The only existing religious order, founded in the land where Jesus lived, the Carmelites have neither individual founder nor date of foundation. The Order appears to be founded more as an ideal of growing closer to God, in the hermit tradition, in the land where Jesus had walked and from inspiration of two major figures in Sacred Scripture, the fiery Prophet Elijah and Mary, the Mother of God.

To establish some structure to the men who had settled on Carmel “next to the font of Elijah,” an ideal place for reflection, Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, was approached and provided the Carmelites with a formula vitae or style of life which contained practical steps which assisted the Carmelites in their “walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.”