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 CARMELITE

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CARMELITE

mfgrated the following year, Mother Angela of St. Teresa (Mary Mudd) being then prioress. In 1872, dur- ing the priorship of Mother Ignatius (Amelia Bandy), the present (1908) convent, corner of Caroline and Biddle .Streets was inaugurated. This community made a foundation at St. Louis, 2 October, 1863, first established at Calvary Farm, and since 1S7S within the city. The foundation at New Orleans dates back to 1S77, when Mother Teresa of Jesus (Rowan) and three nuns took a house in Ursuline Street, pending the construction of a convent in Barrack Street, which was completed on 24 November, 187S. The convent at Boston was founded 2S August, 1890, and in its turn established that of Philadelphia, 26 July, 1902, Mother Gertrude of the Sacred Heart being the first prioress. In May, 1S75, some nuns from Reims ar- rived at Quebec and found a convenient place at Hochelaga near Montreal, where they established the convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Another Canadian foundation attempted from Baltimore in the same year was unsuccessful, and had to be given up after a few yens.

Life of the Xuns. — The life of a Carmelite nun is somewhat different from that of a friar, as there is an essential difference between the vocation of a priest and that of a lay person. Active work, such as nurs- ing the sick and teaching, are out of the question in a cloistered convent. The Carmelite sister leads a con- templative life, a considerable portion of her time being devoted to Divine service, meditation and other pious exercises, the rest occupied with household work and other occupations. The life is necessarily strict, the fasting severe, and there are many opportunities for exercising virtue.

Various Carmelite Institutions. — Several religious institutions have gathered round Carmel. In t he Middle Ages we find attached to many convents and churches anchorages, that is, hermitages for recluses who at their own request were walled up by the bishop and who exercised a great influence over the populace by reason of their example, their austerities, and their exhortations. Lmone the more celebrated Carmelite recluses may ]»• mentioned Thomas Scrope of Brad- ley, at Norwich, afterwards titular Bishop of Dromore in Ireland and Apostolic legate in Rhodes; and Blessed Jane of Toulouse (beginning of the fifteenth century) whose cult us was approved by Leo XIII.

Probably ever since the coming of the friars to Europe, founders of convents and benefactors were admitted to the order under the title of Confratres, which gave them a right to participation in the prayers and good works of a section or of the entire order, and to suffrages after their death. Neither the constitutions nor the ceremonial of admission of such Confratres. nor even the text of confraternity letters, contain any mention of obligations incumbent on them. The letters were at first granted only after mature consideration, but from the end of the fif- teenth century it was less difficult to obtain them; in many cases the general handed numerous blank forms to provincials and priors to be distributed by them at their own discretion. Out of this confraternity, which stood in no organic connexion with the order, arose in the sixteenth century, according to all probability, the Confraternity of the Scapular.

Another confraternity was a guild established in 1280 at Bologna, and perhaps elsewhere, which held its meetings in the Carmelite church and from time to

time made an offering at a certain altar, but otherwise was entirely independent of the order. As has been seen, some communities of Beguines in the Nether- lands asked, in 1 to-', for affiliation to the order, and thus gave rise to the first convents of Carmelite nuns. At a later period Herman of St Norbert (d. 1686), preaching in 1663 at Termonde, determined five Beguines, among them Anne Puttemans (d. 1671), to sell their property and found the congregation of III.— 24

Maricoles or Maroles, which was aggregated to the order 26 March, 1672; they occupy themselves with the education of poor girls and with the care of the sick in their own homes, and have still many convents in the Dioceses of Mechlin, Ghent, and especially Bruges. A community of thirty-seven hermits living in various hermitages in Bavaria and the Tyrol having asked for aggregation, the General Chapter of the Discalced Carmelites of 1689 granted their wish under certain conditions, among others that not more than four or five should live in each hermitage, but the decree was rescinded in 1692. for what reason is not known, and all connexion between these hermits and the order was severed.

Carmelite Tertiaries. — Tertiaries or members of the Third or Secular Order may be divided into two classes, those living in their own homes and those living in community. The former class is first met with in the middle of the fifteenth century, when the Holy See granted permission to the Carmelites to institute a Third Order of secular persons, after the model of similar institutions attached to other mendi- cant orders. The oldest printed Missals and Brevia- ries contain the rite of admission of such persons; these were then known by the term of bizzoche, which has since acquired a somewhat unpleasant meaning. They were bound to recite certain prayers (in the Teresian Reform also to practise meditation), to keep certain fasts and abstinences, refrain from worldly amusements, and to live under obedience to the superiors of the order; they might wear a distinctive habit resembling that of the friars or nuns. Tertiaries living in community observe a rule similar to, but less austere than, that of the friars; there are two com- munities of Tertiary brothers in Ireland, one at Clon- dalkin, where they have a boarding-school established previous to 1813. and another, in charge of an asylum for the blind, at Drumcondra near Dublin. There are also Tertiary fathers (natives! in the Archdiocese of Verapoly in India, established in 1855, who serve a number of missions.

Tertiary sisters have a convent in Rome founded by Livia Vipereschi for the education of girls; they were approved by Clement IN in 1668. The Austrian congregation has had. since 1S63. ten houses partly for educational purposes, partly for the care of ser- vants. In India, too, there are native Tertian' sisters in Verapoly and Quilon with thirteen houses, boarding schools, and orphanages. A Tertiary convent was founded in Luxemburg in 1886. Finally, mention must be made of the Carmelite Tertiaries of t he Sacred Heart lately established in Berlin, with orphanages and kindergartens in various parts of Germany, Hol- land, England, Bohemia, and Italy.

Statistics. — At the present time there are about 80 convents of Calced Carmelite friars, with about 800 members and 20 convents of nuns; 130 convents of Discalced Carmelite friars, with about 1900 members; the number of convents of nuns, including the French previous to the passing of the Association law, was 360.

lished material

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following notices are necessarily incom-

635 sqq.; Bullarium Carmelitanum, vols. I and II. ed. Mon- SK;nani-s (Rome, 1715. 17181. vols III and IV (Home. 1768 . ed. Ximenes (Rome. 17fisi; RmoTi, Speculum CarmeliUtrum, ed. CvrHANEts (Venice. 1507). ed. IUmei, a Virqine Mama (2 vols, in fol., Antwerp. 16S0). containing the Corpv t medieval Carmelite historians together with numerous disser- tations and polemical writings, and practically superseding such authors as: Falcone. Chrenieon Carmelitarum (Piacenza, 1545); Brussela. Comprndio > ,!<ino (Florence,

1595); Bolarqcez, Chronica* '</'' (Men del \i (Cordova. 1597); Leoindblicato oa Sciacca, Giardino Car- melilano (Palermo. 16(K)-: Aubebtus M

dints uriao (Antwerp, 1610); J. DE CaBTE Ivjutialt

Ordin. B M. V. deMonieCarm. (Antwerp. 1620). I ' m A Jesu, Spirileaium epuiropnrum. Ordm. Carmel. (Pari". 1638 . Daniel A Virg. Maria, liwo Carmeli (Antwerp, ltit.- a svnchronologiral table embracing the events during the life- time of St. Simon Stock (1165-1265) by Seqherls Pauli.