^ Ruins of the original chapel dedicated to our Lady on Mount Carmel

In the last years of the twelfth century a number of Latin-rite pilgrims and crusaders chose to live a life of prayer and solitude on Mount Carmel, in the Holy Land (present-day Israel). In time these hermits joined together in a loose form of community life. Between 1206 and 1214 they were given a rule of life by St. Albert, who as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, was their bishop. This Rule is still the basis of all Carmelite life. It is deeply scriptural and is centered on Christ. It sets out a way of life based on constant meditation on the Word of God in a spirit of evangelical watchfulness. It balances silence and solitude with daily liturgy, work and fraternal help in an authentic Christian life.

The simple and austere life of the hermits was disrupted by the break up of the Latin kingdom. Those who could fled to Europe, where they adapted themselves to their new conditions. On the 1st of October 1247, they became religious recognized by the Church as mendicant friars, under Pope Innocent IV. While holding on to their contemplative ideal they were reorganized as an order of friars. (“Friar” simply means brother.) Like the other orders of friars, the Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians, they opened houses in towns and became popular preachers, confessors and teachers. They were particularly zealous in spreading devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, through the scapular.