History of the Order and the Province
The Order's Beginnings on Mount Carmel
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, a small group of hermits came to assemble on Mount Carmel at the well of Elijah, near the present-day city of Haifa in Israel. At their request St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them a “way of life” (formula vitae) prescribing simplicity, community and constant prayer. They built a chapel in the midst of their hermitages and dedicated it to Our Lady. Soon they were known as the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or simply, Carmelites.
When the Carmelites came to Europe later in the century, they adapted their style of life to that of the mendicant movement, living in cities and ministering to the needs of the growing urban population. However, they never lost sight of the contemplative dimension of their lives, though they often struggled to maintain its integrity in the midst of a busy and turbulent world.
Reform and New Foundations:
St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross
In 1562, a Spanish Carmelite nun of Ávila in Spain, known to history as St. Teresa of Jesus, sought to restore the emphasis on contemplative life within Carmel, first among the nuns, then six years later among the friars. In this she was ably assisted by St. John of the Cross. The two established a vibrant new family from within Carmel, dedicated to a single-minded search for God in prayer at the service of the Church. Because they wore sandals, the footwear of the poor, they were popularly known as barefoot or Discalced Carmelites. The nuns led an enclosed contemplative life of prayer and sacrifice for the needs of the Church. The friars shared their spirit and life of prayer, but added to it the care of souls in a varied ministry, with emphasis upon assisting others in their personal prayer and the interior life.
The Discalced Carmelites spread rapidly throughout Europe and to the New World. St. John of the Cross himself was selected to go to Mexico which his untimely death prevented.
Discalced Carmelite Monasteries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Washington Province
Holy Hill, WI
The Discalced Carmelite Friars of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in the United
States was established by Germanfriars.
Archbishop Messmer of Milwaukee offered
them a property called Holy Hill, a well known
Marian pilgrimage site about thirty
miles northwest of Milwaukee. The
Carmelites took formal possession of Holy
Hill in 1906 with a small community of four
friars: Eliseus, who was appointed first
superior, Kilian, and two lay brothers who had
been sent from Bavaria. They used a
renovated farm house as the first monastery.
Other friars were sent from Germany to staff
Holy Hill.
Milwaukee, WI
In 1912 they also accepted a parish for
German-speaking people in the city of
Milwaukee, where they built a church and
monastery dedicated to St. Florian. A brick
monastery was constructed on Holy Hill in
1920, and in the following year a novitiate
was established and American vocations
began to apply for admission to the Order.
Washington, DC
Another group of friars located in the state of
Arizona in 1912: Spaniards from the
Catalonia province founded houses at Tucson,
Phoenix, Sonora, and a number of mission
stations to care for the Spanish speaking
residents of the state. In 1916 the friars from
Arizona established a monastery in
Washington, D.C. Joseph Mary of Jesus
(Isasi), a former missionary in Cuba, led a
group of friars from Tucson to the nation's
capital, and on October 15, 1916, a monastery
was formally established in the area near the
Catholic University of America.
Brighton, MA
In 1940 the monasteries in Wisconsin and
Washington, D.C., were detached from their
European provinces and combined into the
Washington semi-province. After the war in
1947, this union was canonically elevated to
the status of a province under the title of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, and further foundations were made in Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Ohio, and New York.
Hinton, WV
The Province officially established a "Desert" community at Hinton, WV on June 24, 1968.
The new community was called "Christ on
the Mountain." In the tradition of the Order
the 'deserts' are hermitages, dedicated to
prayer, silence and solitude.
The Washington Province made their contribution to overseas expansion.
Overseas
In 1947, six friars
from the province established a mission on the island of Luzon in the Philippine Islands. Other
friars from the province followed, and three years later the mission territory was separated
from the Lipa diocese and established as the prelature of Infanta. On April 25, 1950, the Holy
See entrusted the prelature of Infanta and its almost seventy thousand inhabitants to the
Washington Province.
Nairobi, Kenya - On February 2, 1992, the Order officially inaugurated the house in Nairobi, Kenya for the
express purpose of being a formation center for the English-speaking students of philosophy
and theology, coming from Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi and Tanzania. The house remained under
the General administration of the Order until June 1995 when responsibility for it passed to the
Washington Province. More complete information about OCD in the United States can be
found at ocdswashprov.org
Discalced Carmelite Seculars
Secular Carmelite communities represent a network of 'living stones' throughout the world.
Like our Carmelite ancestors on Mount Carmel, Secular Discalced Carmelites today participate in the same active charism of prayer by following the 800-year-old Rule of St. Albert and learn from the example and writings of our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila and Holy Father St. John of the Cross, and other Carmelite saints. The first Canonically Established Secular community in the Washington Province was in 1917.
As present day Secular Carmelites we too are organized into groups of communities, each accountable to the Superiors of the Order and Province, to our brothers and/or sisters within each local community, and are guided by OCDS Constitutions under the Patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the Washington Province Statutes. Being divided into three regions: Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Mid-West/Florida, our 155 OCDS communities; including one in Nairobi, Kenya; 4013 seculars look to our friars for their experience of Carmelite spirituality. Additional information about Secular Carmelites is available at ocdswashprov.org
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