Carmelites

Carmelites are the members of the Roman Catholic " Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel " (Lat. Ordo Fratrum Mariae Virginis Beatissimae de Monte Carmelo ), which was founded around the year 1150 at the Carmel Mountains in Israel today, and the tradition of hermits arises. The members of the company founded in the second half of the 15th century female religious branch are called Carmelites.

The Order was divided in the wake of the reform movement of the 16th century (see Teresianischer Carmel ) in shod Carmelites (also Carmelites of the old observance or Calzeaten, Latin Ordo Carmelitarum Calceatarum Abbr OCC or O. Carm ), and the Discalced Carmelites and Discalced strictly organized Carmelites (also barefooted or Discalceaten, Latin Ordo Carmelitarum Discalceatarum, abbreviation or OCarmD OCD ).

History

Early history

Around the middle of the 12th century was a branch of crusaders or pilgrims near the fountain Elijah on Mount Carmel in Palestine. According to reports some historians St. Berthold of Calabria is regarded as the founder. The community was called the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

The first brothers were still alive without monastic rule in strict asceticism as a hermit, but in a loose community. The prophet Elijah was a role model for her hermit lives for the brethren. Around 1206 or 1214, they turned to Albert, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to give them a rule. The brothers adopted a rule that was tailored to a purely contemplative life. They lived in a monastery, in which each by itself to prayer and the work was dedicated in a cell (similar to the Carthusians ).

The advance of the Muslims in the 13th century forced the emigration of the Carmelites in 1238 to Europe. Pope Innocent IV changed 1247/53 the rule so that a mendicant orders emerged which allowed the brothers next to the eremitic still pursued as an ideal, to the work as a pastor and scientific studies.

In the 13th century, women also joined the Order: Some attracted as Klausner interior into existing monasteries, others lived in convents Begin, for example, in northern France, in Italy and Spain. Pope Nicholas V in 1452 confirmed a separate women's orders. John Soreth, Prior General at the beginning of the 15th century, collected first in the Netherlands Begin groups to the first wife convents.

Reform movements

The Order spread in the 14th century all over Europe. As a result, there have been several approaches to reform in order again to approach the Order of the hermit ideal, however mostly failed. In the late Middle Ages fell into the Order as many others through neglect of prayer life, and easing poverty generally, and by neglecting the community. During the Western Schism it came to the party formation under an ever own general of the order, each adhered to another Pope. General Priore as Nicholas Audet, John Baptist Rossi and Johann Baptist Caffardo endeavored to reform, but they had in the time of Humanism and the Reformation no thoroughgoing success.

The only radical reform was that of Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, which led to a split in the shod and unshod the Carmelites ( Discalceaten ) in the 16th century. These returned to the purely contemplative life. Role model and advisor for Teresa was here also Peter of Alcantara, who traced the Franciscan Order to its origins in a similar manner. Teresa took the older Karmelitenregel of 1247 as the basis of their foundation and supplemented this by their own rules, for example in the field of penance and common recreation. The first convent she founded in 1562 in San José Ávila. In Duruelo de la Sierra was in 1568 with the help of St.. John of the Cross also founded a monastery. 1565 the Pope confirmed this new monastic rule, but broke violent tensions between the Discalced and the root of the Order. The opponents of reform went so far as St. Johannes months imprison.

1580 a separate province which was founded " Discalced ", in 1593, the new congregation entirely separated from the tribe Order.

Modern and contemporary times

During the Reformation, and by the Turkish wars, the Carmelites lost their northern European provinces. Many homes received no alms more and were on the verge of their existence. The houses of the Upper German province of Saxony could be obtained only with difficulty, the Provincial Andreas shock and Eberhard Billick led heated discussions with the Reformers.

With the conquest of America also Carmelites came as missionaries to Panama, Colombia and Brazil, this activity was promoted within the Order. In Rome, the Carmelites opened a mission seminary. Also to Persia, the Far East and Africa shod Discalced Carmelites and were dispatched.

The French Revolution and the secularization led to the beginning of the 19th century in Europe repealing numerous monasteries of both the male and the female branch. Brother John of Frascati in 1827 could establish the Order in Palestine again.

Today's distribution

For the Carmelite Order are today world-wide about 2,000 priests and brothers, to the Carmelites about 900 nuns. The Order are also about 3,000 sisters connected in independent congregations. The Teresian Carmel has about 4,000 priests and brothers, as well as about 13,000 nuns, plus numerous affiliated institutes of the Third Order.

The first subsidiary in Germany was in 1249 in Cologne. Until the end of 2012, Germany had two provinces where there were a total of thirteen men and two nunneries. On 28 December 2012, the union of Upper and Lower the German Province was completed. Seat of the new Province of Bamberg. Currently ( as at 28 December 2012) exist in the German province of eight locations: Bamberg ( county seat), Mainz, Springiersbach Bengel, Straubing, Marienthal at Hamminkeln, Erlangen, Cologne and Duisburg. The eight monasteries belong to 73 Fathers. Current Provincial is Father Dieter Lankes O. Carm.

The line of the former Upper German Province was in Bamberg ( branch 1273-1802 and since 1903). These included branches in Straubing (since 1368 ), Ohrdruf ( 1991-2007 ), monastery Spriengiersbach (since 1922), Beilstein ( Mosel) ( 1636-1803 ), Bad Reichenhall ( 1934-2009 ), Furth ( 1951-2010 ), Erlangen (since 1967) and Mainz ( 1285-1802 and since 1924 ); the Mainz monastery is also the all-German training house. In addition, the Carmelites were connected in Erlangen to this province.

The German province had low until the junction of the Upper German Province their provincial house in Duisburg. In addition to the training house in Mainz belonged to the province of the convents in Cologne, Wegberg and Marienthal in Hamminkeln. The dissolved Augustinian Hermits monastery in 1986 was settled by the Carmelites again. The Carmelite Sisters of the Carmel "Mother of Good Counsel " in Essen- Schuir (formerly in Duisburg) were connected to the low German province.

The Teresian Carmel spread in Germany until the 17th century. The province with headquarters in Munich consists of 50 brothers in seven convents and about 300 sisters in 21 monasteries. Discalced Carmelites Discalced See also and Carmelites.

Convents both Orders branches are located worldwide, especially in Spain, Italy and the Spanish-speaking South America. In the Dutch Nijmegen Carmelites serve the Titus Brandsma Memorial Church; Blessed was himself a Carmelite.

At the Carmel mountains still exist today two monasteries of the Discalced Carmelites. The monastery Muhraqa on the southeastern Carmel is located at the place where the prophet Elijah according to biblical tradition, performed a proof of God against the priests of Baal, and she then has killed (1 Kings 18 EU). The Carmelite Monastery on Karmelkap is located at the northern end of the mountain in Haifa. Below the church there is a cave which the apartment Elijah was, according to tradition.

Others

• In several cities there were Karmeliterviertel, also in Vienna in 1623 in Leopoldstadt, the second district.

• Attached to the Carmelite Order is the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, founded by Maria exchanger.

• The Carmelite spirit is a balm spirit: with alcohol are mixed with cinnamon and other ingredients solid balm leaves. It is used or consumed as an external remedy.