The Carmelite Order and the Virgin Mary

The order was born in the 12th century on the mountain where the Holy Prophet Elijah withdrew, 800 years before Christ, and came to pray to the Most High.

As Father A. M. Zechariah Igirukwayo, ocd, chronicler of the history of Carmel explained:

"These hermits who would become the ancestors of the Carmelite family had the spiritual intuition to choose the Virgin Mary Mother of God as patroness of the place of their implantation and of all those who lived there."

The Order of Carmel never had a founder as such. In the early years, the life of the Carmelites was totally imbued with the spirit of the Prophet Elijah, their spiritual father; spirit in which the devotion to the Blessed Virgin was later introduced.

Soon this devotion became predominant, a decisive influence in the life of the Order, to the point where the brothers are all recognized under the name of "Brothers of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel."