SHORT HISTORY

The Carmelite Order began officially some time between 1206 and 1214 when a group of hermits devoted to prayer and solitude requested and received a Rule written by St. Albert of Jerusalem. The hermits lived in caves on Mt. Carmel in Israel and took St. Elijah, the hermit and prophet, as their model. Their first chapel, the ruins of which still stand today, was dedicated to Our Lady, so the hermits became known as the Brothers of St. Mary of Mt. Carmel.

So on it became difficult to live in Israel because of warfare between the Christians and Saracens, so the Carmelites began in 1238 to found houses in Sicily, England, Cyprus and France. In these new places they began by necessity to live a more communal life, as most still do today, but a few houses follow the true hermit life.

A desire for less strictness in the Rule resulted in a mitigation in it approved by Pope Eugene IV in 1432. That caused some to want to return to the former strictness, but the only successful communities following the unmitigated rule were started by St. Teresa of Avila in 1562. Dissension then began between those following the mitigated and unmitigated rules, so Pope Gregory XIII in 1580 separated them into two Orders. St. Teresa's followers then called themselves " Discalced," meaning "without shoes" as they wore only homemade sandals.