History

Unlike most other Religious Orders, [for example the Dominicans and the Franciscans] who had individual founders [in St Dominic and St. Francis], the Carmelite Order had its origin in a group of hermits living on Mount Carmel in Palestine in the thirteenth century.  They followed the way of life of hermits living an eremitical life common in Palestine in the thirteenth century. 

These hermits on Mount Carmel can be seen as a group of pilgrims who had come to the Holy Land and had stayed on to live a life of prayer and silence in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets.  A sketch of their way of life is given by Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Acre at the time:  “Others imitating the saintly and solitary man, the Prophet Elijah, lived apart on Mount Carmel … near the fountain of Elijah … dwelling in little cells in the rocks…”