The Discalced Carmelites, formally the Order of the Discalced Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times ), is a mendicant order in the Roman Catholic Church with roots in the eremitic tradition of the Desert Fathers. The order was established in the 16th century, pursuant to the reform of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance, by two Spanish saints, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross. Discalced is derived from Latin, meaning "without shoes".
The third order, which is affiliated to the Discalced Carmelites, is the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites.
The Discalced Carmelites are friars and nuns who dedicate themselves to a life of prayer. The Carmelite nuns live in cloistered (enclosed) monasteries and follow a completely contemplative life. The Carmelite friars, while following a contemplative life, also engage in the promotion of spirituality through their retreat centres, parishes, and churches. Lay people, known as the Secular Order, follow their contemplative call in their everyday activities. Devotion to the Virgin Mary is a characteristic of Carmelites and is symbolised by wearing the brown scapular.
Background The Carmelite Order, from which the Discalced Carmelites branched off, is also referred to as the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance to distinguish them from their discalced offshoot. It was established in the 13th century in the Holy Land during the Crusades.
All Carmelites, including the Discalced, trace their roots and their name to Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. There, in the 13th century, a band of European men gathered together to live a simple life of prayer. Their first chapel was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and they called themselves the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.
The Muhraka monastery on the summit of Mount Carmel near Haifa in Israel is a historic Carmelite monastery. The monastery was erected on the place where St. Elijah the Prophet is said to have lived and vanquished the prophets of Baal.
The first Carmelites were pilgrims to Mount Carmel who settled there in solitude. These early hermits were mostly laity who lived a life of poverty, penance, and prayer. Between 1206 and 1214, St. Albert Avogadro, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, brought the hermits on Mount Carmel together into community. At their request he wrote them a rule that expressed their intention and reflected the spirit of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land and of the early community of Jerusalem. They were also inspired by St. Elijah. The words of Elijah, "with zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts" (1 Kings, 19:10) form the motto on the Carmelite coat of arms, which also depicts his arm bearing a flaming sword in reference to his defeat of the false prophets of Baal. Around 1238, within 50 years of receiving their rule, the Saracens forced the Carmelite hermits to leave Mount Carmel, and they migrated to Europe.
Foundation of the Discalced Carmelites
A combination of political and social conditions that prevailed in Europe in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, including the Hundred Years' War, Black Plague, Protestant Reformation, and Humanist Revival, adversely affected the Order. Many Carmelites, including whole communities, succumbed to contemporary attitudes and conditions that were diametrically opposed to their original vocation. To accommodate this situation their rule of life was "mitigated" several times. Consequently, the Carmelites less and less resembled the first hermits of Mount Carmel.
St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila) considered contemplative prayer to be the surest means to restore the authentic mission of the Carmelite Order. She wrote that God communicated to her the command to establish a new reformed monastery.Her written words on this point are well known, but precise citation needs to be identified; probably the Book of Her Life, her autobiography. A group of nuns assembled in her cell one September evening in 1560, taking their inspiration from the primitive tradition of Carmel and the discalced reform of St. Peter of Alcantara, a controversial movement within Spanish Franciscanism, proposed to found a monastery of an eremitical kind.
With few resources and often bitter opposition, Teresa succeeded in 1562 in establishing a small monastery with the austerity of desert solitude within the heart of the city of Ávila, Spain, combining eremitical and community life. On 24 August 1562, the new Convent of St. Joseph was founded. Teresa's rule, which retained a distinctively Marian character, contained exacting prescriptions for a life of continual prayer, safeguarded by strict enclosure and sustained by the asceticism of solitude, manual labor, perpetual abstinence, fasting, and fraternal charity. In addition to this, Teresa envisioned an order fully dedicated to poverty.
Working in close collaboration with Teresa was John of the Cross, who with Anthony of Jesus founded the first convent of Discalced Carmelite friars in Duruelo, Spain on 28 November 1568.
The Discalced Carmelites were established as a separate province of the Carmelite Order by the decree Pia considerationeOtilio Rodriguez, OCD, Appendix I: "The Third Order of the Teresian Carmel; Its Origin and History", page 129, in Michael D. Griffin, OCD, Commentary on the Rule of Life (superseded) (The Growth in Carmel Series; Hubertus, Wisconsin: Teresian Charism Press, 1981), pages 127-36 of Pope Gregory XIII on 22 June 1580. By this decree the Discalced Carmelites were still subject to the Prior General of the Carmelite Order in Rome, but were otherwise distinct from the Carmelites in that they could elect their own superiors and author their own constitutions for their common life. The following Discalced Carmelite Chapter at Alcala de Henares, Spain in March 1581 established the constitutions of the Discalced Carmelites and elected the first provincial of the Discalced Carmelites, Jerome Gratian. This office was later translated into that of Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites.Peter-Thomas Rohrbach, OCD Journey to Carith: The Sources and Story of the Discalced Carmelites, Chapter 6: "The Struggle for Existence", pages 200-1 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications)
Carmelite charism
The heart of the Carmelite charism is prayer and contemplation. The quality of prayer determines the quality of the community life and the quality of the service which is offered to others. Prayer and contemplation for the Carmelite are not private matters between the individual and God but are to be shared with others since the charism is given for the whole world. Therefore, there is an emphasis in the order on the ministry of teaching prayer and giving spiritual direction.The Carmelite Charism -from the Irish Province
For a Carmelite, prayer is guided by the teachings and experience of Teresa of Jesus (of Ávila) and John of the Cross, as well as the saints who have followed in their steps, such as Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, and martyrs such as Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, and the sixteen Martyrs of Compiegne. Other lights include Br. Lawrence of the Resurrection and Père Jacques de Jesus. Fraternity, service, and contemplation are essential Carmelite principles.
When the Carmelites were forced to leave Mount Carmel, they changed their practice from being hermits to friars. The major difference is that friars are called to serve the People of God in some active apostolate. Some congregations were founded for a specific work, but the Carmelite Order tries to respond to what it sees as the needs of the Church and the world – which differ according to time and place. Many friars work in such institutions as parishes, schools, universities, retreat centres, prisons, and hospitals. Each individual friar will serve in roles depending on the perceived spiritual needs of the people with whom he lives and his particular talents.
Each day is marked by silent, mental prayer. In addition to the daily celebration of the full Liturgy of the Hours, two hours (one in the morning and one in the evening) are dedicated to mental prayer. Communities ordinarily have a maximum of 21 members. The friars practice a broad-based discipline of study.
Bishops
Living bishops (4 archbishops, 18 bishops) Current bishops Former and actual episcopal see or assignment Current residency Date of birth(current age) Appointed to episcopacy Anders Arborelius Bishop of Stockholm(1998–Incumbent) President of Scandinavian Bishops Conference (2005–2015) Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria degli Angeli (2017-Incumbent) Stockholm, Sweden 17 November 1998Pope John Paul II Cástor Oswaldo Azuaje Pérez Bishop of Trujillo(2012–Incumbent) Auxiliary Bishop of Maracaibo(2007–2012) Trujillo, Venezuela 30 June 2007Pope Benedict XVI Silvio José Báez Ortega Auxiliary Bishop of Managua(2009–Incumbent) Managua, Nicaragua 9 April 2009Pope Benedict XVI Philip Boyce Bishop of Raphoe(1995–2017) Letterkenny, Ireland 29 June 1995Pope John Paul II Peter Chung Soon-taick Metropolitan Archbishop of Seoul(2021–Incumbent) Seoul, South Korea 30 December 2013Pope Francis Paul Dahdah Archbishop-Vicar Apostolic of Beirut(1999–Incumbent) Archbishop of Baghdad(1983–1999) Beirut, Lebanon 30 May 1983Pope John Paul II Brig. Gen. Gonzalo de Jesús María del Castillo Crespo Military Bishop Emeritus of Bolivia(2012–Incumbent) Military Bishop of Bolivia(2000–2012) Auxiliary Bishop of La Paz(1983–2000) La Paz, Bolivia 3 November 1983Pope John Paul II Amancio Escapa Aparicio Auxiliary Bishop of Santo Domingo(1996–2016) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 31 May 1996Pope John Paul II Guy Étienne Germain Gaucher Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Bayeux-Lisieux(2005–Incumbent) Auxiliary Bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux(1987–2005) Bishop of Meaux(1986–1987) Venasque, France 27 August 1986Pope John Paul II Gustavo Girón Higuita Bishop of Tumaco(1999–Incumbent) Vicar Apostolic of Tumaco(1990–1999) Tumaco, Colombia 8 February 1990Pope John Paul II Greg Homeming Bishop of Lismore(2017-Incumbent) Australia 22 February 2017Pope Francis Zdenko Križić Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Gospić-Senj(2016-Incumbent) Croatia 25 May 2016Pope Francis Gonzalo López Marañon Vicar Apostolic Emeritus of San Miguel de Sucumbíos(2010–Incumbent) Vicar Apostolic of San Miguel de Sucumbíos(1984–2010) Apostolic prefect of San Miguel de Sucumbíos(1970–1984) Nueva Loja, Ecuador 2 July 1984Pope John Paul II Luis Alberto Luna Tobar Archbishop Emeritus of Cuenca(2000–Incumbent) Metropolitan Archbishop of Cuenca(1981–2000) Auxiliary Bishop of Quito(1977–1981) Cuenca, Ecuador 17 August 1977Pope Paul VI Aníbal Nieto Guerra Bishop of San Jacinto de Yaguachi(2009–Incumbent) Auxiliary Bishop of Guayaquil(2006–2009) Yaguachi, Ecuador 10 June 2006Pope Benedict XVI Marie Fabien Raharilamboniaina Bishop of Morondava(2010–Incumbent) Morondava, Madagascar 26 February 2010Pope Benedict XVI Braulio Sáez Garcia Auxiliary Bishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra(2003–Incumbent) Bishop of Oruro(1991–2003) Auxiliary Bishop of Oruro(1987–1991) Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia 18 February 1987Pope John Paul II Rubens Sevilha Auxiliary Bishop of Vitória(2011–Incumbent) Vitória, Brazil 21 December 1987Pope Benedict XVI Jean Benjamin Sleiman Archbishop of Baghdad(2001–Incumbent) Baghdad, Iraq 29 November 2000Pope John Paul II Jusztin Nándor Takács Bishop Emeritus of Székesfehérvár(2003–Incumbent) Bishop of Székesfehérvár(1991–2003) Coadjutor Bishop of Székesfehérvár(1990–1991) Auxiliary Bishop of Székesfehérvár(1988–1990) Székesfehérvár, Hungary 23 December 1988Pope John Paul II Rolando Joven Tria Tirona Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Caceres(2024-present) Metropolitan Archbishop of Caceres(2012–2024) Bishop-Prelate of Infanta(2003–2012)
Bishop of Malolos(1996–2003)