Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Patron Saint – Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Why Mother Mary is called Our Lady of Mount Carmel?
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as the patron of the Carmelite order within the Catholic church. The word Mount Carmel symbolizes the power of genuine prayer and a call to commitment to one’s faith.
Mount Carmel is a coastal mountain region in the Northern Israel. Mount Carmel is mentioned as the Holy Mountain where Prophet Elizah successfully challenged the priests of Baal and won the people to the True God.
The order of Carmelites has its origin on Mount Carmel. In the 12 century some pilgrims who came from Europe, lived near the spring of Elizah on Mount Carmel, to live out their faith as hermits. Those hermits are called as Carmelites. They did not have any founder but they remained faithful followers of Prophet Elizah.
Sometime later they build a chapel on Mount Carmel and dedicated it to Mother Mary. They made Mother Mary as their patroness. Later they were known as ‘brothers of Lady of Mount Carmel’. Thus the Mount Carmel is deeply associated with Prophet Elizah and Mother Mary. From Prophet Elizah, Carmelites inherited the burning passion for God and from Mother Mary they learned to live committed in the foot step of Jesus Christ.
The Carmelites were living in peace and happiness on Mount Carmel. Suddenly the Saracens invaded the place and caused the Carmelites to flee to Europe. In 1246, Saint Simon Stock who was the then superior general of the order, who prayed to virgin Mary so fervently for the protection of the Carmelite order. In response to his fervent prayer, in the year 1251 on July 16 our Lady appeared to him and gave the scapular with the promise, “this must be a sign and privilege for you and all the Carmelites. Whoever dies wearing the scapular will not suffer a eternal fire”. Later many people began to wear this scapular and the church has extended the privilege of wearing the scapular to all the faithful.