We were born in the bosom of a family of mystics: “The Carmel of Saint Teresa and St. John of the Cross”.
The Teresian Carmelite family or Discalced Carmelite is the reformed Order of Carmel, which had its origins in the crusades. They lived as hermits at Mount Carmel in Palestine, in the early thirteenth century.
Teresian Carmel was born in the sixteenth century, as fruit of the spiritual and creative impulse of a singular woman: Saint Teresa of Jesus and of her providential encounter with another exceptional man: Saint John of the Cross.
Moved by the strength of the Spirit and the dynamism of His mystical graces, Teresa founded in 1562, in Avila, the first convent of the reformed Carmel, whose spirituality would be fervently propagated. Her goal was to organize small contemplative communities, dedicated to prayer for the Church and its needs.
Following the inspiration of Saint Teresa, Saint John founded in 1568 the first reformed male convent of Carmel. Even at the start, and to the delight of Saint Teresa, the friars did not content themselves to only becoming contemplatives, centred on the life of prayer, but the zeal for the apostolate was born too, leading them to become ardent missionaries, and ultimately, faithful servants of the Church and the world.
Carmel is heir to the exceptional spiritual riches bequeathed in the life and books of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Saint John of the Cross, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Edith Stein, and Blessed Francisco Palau, among others.
To learn more about the Carmelite spirituality and its Saints, visit the link available in each of them
