Carmelites and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel: 7 things to know before her feast

CEBU CITY — Christians around the world look forward to the middle of July, the 15th to the 16th, when they celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Here are seven things you should know about this celebration.

1. Where is Mount Carmel?

Mt. Carmel is a mountain range in northwestern Israel. Today, it goes by the name Har ha-Karmel and may be reached by buses from key cities such as Nazareth or Jerusalem.

According to the Old Testament (I Kings 18:19), the prophet Elijah met the prophets of Baal on this mountain, having challenged them to a contest that would prove who God was. Fire from heaven, which miraculously struck Elijah’s offerings, signaled to everyone the truth of the God of Israel.

Elijah’s successor, Elisha, also a powerful prophet, frequented Mt. Carmel, too.

2. What are Carmelites?

Carmelites may be described as a family of Christians who have placed themselves under the protection of the Child Jesus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. At least three communities of Carmelites exist.

Ancient Carmelites

The most ancient members of this family belong to the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel whose beginnings, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, may be dated to the 1200s.

The Carmelites count the prophets Elijah and Elisha as their spiritual fathers and continue a spiritual lineage that includes Jewish and Byzantine Christian hermits. Saints from this order include Titus Brandsma, a priest, scholar, mystic, and journalist who was martyred by the Nazis and canonized by Pope Francis in 2022.

These original Carmelites, who use the post-nominal O.Carm, are present at the San Alberto Carmelite Formation Center in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City. Among their well-known members is Fr. Ritche Salgado, O.Carm, a journalist who used to work for Cebu Daily News.

READ ABOUT ENTERING CARMEL: Vocation discernment: How it’s like to live as religious brothers

Discalced Carmelites

In Spain in the 1500s, Sts. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, eventual doctors of the church, started a reform movement in the Carmelite order. It developed into the Order of Discalced Carmelites.

The Discalced Carmelites, who use the post-nominal OCD, serve through their monastery and chapel in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City. Probably the most famous members of the order aside from the reformer saints are St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face and Venerable Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart — the longest-lived seer of Our Lady of Fatima.

Missionaries, priests, and laity

Cebu is also home to the Carmelite Missionaries, who were founded in the 1800s by a Discalced Carmelite, Blessed Francisco Palau. They use the post-nominal CM. Carmelite Missionary Sisters serve from Barangay Quiot Pardo, Cebu City.

Moreover, lay people may live Carmelite spirituality more closely by joining branches such as the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites while diocesan priests may join a Carmelite priestly fraternity. For instance, Fr. Raymund Michael Chan, a formator of Seminario Mayor de San Carlos of the Archdiocese of Cebu, is a member of the Discalced Carmelite priestly fraternity.

3. What is the Brown Scapular?

The popular brown scapular is a miniature version of the habit that the brothers, nuns, and sisters of the Carmelite congregations wear. Any Catholic may wear it following a blessing and investiture by any priest.

Pious tradition holds that the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite in England in the 1200s, and gave him the habit. According to the Sisters of Carmel, the Virgin Mary said:

“This shall be a privilege for you and all Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall not suffer eternal fire.”

The Sisters add: “In time, the Church extended this magnificent privilege to all the laity who are willing to be invested in the Brown Scapular of the Carmelites and who perpetually wear it.”

In Word on Fire,  quoting the Discalced Carmelite Rev. Kieran Kavanaugh, Ellyn von Huben writes: “The Church’s official position regarding the Brown Scapular is […] that it is a garment that we wear as both a sign of our belonging to Mary and a pledge of her maternal protection in this life and the next. It is also a sign of three entwined elements: a) belonging to the Carmelite ‘family,’ b) consecration to and trust in Mary, and c) an incentive to imitate our Lady’s virtues, especially her humility, chastity, and prayerfulness.”

4. Why a fiesta on July 16?

The date is the anniversary of the Blessed Virgin’s apparition and giving of the Brown Scapular to St. Simon Stock.

5. Catholics aside, who have embraced Carmelite spirituality?

Both Anglicans and Episcopalians, churches in the Protestant tradition, have Carmelite associations.

6. Where may pilgrims find Carmel?

In Cebu City, some of the best-known pilgrim destinations are the Carmelite Monastery in Barangay Mabolo, the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on the University of San Jose-Recoletos main campus, and the monument of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Celestial Gardens, Barangay Guadalupe.

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Outside the city, one may find parishes in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Lutopan, Toledo City, on mainland Cebu’s west coast and in Cantumog in the northeastern town named after the Marian title “Carmen.”

7. Any advice from Carmelite saints?

“He who wants to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come in conflict with it.” — St. Titus Brandsma

“Sufferings gladly borne for others convert more people than sermons.” — St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

“From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!” — St. Teresa of Avila

“If you want, the Virgin will come walking down the road / pregnant with the Holy and say, ‘I need shelter for the night. / Please take me inside your heart, my time is so close.’” — St. John of the Cross

READ ABOUT CARMELITE SPIRITUALITY: Bishop Julio Labayen on revolution and spirituality

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