Cloistered Carmelite Nuns SW India Association

              

                    

HISTORY OF THE CARMELITE ORDER.

The Carmelites take their name and origin from Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land,  where  some seekers of Christian perfection who had come with the Crusaders, settled as hermits towards the end of the twelfth century.  They were gathered into a community  around 1209 by a Formula or rule of life given by Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem. This rule was approved by several popes, especially by Innocent IV with a few amendments,  in 1247, after these Carmelites had migrated to Western Europe.

 Taking the Prophet Elias  as their  inspiration and Mary, as their Queen,  Mother and Patroness, they spread rapidly especially in England and France.  The Order was opened  to women in the mid-fifteenth century, the feminine branch being known as the second order.  Their principal  role in the Church, like that of the first order, was to meditate day and night on the law of the Lord and watch in prayer..

St   Teresa of Jesus  1515-1582,  re-founded the feminine branch  in 1562  and extended her reform to the friars with the help of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) in 1567.  She gave a decidedly apostolic thrust   to   the Carmelite way of life.    Her daughters and sons will henceforth be known as Discalced Carmelites.      St. Teresa   encouraged missionary activities among the friars, who – along with the Sisters – were also to be real contemplatives.

The first Teresian cloistered Carmel in India was founded in Pondicherry  in the seventeenth  and absorbed into the mainstream second order in the middle of the  nineteenth.  This was followed by Mangalore in 1870.  Today    there are about 30 Teresian cloistered Carmels in India.