MOUNT CARMEL: CARMELITES FROM THE 12TH CENTURY

The Grandma at Mount Carmel, Haifa

Today, July, 16, The Grandma wants to congratulate all the 'Carmens' in her families: M. Carmen Collins, Carmen & M. Carmen Holmes, Carmen Poppins and Carme Bean. 

She wants to dedicate this post to them, where it explains which is the origin of their name, one of the most popular in the Mediterranean cultures and patron of sailors. Before writing this new post, The Grandma has revised some English with her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Chapter 19).

More info: Modals I & II

Mount Carmel means God's vineyard and it is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situated there, most notably the city of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, located on the northern slope.

The name is presumed to be directly from the Hebrew language word Carmel, which means fresh, or vineyard.

The Carmel range is approximately 6.5 to 8 kilometres wide, sloping gradually towards the southwest, but forming a steep ridge on the northeastern face, 546 metres high. The Jezreel Valley lies to the immediate northeast. 

The Grandma at the Carmelite Monastery

The range forms a natural barrier in the landscape, just as the Jezreel Valley forms a natural passageway, and consequently the mountain range and the valley have had a large impact on migration and invasions through the Levant over time. The mountain formation is an admixture of limestone and flint, containing many caves, and covered in several volcanic rocks. The sloped side of the mountain is covered with luxuriant vegetation, including oak, pine, olive, and laurel trees.

Several modern towns are located on the range, including Yokneam on the eastern ridge, Zikhron Ya'akov on the southern slope, the Druze communities of Daliyat al-Karmel and Isfiya on the more central part of the ridge, and the towns of Nesher, Tirat Hakarmel, and the city of Haifa, on the far northwestern promontory and its base. There is also a small kibbutz called Beit Oren, which is located on one of the highest points in the range to the southeast of Haifa.

More information: Tourist Israel

As part of a 1929–1934 campaign, between 1930 and 1932, Dorothy Garrod excavated four caves, and a number of rock shelters, in the Carmel mountain range at el-Wad, el-Tabun, and Es Skhul. Garrod discovered Neanderthal and early modern human remains, including the skeleton of a Neanderthal female, named Tabun I, which is regarded as one of the most important human fossils ever found.

Elijah, Carmel National Park

The excavation at el-Tabun produced the longest stratigraphic record in the region, spanning 600,000 or more years of human activity.

The four caves and rock-shelters, Tabun, Jamal, el-Wad, and Skhul, together yield results from the Lower Paleolithic to the present day, representing roughly a million years of human evolution. 

There are also several well-preserved burials of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens and passage from nomadic hunter-gatherer groups to complex, sedentary agricultural societies is extensively documented at the site. Taken together, these emphasize the paramount significance of the Mount Carmel caves for the study of human cultural and biological evolution within the framework of palaeo-ecological changes.

In 2012, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee added sites of human evolution at Mount Carmel to the List of World Heritage Sites. The World Heritage Site includes four caves, Tabun, Jamal, el-Wad, and Skhul, on the southern side of the Nahal Me’arot/Wadi El-Mughara Valley. The site fulfils criteria in two separate categories, natural and cultural.

More information: Time Out

During World War I, Mount Carmel played a significant strategic role. The Battle of Megiddo took place at the head of a pass through the Carmel Ridge, which overlooks the Valley of Jezreel from the south. General Allenby led the British in the battle, which was the turning point in the war against the Ottoman Empire.

The Jezreel Valley had played host to many battles before, including the very historically significant Battle of Megiddo between the Egyptians and Canaanites, but it was only in the 20th century battle that the Carmel Ridge itself played a significant part, due to the developments in munitions.

The Grandma at the Carmelite Monastery

Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel. In ancient Canaanite culture, high places were frequently considered to be sacred, and Mount Carmel appears to have been no exception; Thutmose III lists a holy headland among his Canaanite territories, and if this equates to Carmel. According to the Books of Kings, there was an altar to Yahweh on the mountain, which had fallen into ruin by the time of Ahab, but Elijah built a new one. Iamblichus describes Pythagoras visiting the mountain on account of its reputation for sacredness, stating that it was the most holy of all mountains, and access was forbidden to many, while Tacitus states that there was an oracle situated there, which Vespasian visited for a consultation; Tacitus states that there was an altar there, but without any image upon it, and without a temple around it.

A Catholic religious order was founded on Mount Carmel in the 12th century, named the Carmelites, in reference to the mountain range; the founder of the Carmelites is unknown; in the original Rule or Letter of Life given by Albert, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who was resident in Acre, around the year 1210 this hermit is referred to simply as Brother B; he probably died around the date 1210 and could have been either a pilgrim, someone serving out a penance or a crusader who had stayed in the Holy Land.  

More information: La Beaute du Carmel

The Order was founded at the site that it claimed had been the location of Elijah's cave, 520 m above sea level at the northwestern end of the mountain range; this, perhaps not coincidentally, is also the highest natural point of the mountain range.

Discalced Carmelite, Mount Carmel, Haifa

Though there is no documentary evidence to support it, Carmelite tradition suggests that a community of Jewish hermits had lived at the site from the time of Elijah until the Carmelites were founded there; prefixed to the Carmelite Constitution of 1281 was the claim that from the time when Elijah and Elisha had dwelt devoutly on Mount Carmel, priests and prophets, Jewish and Christian, had lived praiseworthy lives in holy penitence adjacent to the site of the fountain of Elisha in an uninterrupted succession.

A Carmelite monastery was founded at the site shortly after the Order itself was created, and was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Star of the Sea, Stella Maris in Latin, a common medieval presentation of her. Although Louis IX of France is sometimes named as the founder, he was not, and had merely visited it in 1252. 

The Carmelite Order grew to be one of the major Catholic religious orders worldwide, although the monastery at Carmel has had a less successful history.  

More information: See The Holy Land

During the Crusades the monastery often changed hands, frequently being converted into a mosque; under Islamic control the location came to be known as El-Maharrakah, meaning place of burning, in reference to the account of Elijah's challenge to the priests of Hadad. In 1799 the building was finally converted into a hospital, by Napoleon, but in 1821 the surviving structure was destroyed by the pasha of Damascus. A new monastery was later constructed directly over a nearby cave, after funds were collected by the Carmelite Order for restoration of the monastery. The cave, which now forms the crypt of the monastic church, is termed Elijah's grotto by the Discalced Carmelite friars who have custody of the monastery.

One of the oldest scapulars is associated with Mount Carmel and the Carmelites. According to Carmelite tradition, the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was first given to St. Simon Stock, an English Carmelite, by the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Carmelites refer to her under the title Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and celebrate 16 July as her feast day. 

More information: Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund

That profound night freedom was agreeable and exciting. 

Carmen Laforet