The Order's Beginnings on Mount Carmel
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, a small group of hermits came to assemble on Mount Carmel at the well of Elijah, near the present-day city of Haifa in Israel. At their request St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them a “way of life” (formula vitae) prescribing simplicity, community and constant prayer. They built a chapel in the midst of their hermitages and dedicated it to Our Lady. Soon they were known as the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or simply, Carmelites.
When the Carmelites came to Europe later in the century, they adapted their style of life to that of the mendicant movement, living in cities and ministering to the needs of the growing urban population. However, they never lost sight of the contemplative dimension of their lives, though they often struggled to maintain its integrity in the midst of a busy and turbulent world.
Reform and New Foundations: St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross
In 1562, a Spanish Carmelite nun of Ávila in Spain, known to history as St. Teresa of Jesus, sought to restore the emphasis on contemplative life within Carmel, first among the nuns, then six years later among the friars. In this she was ably assisted by St. John of the Cross. The two established a vibrant new family from within Carmel, dedicated to a single-minded search for God in prayer at the service of the Church. Because they wore sandals, the footwear of the poor, they were popularly known as barefoot or Discalced Carmelites. The nuns led an enclosed contemplative life of prayer and sacrifice for the needs of the Church. The friars shared their spirit and life of prayer, but added to it the care of souls in a varied ministry, with emphasis upon assisting others in their personal prayer and the interior life.
The Discalced Carmelites spread rapidly throughout Europe and to the New World. St. John of the Cross himself was selected to go to Mexico which his untimely death prevented.
The Province of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the United States
Although Discalced Carmelites friars had been among the earliest Spanish explorers of what is now the western United States (reaching modern-day Carmel and Monterey in 1602), they did not establish a permanent community until 1906 when Bavarian friars came to Wisconsin to staff what is now the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians.
In 1914 they added a parish, St. Florian’s in West Milwaukee, to their responsibilities. In 1942 they came to Brookline, Massachusetts to open a novitiate to accommodate the growing numbers of applicants. (This community transferred to Brighton, Massachusetts in 1989.) In 1947, these monasteries were joined to a 1916 Spanish (Catalonian) foundation in Washington D.C. to become the first Discalced Carmelite Province in the United States: The Province of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or the Washington Province.
(Above, a photo of the first Bavarian friars at Holy Hill.)
The very year of its foundation, the new Province sent six missionaries to the Philippines to help re-establish the Church of Infanta. Two friars of the Province, Patrick Shanley and Julio Labayen, would later serve as diocesan bishops of Infanta.
Other foundations followed … a residence in Youngstown, Ohio meeting the spiritual and pastoral needs of the area and a minor seminary (later retreat house) in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Eventually these houses closed as new needs emerged elsewhere.
In 1968, the Province established a “desert” (an “eremitic” community of friars) in Hinton, West Virginia. Thus the varied possibilities of the Discalced Carmelite way of life were all present in the houses of the Province.
The next step in the history of the province came in June of 1995, when it assumed responsibility for the Discalced Carmelite House of Studies in Nairobi, Kenya. This is a seminary residence for English-speaking African Carmelites preparing for priesthood. The province now looks toward continued growth of the Order within Kenya.
In July of 1995, a new studentate was established in Chicago, Illinois. In 2007 the student house was then transferred to our monastery in Brighton, MA.
And so the Province continues to grow and to serve the Church with the gift of its charism…
