Quote of the day, 18 May: Peter Thomas Rohrbach, OCD

Life for the Carmelites in Palestine was becoming increasingly difficult because of almost constant Moslem uprisings, but, as we shall see in the following chapter, the Order had been largely relocated in Europe by the time of [Saint Simon Stock’s] election. One by one, the Carmelite foundations in the Holy Land were destroyed until only the communities at Acre and Mount Carmel remained.

In March of 1291, Bibars led his Mamelukes to the gates of Acre and laid siege on the city [scholars dispute this statement]. The European defenders joined themselves in a heroic defense, but on May 18, after two months of fighting, the walls of Acre fell, and by nightfall the city was in Moslem hands. The Mamelukes, in their frenzy, massacred all the inhabitants and set fire to the city. So systematic was the destruction that forty years later, only a few poor peasants could be found living in the ruins of this once prosperous city.

With the fall of Acre, the Latin kingdom collapsed, and the Moslems proceeded to rid the country of the last vestige of the westerners. They turned up the coast and eradicated the groups at Tyre and Sidon, then turned down the coast again and took the city of Caiffa [Haifa] on July 30.

Upon capturing Caiffa, they immediately climbed Mount Carmel and massacred the Carmelites and destroyed their building. The unreliable chronicle of William of Sanvico claims that the hermits were chanting the Salve Regina when they were set upon by the Moslems.

The massacre of 1291 marked the end of an epoch: the Latin kingdom was forever finished, the westerner was excluded from Palestine for centuries, and no Carmelite was to live on Mount Carmel until Prosper of the Holy Spirit returned the Order to its homeland in 1631.

Peter Thomas Rohrbach, O.C.D.

Chapter I, The Birth of an Order

Rohrbach, P 1966, 2015, Journey to Carith: The Sources and Story of the Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Nuns who are members of the Association of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, representing monasteries in the Holy Land, Egypt, Morocco, and Syria, gathered to pray in the first chapel of the Carmelite Order, located in the wadi ’ain es-siah on the Mediterranean slope of Mount Carmel. There, they read together the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert in observance of the Eighth Centenary of the promulgation of the Rule in 2007. Image credit: Holy Land Carmelites (Used by permission)

"Does anyone want to eat the moss?!"

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Quote of the day, 17 September: Rule of St. Albert

Since man’s life on earth is a time of trial, and all who would live devotedly in Christ must undergo persecution, and the devil your foe is on the prowl like a roaring lion looking for prey to devour, you must use every care to clothe yourselves in God’s armour so that you may be ready to withstand the enemy’s ambush.

Your loins are to be girt with chastity, your breast fortified by holy meditations, for as Scripture has it, holy meditation will save you. Put on holiness as your breastplate, and it will enable you to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength, and your neighbour as yourself. Faith must be your shield on all occasions, and with it you will be able to quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked one: there can be no pleasing God without faith; and the victory lies in this—your faith. On your head set the helmet of salvation, and so be sure of deliverance by our only Saviour, who sets his own free from their sins. The sword of the spirit, the word of God, must abound in your mouths and hearts. Let all you do have the Lord’s word for accompaniment.

Saint Albert of Jerusalem

Rule of Saint Albert
1999 publication, chapters 18–19, trans. Bede Edwards, OCD

Featured image: The Mediterranean is seen from the Discalced Carmelite property at Stella Maris, Haifa. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (By permission)

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