Carmelites

Background

The Carmelite order takes its name from Mount Carmel in northwestern Israel. In Korean Catholic usage the name is spelled "Gareumel." The order began in the twelfth century when hermits gathered to live near a spring on this mountain, a place traditionally associated with the Old Testament prophet Elijah. A hermit is a religious who withdraws from the world to live and pray in solitude. The Carmelites have no single acknowledged founder. According to one tradition, a man named Berthold gathered the hermits around 1150, but because records are scarce, some hold that this account may be a later legend. The hermits consecrated themselves to Mary and called themselves the "Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel."

Development

• Composition of the Rule (between 1206 and 1214): At the hermits' request, Albert, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote for them a rule of life centered on prayer. It is commonly dated to 1209.
• Papal approval (1226): Pope Honorius III approved the Rule in a bull issued on January 30, 1226.
• Migration to Europe (thirteenth century): Under threat from Muslim forces, the hermits moved to Europe. In 1247 the Rule was revised to suit European conditions.
• Teresa's reform (1562): The Spanish nun Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) founded the Convent of St. Joseph in Ávila on August 24, 1562. She sought to restore stricter poverty and a more rigorous life of prayer, and together with John of the Cross she extended the reform to houses for men. Because the reformed religious wore sandals instead of shoes, they came to be called the "Discalced Carmelites."
• Separation (1580 and 1593): The reformed houses became a separate province (a regional administrative unit) in 1580 and an independent order in 1593. From that time the Carmelites have continued in two branches: the Carmelites, who follow the older tradition, and the Discalced Carmelites.

Arrival in Korea

In May 1939, Sister Mechtilde and Sister Madeleine came to Korea from France, and in March 1940 they established a convent in Hyehwa-dong, Seoul. This convent is regarded as the first fully cloistered monastery in Korea. A cloistered monastery is one whose members cut off contact with the outside world and live entirely within its walls. During the Korean War, North Korean forces occupied the convent and took the foreign sisters away to the North. Sister Mechtilde died in 1950 and is among the 81 candidates for beatification (declaration as Blessed) whose causes are being promoted by the Catholic Church in Korea. In 1962, sisters from the Carmelite convent in Mariazell, Austria, came to Korea and opened a convent in Daegu. The men's branch was established in September 1974, when priests of the Venetian Province in Italy began community life in Samseon-dong, Seoul. A secular order, through which laypeople follow Carmelite spirituality while living in the world, is also active.

Results and Influence

The Carmelites became a leading religious order centered not on external activity but on contemplation in silence and solitude, that is, prayer that rests quietly in God while gazing upon him. Teresa's The Interior Castle and John of the Cross's The Dark Night are counted among the classics of Christian spirituality. The Practice of the Presence of God, a collection of the writings of Brother Lawrence, a lay brother of the Discalced Carmelites, is also widely read by Protestants.

Assessment

The Catholic Church holds the Carmelites in high regard as an order that has preserved the Church's tradition of prayer, and it has proclaimed Teresa and John of the Cross Doctors of the Church. By contrast, the Reformers of the Reformation criticized monastic vows as bound up with the idea of justification by works, and the Marian devotion of the Carmelite tradition also differs from Protestant doctrine. Opinion within Protestantism remains divided today. Some accept the prayer tradition of the Carmelite mystics as a resource for spiritual formation, while others worry that it can give precedence to mystical experiences outside Scripture. This debate is treated in the article on contemplative prayer.