, and religious preparation. While some enclosed monasteries have been closed, others have come into being as Carmel continues to develop in various parts of the world.

Today the Order is divided up into geographical areas called Provinces, General Commissariats or General Delegations. Provinces may be divided for the sake of administration into provincial commissariats. Each is headed by the prior (a prior provincial or commissary provincial) or a general delegate (one nominated by the General Curia and approved by the Prior General). Each functions semi-autonomously except for specific provisions reserved the prior general.

It is common for the major part of the ministry in a province to involve parishes which provide the day to day sacramental ministry to the people. However, these remain the remain the responsibility of the local bishop. Carmel provides many other ministries, both sponsored by the Order or its provinces as well as by individual members with particular interest and talents in certain areas. Most provinces sponsor retreat centers or spiritual centers which offer a variety of programs for the purpose of spiritual development and personal restoration. As Carmelites we also realize our responsibility to promote a just world for all. Most ministries throughout the Order have extensive programs (formal and informal) to facilitate this. The Order is also involved in a variety of non-governmental organizations, the Carmelite NGO, for example, which is affiliated with the United Nations Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Karith is the NGO of the Carmelite Provinces of the Iberian Peninsula.   

The Order sponsors for 39 education institutions. These are colegios (primary and secondary) or secondary schools (ages 13-18) with some administered by individual provinces, some in relation with a congregation of religious sisters, and some in agreement with the governments. In addition, there are a number of Institutes which are oriented towards adult education or faith development; some are affiliated with universities and other offer their programs independently.

On December 31, 2016 (the last date figures are available) there were 1,978 male members of the Order in 47 countries, 802 enclosed nuns in 78 monasteries, and an estimated 9,200 Lay Carmelites. There were also six communities of hermits in the Order with a total of 14 members. There were 2,371 religious sisters and brothers of 17 other congregations and institutes affiliated to the Order.

Carmel Under Absolutism

In the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment ushered in the de-Christianization of Europe. Monarchism, deeply imbued with Illuminism and often only vaguely Christian, sought to nationalize the Church and complete its subjection to the State. The religious orders, reduced in numbers, discredited by the intelligentsia, and for the most part intellectually and spiritually stagnant were in no condition to meet the onslaught of secular reformers and abolitionists. The orders became subject to various forms of interference by Catholic rulers. France set the tone with a series of royal decrees. It saw the membership in religious orders drop from 22,499 to 14,868 in less than 25 years. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II saw religion as a blight on society. In 1781 he suppressed all religious establishments not dedicated to teaching, care of the sick, or scholarship—eliminating the Bohemia-Hungary-Austria province and it 202 members. The Bavarian rulers promulgated a series of laws including the prohibition of questing, setting the age for profession, and that three houses in Bavaria necessitated the establishment of an independent Bavarian province. Travel to General Chapters was banned as was receiving commands from superiors outside the kingdom. Belgium fell under the benevolent absolutism of the Hapsburgs declaring in November 1781 that Belgian religious were independent of foreign superiors. A year later, in 1782, recruiting to religious life was suspended. Less than five months after that, “useless” convents, especially of the contemplatives, were suppressed. In the First Partition of Poland, a number of Carmelite houses fells under Austrian rule. In 1792, half of these were suppressed. Carmelite Mark Jandowicz became an ardent supporter of the movement to drive the Russians from Poland, circulating among the troops and encouraging them with his fiery words and prayers. Northern Italy too came under tighter control. Royal consent was required to erect a church or priory. An annual tabella, listing the names of the members of each house together with its incomes and debts had to be submitted. The year 1769 saw the closure of grancie and hospices, and the suppression of small houses. Other houses were lost when religious houses outside the territories were cut off. The once flourishing Lombardy province, extending over the whole of northern Italy, perished. Venice, never very submissive to the Church, placed religious under the jurisdiction of the bishops (1768), required that religious travel in pairs and set a curfew of 11PM, and suppressed all houses with less than twelve members (1770). The Grand Duchy of Tuscany required religious superiors to send full information regarding taxes sent to Rome (a practice eventually forbidden), incomes of each house, houses incapable of maintaining more than five members, the number of religious who are Tuscan and the number of foreigners, all legacies and doweries. In 1787, the reception of novices was forbidden, and current novices were to be dismissed without profession. The Bourbons, through their regent in Southern Italy, adopted many of the same practices. Small convents were suppressed (1768). Many provinces are only found in history books now.

The French Revolution

The Church, which constituted the influential First Estate of the France, was swept away, along with the monarchy to which is was inseparably bound. The aristocratic hierarchy and French theologians had made every effort to divorce the Gallican Church from Rome and strengthen its ties to the crown. Bishop Talleyrand of Autun proposed the nationalization of Church property (including that of the religious orders) and the support of the clergy by the state. The action, decreed in 1789, eliminated the social function of the Church in France. Because the Enlightenment saw no purpose to religion other than its social service, the Church became excess baggage. The Assembly declared all vows abolished and a state pension offered. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) required an oath of the clergy— of which half the clergy but only seven of 160 bishops complied. The Legislative Assembly and the National Convention (1791-1795), replacing the Assembly, held non-juring clergy suspect and liable for expulsion from the commune upon testimony of twenty “active” citizens. Later only six citizens were necessary for conviction. The Reign of Terror resulted in thousands being brought to the guillotine or other means for adjudication. Priests and religious were not overlooked. An estimated 2,000-5,000 priests were killed. Another 20,000 priests and 46 of the 85 constitutional bishops publicly apostasized. Between 30,000 to 40,000 non-juring priests, a tenth of them religious, managed to escape to England, Spain, and the Papal States. In 1795, the National Convention decreed the separation of Church and State. The latter recognized no religion and forbade its external signs but guaranteed its free exercise. The final blow came in September 1797 when three members of the Directory staged a coup and took power. Thousands of priests were deported or imprisoned. Carmel suffered through each step of the revolution. The members took their options: in Lyon two members elected to remain, three said they would stay if there were no changes in their way of life, one would only answer after he knew where he would be assigned, and seven chose to leave and receive the pension. More unusual was the example of the priory at Bordeaux: twenty-four members, all but one, chose the religious state and refused the State’s “liberty.” Some of the most enthusiastic apostles of the Revolution were former religious, and an occasional Carmelite. After the suppression of the religious orders, Carmelite convents, churches, and their contents were sold at public auction. Most of the churches were torn down for their building material or to make way for new edifices, thoroughfares, or squares. Priories were sometimes converted into public buildings or private dwellings. Some artifacts survive in museums and private collections. Thirty-four members of the Order are known to have suffered death or imprisonment. Martinien Pannetier, of Bordeaux, with the assistance of the youngest member of the community, took to rescue the relics of St. Simon Stock from the now abandoned church. Eventually he was guillotined as were Carmelites Michael Barrot and John Baptist Bedouin. A decree of August 1792, specified that non-juring priests should be deported to French Guiana. But the war with England prevented the French ships from sailing so the prisoners were confined to ships off the coast of Brittany. Rochefort, at the mouth of the Charente, became the prison for deportees from the north and east of France. Among the Carmelites at this hellhole was Blessed James Retouret from the Carmelite house in Limoges. At least four others shared these tortures and are buried on the Island of Aix or Madame Island. Other Carmelites were deported from Bordeaux. Ships that held 50 slaves now held 250-350 priests. Two hundred and fifty priests had already died before boarding the ships. Statistics on the clergy who escaped from France are fragmentary; those concerning the Carmelites are nonexistent. 

Carmel Under Napoleon

In 1803 a general secularization took place. The extinction of what was left of the Order in Germany was completed. Only Straubing, the Aussterbekloster where the German Carmelites were allowed to go to die, managed to survive although Neustadt, the other Aussterbekloster, survived until 1848. The second and third partitions of Poland (1792, 1795) and the brief hegemony of Napolean entailed few if any losses for the Order in Eastern Europe. The Carmelite house in the Catholic Sovereignty of Boxmeer remained open until 1812 when it was dissolved. After Napolean’s defeat, the community returned only to find later that the dissolution would remain in effect but only after the deaths of the community members. Napolean overran the northern part of Italy. After he became emperor, the general law of June 2, 1810, suppressed religious orders throughout the Italy he controlled. This spelled the end of the Order in northern Italy. All the houses of the Piedmont province were suppressed. The Republic of Genoa was annexed to France. The six houses of the Province of Venice and the nine of the Province of Tuscany ceased to be. Only half of the Carmelite houses in the Papal States survived Napolean. Some church buildings continued to exist although not always used for worship. Having survived the Bourbons, the Carmelites of the Kingdom of Naples did not fare as well under Napoleon (1806-1815). The Carmine Maggiore in Naples survived and when religious orders were restored under the Bourbons in 1820, the Carmelites returned but in much reduced numbers. Nothing is now known about the 83 houses in the provinces of the Kingdom of Naples. The Carmels of Sicily remained intact because of British protection. Although the two foundations in Malta were separated from the Sicilian Province of San Angelo, they continued without difficulties. This was something they actually wanted to happen. The French occupation of Italy had the same deleterious effect on the nunneries. Few of the thirty-odd foundations on the Italian peninsula saw the second decade of the 19th century. The Order in Spain was caught in country’s struggle between monarchism and republicanism. Political change was seen as only possible after the destruction of the religious orders. Two houses were actually the focus of fighting— Zaragoza and Toledo. In comparison to the members of the Order in other countries, the Spanish Carmelites were most persistent in their vocation. Each community remained intact because each time the friars chose to return to their ruined homes and resume their lives as religious. In 1835, thirty-three Carmelite houses were suppressed, leaving 227 homeless. The closures were often accompanied by scenes of mob violence, the murder of religious, and the destruction of historic buildings and works of art. In March 1836, the Order in Spain was suppressed except those teaching or nursing. The law suppressed all monasteries of cloistered nuns with less than 20 members. No novices were to be accepted and the nuns’ property was sequestered, removing their means of support. Likewise, the Order in Portugal and Brazil was suppressed. King Peter IV, in 1834, abolished all religious orders, confiscated their properties and pensioned off the religious. The Portuguese nuns were allowed to stay but not to accept novices. When the French invaded Portugal in 1807, the king fled to Brazil and the religious there found themselves now constricted to live under many of the same rules Europe had endured. The third quarter of the nineteenth century saw the dissolution of what little was left of the Carmelites in Italy after Napoleon finished with them. In Sicily and the Papal States, the last considerable concentration of Carmelites was disbanded, the central administration was disrupted, and the Order teetered on the brink of extinction. Angelo Savini, the vicar general at this time (1863-1889), was blessed with qualities suited to the times: tenacious endurance and alertness to emerging opportunities. Three years after accepting his ministry, the Order was suppressed in Italy. Traspontina was taken away. The Risorgimento united the various political realities of the Italian peninsula but left the Church in pieces. Savini supported efforts to restore or implant the Order in other countries that allowed, no matter how grudgingly, the necessary freedom.

The year 1876 is the low tide in the Order’s fortunes since its initiation. The last of the suppressions had taken place but the revival had not yet definitely set in. The world contained 58 Carmelite houses, not including the eight houses in North America. The nuns had lost two centuries of growth. Forty monasteries remained.

The Resurgence of Carmel

Outside Italy, however, the Order slowly began to come back to life, even with stirrings on the lands beyond the seas. The Concordat of 1851 of Spain with the Holy See opened the door to the re-establishment of religious orders. John Torrents and Joseph Barcons share credit for Spain’s revival. Jérez de la Frontera was the first house and church to come back. Carmen of Onda (1879) and Caudete (1888) were next. In January 1890, the prior general Aloysius Galli established the Spanish province of the Most Holy Name of Mary. Carmel north of the Alps boasted the Polish Provinces. Straubing, the oldest house in the Order, did its part for new growth by sending two Carmelites to the work with German immigrants in Kentucky. By 1890, a very desperate group of Carmelites, working in several locations in the United States and Canada, were united into the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. The Province of Ireland, made strong progress towards revival and even supplied young men to other emerging foundations. One of its most illustrious sons, John Spratt, worked to found the Dublin Carmel on Whitefriar Street with new church and a long list of philanthropic works undertaken on behalf of the desperately impoverished Catholics of Dublin. A project dear to the heart of the vicar general Savini was the recovery and restoration of the hermitage near the fountain of Elijah on Mount Carmel. The Province of Ireland also undertook to establish its own province in the USA among the Irish emigrants of New York City. Arriving in 1889, the Carmelites were offered a slice of St. Stephen’s parish with the care of Bellevue Hospital. Before the turn of the century, a second foundation was made in Tarrytown, New York. In 1881, the Carmelites settled in Gawler, Australia to minister at a parish that covered 700 miles and included 10 towns. By the departure of the 19th century, the Order was reviving in Brazil as well—this time with an assist from the Spanish province. The number of men had diminished and they had gotten old.  

Spiritual Writings of Carmel

The trials of the 1800 almost dealt a fatal blow to the Order. However, the Order was still blessed with a few souls who were determined to live their vocation to religious life but had to skill to teach others about the life. A member of the Aragon province, Roque Alberto Faci, wrote over fifty books. One, reprinted in 1979, described thousands of images, crucifixes, and relics venerated in the cities and towns of Aragon and often no longer existent. He added three titles to the literature on Teresa of Avila. The provincial of the San Angelus province in Sicily published two “manuals”— one for the Carmelite novice and a second for Carmelite priors. Even the prior general, Joseph Cataldi, published. His four-volume collection of his works comes with the apology for unsighted sources since he wrote the book in two months while in a place with the source material was not available. Thomas Chais’ work on the scapular went through three editions, indicating that scapular devotion was still alive and well. Perhaps the most notable Carmelite contribution to spiritual literature of these years was the translation into German of the works of St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila by Gallus Schwab of the Bamberg monastery pre-suppression.

Carmel and Vatican II

Often described as the most significant religious event of the 20th century, the Second Vatican Council was opened by Pope John XXIII in 1962 after several years of preparation. Catalonian Carmelite Bartolomew Xiberta was appointed in 1960 to be a member of the Preparatory Theological Commission of the Second Vatican Council. In 1962, he was appointed advisor to the Spanish Episcopate for the Council. He was well-respected as a theologian and philosopher and has been described as “probably one of the outstanding theologians of the last century and no doubt the outstanding Carmelite theologian.” His doctoral dissertation is widely recognized as breaking new ground in the Church’s understanding of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Xiberta established that the sacrament in the early Church was social and communal in character and oriented toward the reconciliation of the penitent with both the Church and God. Also participating in the Council were the prior general Kilian Healy and seven Carmelite bishops from various parts of the world. Without a doubt the most important intervention by the Carmelites was from Bishop Donal Lamont, the bishop of then Umtali, Rhodesia which is now the Diocese of Mutare in Zimbabwe. When the question of Ad Gentes, the document on missionary life came up, he took an active part and spoke eloquently about the importance of it. When the first draft of the document came out however, he gave voice to the thoughts of many other bishops, complaining that what was presented was very inadequate— that it was like bones without any flesh (referencing the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones). The document underwent a major rewrite as a result. A number of other theologians and experts accompanied the Council members as consultants and technical helpers. One of the most significant impacts from the Council on religious life was the call for religious institutes to return to their roots. The Carmelite Family as a whole gained much from the deep introspection of returning to a study of St. Albert’s Rule and what is calling us to.

By the year 1600, Carmel began its own reformation in response to the decisions of the Council of Trent. Henry Silvio, prior general from 1598 until his death, was a primary mover through formal visitations to each of the provinces. The so-called Reform of Touraine continues to have tremendous influence the Order today. The Province of Touraine, spurred by the Carmelites in the house in Rennes, was completed associated with the reform by 1633. Focused on the Carmelite spiritual values, Touraine’s statutes dealt with the interior life of the individual friar and the community. John of St. Samson, blind from age 3, had significant impact on scores of novices in Rennes.

The Stricter Observance

The Stricter Observance, beginning in 1645, is often assumed into the Touraine Reform; however, it should be considered separate since its reforms tended to be on a province by province basis. While it was intended that all reformed houses of the Order would conform to the constitutions of the Stricter Observance, the legislation found less favor south of the Alps and the Pyrenees. Italy and Spain tended to possess a more traditional spirituality. The urge for renewal was not so strongly felt. The Reform also felt victim to political differences and Italian and Spanish members of the Order were not about to be told by the northern Europeans, especially the French, how to live their lives. However, through the Stricter Observance especially, the Carmelites participated in the fervor of the Catholic Reformation at every level. The Order was led back to the source of its being and made consciously aware of its vocation to prayer. It produced significant spiritual literature, a record of the Order which continued to evolve toward its present form. The Marian element of Carmelite spirituality was stressed, especially through the scapular confraternity. The apostolate became interiorized and charged with new zeal. The Order also prospered materially— its houses and churches were embellished or rebuilt in the new style of the time.

Expansion into Eastern Europe

The Province of Poland, following the Reformation, split the reformed houses off into their own province in 1728. The houses of Lithuania then split from the provinces of Russia and Lesser Poland (the unreformed houses). The growth was such that the General Chapter of 1750 elected a special assistant general for the area.

Regrouping of the Order in Europe

At the beginning of the 17th century, Italy counted eleven provinces. Five houses in Italy were under the immediate jurisdiction of the prior general. Blessed Angelo Paoli (1642-1720), recognized by the Church for his prayer and care for the poor, was from the Tuscan Province but spent his life in San Martino ai Monte, one of these houses in Rome. The Carmine Maggiore in Naples, founded prior to 1268, developed a system of grancie (farms), each with its own prior and community, to provide the prior general with bread, grain, and wine. Pope Clement VIII, in 1599, restricted novitiates and professed houses to reformed communities. This dramatically reduced the number of Carmelites in Italy. Subsequently, Innocent X in 1652, suppressed all small houses. The Congregation for the Religious State declared non-existent 212 Carmelite houses, almost half of the houses of the Order in Italy. Twenty suppressed houses were restored after protests were made.

The prior general Henry Silvio began a visitation of Mantuan Congregation in 1599 and found the reform had significantly lost its fervor. He became busy about planting the seed of what would become the Reform of Monte Santo.

Theological Studies and Ecclesial Sciences

After the Reformation, the task of rationalizing the faith fell to scholastic theology. Positive theology sought the sources of doctrine in the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church. Various other aspects of theology assumed autonomous existence and methodologies: exegesis, patrology, spiritual theology, homiletics, liturgy, and church history. This period became the richest in philosophers and theologians of the Order since the Middle Ages. When moral theology became a separate discipline, the Order opened special studia (houses of studies) to teach this discipline for those preparing for pastoral work. Several Carmelites worked in canon law, producing written works. One, John Baptist Lezana, produced Summa quaestionum regularium, the fruit of many year as a teacher and a consultor for the Roman Congregations, which remained an honored work of consultation down to recent times. The Carmelites were not known for their studies in scripture or patristics. In 1610, Pope Paul V prescribed Hebrew, Greek, and Latin in all studia of religious orders. In more important houses of student, Aramaic was to be taught. After 1622, Chaldaic and Ilyric were added to the list for the principal studia. Following the rise of Protestantism the defense of orthodoxy (apologetics) was made into a separate theological science.

Spiritual Literature of Carmel

By the 17th century, the focus of the Catholic renaissance had shifted from Spain to France, the locus for the most significant spiritual literature the Order produced. Brother John of St. Samson, one of the greatest mystics produced by the Order, created a rich treasure of writings. His spirituality was summarized as passionate attachment to Christ and his cross, burning expressions of love of the mystical spouse, overflowing joy in the profound deaths he experienced at sharing the beatitude and glory of the objects in which he is consumed. However, many others contributed in the various provinces, especially those of France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

Marian Doctrine and Devotion

By its nature, the Carmelite Order is not only contemplative but also Marian. During this period of renewal, the Marian tradition of the Order was reaffirmed and strengthened. Mariology became a separate discipline. The Carmelites produced no general works of Mariology, though many wrote treatises on the Immaculate Conception and incidentally treated other Marian themes in their theological writings: Mary’s predestination, virginity, marriage with St. Joseph, meriting of the Incarnation and divine maternity, divine maternity itself, and cult of hyperdulia. Devotional books and sermons often treated co-redemption and the spiritual maternity of Mary, but these mysteries were hardly treated in scientific works. On the Iberian Peninsula the practice of a fourth vow to espouse the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was common. The devotion of Carmel to Mary as Virgin refers to her relationship to God. In her relation to the human race, Carmelites continued to honor Mary as their patroness as they had from the earliest times. Confraternities developed both within Carmelite parochial ministries as well as outside, although these tended to be regarded with suspicion. These devotional groups spread to every corner of Christendom and continue to this day. The General Chapter in 1609 unanimously decreed that the Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin would be the Order’s principal feast. In the 18th century, Benedict XIII extended the feast of July 16th to the entire Church, acknowledging the diffusion the cult of Mary had already achieved. Marian shrines, with various representations of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, became common throughout the Order

The Brown Scapular

Carmelite Marian writings in this period are practically identical with writings about the scapular. Over 100 different titles can be found in the 17th and 18th century. A special genre was the confraternity handbook or manual, featuring a brief history of the Order, miracles of Our Lady, prayers, privileges, and indulgences of the confraternity and the Third Order. In 1642 John Launoy challenged the historicity of the scapular vision and the Sabbatine bull. His criticism of Carmelite traditions was only one of a series of attacks on the pretensions of religious orders. More general reservations about the scapular devotion, beyond Launoy, were doctrinal as well as historical. As a result, the controversaries forced the Carmelites to develop its theology of the scapular.  

The Carmelite Nuns

In 1600 less than fifty cloistered Carmelite monasteries existed in the world. Some 150 years later, the Order numbered over a hundred “little Carmels.” The monasteries drews it members primarily from nobility and the rising wealthy bourgeois class. The fiat of the head of the household was often more the inspiration for young woman’s vocation than the call of God. Other times, parental opposition had to be overcome. New foundations often came about under the aegis of reform. St. Mary of the Angels in Florence became the Order’s most important Italian monastery and home to St. Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi. Other monasteries accepted its constitutions, revised in accordance with the saint’s suggestions, thereby continuing the influence of the Florentine monastery and its famous inmate. The Incarnation of Avila in Spain became well known because of Teresa of Jesus and continued to exist in her shadow. Unfortunately, the constant tensions between monastery and Order continued until 1631 when Pope Urban VIII exempted the monastery from the jurisdiction of the Order.

The Third Order

One of many privileges allowed by the papal bull Mare magnum of Sixtus IV (1476) was that of having a Third Order, a common practice in other mendicant orders. The Carmelites however developed a Third Order with non-traditional aspects. It is only in the modern period that the Carmelite Third Order took on a more traditional look and reality. A separate Rule, just for the Third Order has been periodically revised but this document is simply the Rule of St. Albert adapted to the lives of lay men and women. Third Orders experienced tremendous growth in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Italy, France, and Belgium.

Carmel’s Contribution to the Fine Arts

The vigorous renewal of Catholic life found expression in the arts. The exuberance of the baroque period produced no figure of stature from the Order in the arts. In constructing and restoring buildings, the Carmelites relied on the services of contemporary artists. In the Counter-Reformation however, Carmelite churches became filled with the Order’s newfound sense of identity. Saints and depictions of miracles proper to the Order prominently appear. Mary bestowing the scapular, sometimes with a mix of religious figures (some biblical, some Carmelite of which some were real and some imaginary) appearing alongside, was a common work. In Rome the churches of the priors general—Santa Maria in Traspontina and San Martino ai Monte— were only a couple of the repositories of Carmelite art. The Corsini chapel in St. John Lateran is dedicated to St. Andrew Corsini, the Florentine Carmelite and it a precious jewel. Beyond the Eternal City of Rome, Venice was home to the Carmini of Venice, crowded during the 17th and 18th centuries with res carmelitana but structurally unaltered since the 14^th century. Some of Spain’s great masters and architects worked to make Carmel represented. The earthquake of 1755 caused extensive damage throughout Portugal, including the destruction of the Carmo of Lisbon, a gift to the Order from St. Nuno Alvarez. In Brazil the Portuguese Carmelite tradition of constructing splendiferous buildings and furnishings continued. The ornate retables of many churches are instructional manuals in Carmelite spirituality. During the French Revolution, many of the Carmelite churches were either destroyed or converted into other uses. Antwerp’s Carmelite churches featured works by Rubens, Zeghers, Jacob Floris and Abraham van Diepenbecke. In Germany, many of the convents and churches no longer stand. The Carmelite church in Boppard, “Pearl of the Rhine,” no longer functions as a church but maintains its ornately carved oaken choir stalls. Six of its stained glass windows are in the Boppard Room of The Cloisters museum in New York. The church and monastery of Frankfurt, now a museum, are remarkable for the frescoes of Jerg Ratgeb picturing the life of Christ, each mystery matched by its prophetic antecedent in the Old Testament. The oldest of the houses in continuous Carmelite use was in Straubing, Germany, founded in 1367. The church proper contains many outstanding works by a variety of area masters. The recently uncovered ceiling of the house library is a feast for the eyes of paintings dedicated to the intellectual life in the Order.