Fontiveros

Fontiveros is a municipality in Spain in the Ávila province. It comprises an area of approximately 40 square kilometres. This small place has sentimental attachment for the Carmelites because our Holy father St. John of the Cross (Juan de Yepes Álvarez) was born in Fontiveros in 1542 on June 24 (St. John Baptist's Day).

His father (Gonzalo de Yepes ) was from the moneyed class and had been a reasonably well-off merchant. He belonged to a wealthy family of silk merchants. However, on a business trip to Fontiveros, he met and fell in love with Catalina Alvarez, a poor seamstress. His family disowned both of them.

Discalced Carmelites

In August 1562 Saint Teresa of Ávila founded a new style of Carmelite community in Ávila, Spain. It was to become the first of a new Order – the Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCD). Thus the Discalced Carmel acknowledges Saint Teresa as its mother and foundress. She envisioned an Order fully dedicated to poverty. She felt strongly about this and thus the virtue of poverty became integrally related to this Religious Order.

The Barefoot Carmelites is a more common name for the Discalced (from Latin: without shoes) Carmelites. The Discalced Carmelites are a Roman Catholic religious community of priests, brothers, nuns, and laity serving the Church. We embrace the religious life in friendship and service of Jesus Christ.

Our religious Order’s heritage reaches back to a community of hermits living on Mount Carmel in Palestine during the late-12th century. But in 1592 the Discalced Carmelites or of the Teresians became independent from the Original Carmelites (O Carms) and grew independently but be it the Teresian Carmelites or the O Carms, the ultimate vocation of the Carmelites is to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ who loves us.

 

India

The Discalced Carmelites came to India in the beginning of the 17th Century. They founded their first residence at Tatta in Sind, now in Pakistan, and the second, in Goa in 1620.

Sebastiani and four friars, the first Carmelite Missionaries, were sent to India by Pope Alexander VII and with them begins the history of Carmelites in our country. Fr. Benigno of St. Michael, Fr Leander of the Annunciation, who had been sent to the Persian mission, came to Goa in 1619 and the Carmelites were able to establish roots there in 1621. They began their mission in India at Old Goa. Carmelites were a prominent Order at Old Goa along with Jesuits, Franciscans and Augustinians since 1619 till the Portuguese suppressed religious orders in 1834.

The Carmelites, on their refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance to the king, were expelled from Goa in 1707. The church fell into disuse and ruins soon after. Nothing remains of the Church of the Carmelites built in 1621, except the façade and a raised pavement which served as an altar. It is located to the south-east of the Church of St. Cajetan on a hill more or less contiguous to the hill on which the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount stands.

Today there are around 1000 Discalced Carmelite friars and some 500 Discalced Carmelite nuns (34 monasteries) spread across India.

The present monastery building Convent do Carmo (Carmelite Convent/Monastery) was a novitiate house and was built in 1943. Today Carmelites have three foundations (Margao, Mapusa and Xellim) in Goa.

In 2019, the Discalced Carmelites celebrated 400 years of their presence in India.  This celebration was held from February, 8-10 in Goa.

 

Convent of the Incarnation

The convent of the Incarnation (La Encarnación) is at Avila, Spain. It was in this convent that our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila, after much soul-searching during her teen years, first entered the Carmelite convent in 1535. She entered this Carmelite convent on November 2, 1535. Her mother died in 1529, and, despite her father's opposition, Teresa entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation.

At that time it was known as Monasterio de la Encarnación or Monastery of the Incarnation.

But After many tribulations and heart-searching St Teresa (born in 1515), left the Incarnation on 24th August 1562 to found St. Joseph's, a new monastery as per her plans.

The convent of the Incarnation was a large convent of over 150 nuns which was poorly managed. So After 26 years she was inspired by God to found her own convent.

Recent studies have shown that at the time of St Teresa's entry the Incarnation numbered among eleven Carmelite monasteries for nuns in Spain.

Avila

Ávila is a city in Spain. This place evokes sentiments for us as it is the home of our holy mother Saint Teresa of Avila. Saint Teresa was born at Avila in Castile, Spain, on 28th March 1515. She entered the Carmel of the Incarnation in Avila on 2nd November 1535. 

Avila is also famous for its Convento de San José which in English means Convent of Saint Joseph. This convent is a monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns.

It was in Avila that Saint Teresa inaugurated the first "reformed" Carmelite convent on 24^th August, 1562.  

In modern times, Avila is famous for its medieval walls. These walls, arguably the best in Europe, were built in the 11th century as a defensive mechanism. But the walls also served to control the entrances of both people and goods to the city and guard it from outbreaks of the plague. These walls are two kilometres long, have 88 turrets and are perfectly preserved.

A city of strong mystical significance, Ávila is sometimes called the Town of Stones and Saints.