Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel has always been a symbol of beauty. Mount Carmel is of great importance for Carmelites because the Order of Carmelites has its origins on this beautiful mountain in Palestine. The name means garden or orchard. It seems in the Old Testament this mountain has been mentioned twenty-nine times and is especially associated with Prophet Elijah. It rises 1,742 feet above sea level and towers above Israel's Mediterranean coastline.

Mount Carmel is a mountain spur projecting into the sea south of Haifa, Israel. Its bold outline can be seen for many miles. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras was reportedly attracted to Carmel by its sacred reputation.

Some hermits lived on Mount Carmel near the Fountain of Elijah in northern Israel in the 12th century. The name of our Order has been derived from Mount Carmel, the place of our outset, as by the end of the twelfth century, a group of Crusaders settled on the western slopes of Mount Carmel.

About 1156, the Order of Carmelites was founded, and a new monastery was built in honour of St. Mary of Mount Carmel.

The entire recorded history of Mount Carmel is one of a place of worship. It is on the heights of Mount Carmel that the Carmelite Order originated in the Holy Land. We do not have a particular founder.

Today the Order is found on all five continents.

Crusaders

In the Middle Ages, the Muslim world stretched from India to Spain, including Jerusalem and the Holy Land. For Jews, Christians and Muslims, Jerusalem was and still is a holy city. Therefore in 1095, Pope Urban II promised the knights of Europe forgiveness of their sins if they joined in the Crusades – a series of military campaigns organised by popes and Christian western powers in order to take Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

The First Crusade was one of the most extraordinary, bloody and significant episodes in medieval history. These military expeditions were undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Eventually towards the end of the 12^th century, a group of Crusaders settled on the western slopes of Mount Carmel – perhaps after the third crusade between 1189-1191 – disillusioned with the wars these Crusaders wanted to live their lives in prayer and penance. They imitated Elijah the Prophet by living a hermit-like secluded life and became the first Carmelites pledging "allegiance to Jesus Christ".

Thus the Carmelite Order was founded on Mount Carmel by a small band of former crusaders, possibly led by Berthold, a crusader from Calabria. In the solitude and silence of the mountain wilderness, our first fathers settled on Mount Carmel after the crusades.

But with the fall of the Crusader Kingdoms the first Carmelites were forced to leave the Holy Land to settle anew in Europe.