The National Shrine of
Our Lady Of Mount Carmel
Ministry of the Carmelite Friars, Province of St. Elias
Designated Shrine pilgrimage site by the
Archdiocese of New York for Jubilee Year 2025!
SHRINE HISTORY
February 25, 1991 is an important day in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s over eight decade long history. On that day, in a letter from John Cardinal O’Connor to Fr. Matthias Des Lauriers, O. Carm. (Prior of the Carmelite Province of St. Elias) the Cardinal approved the Carmelite’s petition to relocate the Shrine from Manhattan to Middletown. A little over a year later the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was incorporated as a Not-for-Profit Organization and Fr. Matthias was named the “re-located” National Shrine’s first director by the newly elected Prior Provincial.
While many area residents have been with us from the beginning of our time in Middletown, the birth of the Shrine began 50 years earlier at the Carmelite’s Our Lady of the Scapular (OLS) on 28th Street in Manhattan.
On July 16, 1941 (the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) the Most Rev. Hilary Doswald, O. Carm. (Prior General of the Order of Carmelites) designated OLS as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. A few months later, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Fr. Lawrence Flanagan, O.Carm , pastor of OLS declared that the first apostolate of the Shrine was to provide Scapulars to members of the armed forces. Fr. Gabriel Pausbach,O. Carm., who was named the first director of the National Shrine, created the Scapular Militia to meet the goals of the Scapular Militia of making and distributing the scapulars. By the end of the War, hundreds of volunteers had made millions of Scapulars.
With the War over and a job-well done completed,
the new Shrine Director, Fr. Donald O’Calllaghan, O. Carm.,
dedicated the next 20 years of his vocation to seeing
to it that the National Shrine not only served the needs
of the parishioners of OLS, but it had a reach that extended
well beyond the borders of the five boroughs of New York City.
Every year a growing number of pilgrims would visit the Shrine.
To accommodate the growing needs of the Shrine’s guests,
OLS opened the Marian Center. This new center
featured displays on and about the Carmelites, provided rooms
for meetings and lectures, and opened a book and gift store.
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel continued
its mission even after OLS merged with nearby St. Stephen’s in 1990. A year later, Cardinal O’Connor, approved the Shrine’s move from Manhattan to Middletown.
And a good move it was. The grounds of St. Albert’s Seminary, a Middletown fixture since 1917, offered many advantages not provided by the urban landscape of 28th Street. With over 65 “pastoral” acres of tree-lined paths, well-maintained grounds , and a beautiful chapel, the newly located National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was met with broad approval. It was only a matter of time before the Shrine became home to a new era of pilgrims seeking a place where their faith could be nourished by the Carmelite charism.
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has played host to hundreds of pilgrim groups, parish retreats, confirmation classes, prayer services, feast day and healing Masses, Lay Carmelite conferences, and individuals who walk the grounds with God at their side.
A multitude of thanks go to all the Carmelite friars who have served as
Shrine directors. Their contributions are too many to list, but let
everyone know that their dedication to the mission of the Shrine has
made it possible for us to grow and prosper.
Fr. Gerard Tang Choon, O.Carm., current rector, and the Shrine’s staff are
committed to the goal of making The National Shrine of Our Lady of
Mount Carmel a world-wide known pilgrimage site. Their hard work can
be evidenced by a number of changes at the Shrine.
Our designation as an official Jubilee 2025 Pilgrimage of Hope site
provides us with new opportunities to share our gifts with others.
Carmelite Saints and Doctors
During the canonization of Saint Nuno Alvares (April, 2009) Pope Benedict said, “Carmel teaches the Church how to pray.” That’s what Carmel has always been about: prayer. And that’s what being a Carmelite – whether friar, nun, or Lay Carmelite – is all about: prayer. It’s not method; it’s emphasis.
That is the witness of the great Carmelite saints. When facing a “dark night of the spirit” or a “dark night of the soul,” Saint John of the Cross will tell you to keep praying. When daunted by the heavy lifting that true self-understanding entails, Saint Teresa of Avila will tell you to keep praying. When vexed by the everyday foibles of the people around you, Saint Therese of Lisieux will tell you to keep praying. Or even when facing the darkest caverns of the Nazi prison camps (or the equivalent in your life) Blessed Titus Brandsma will tell you to keep praying.
The first hermits lived on Mount Carmel in Israel in the time of Elijah the Prophet, hundreds of years before Christ. Later, many Crusaders went to the Holy Land to free such holy places as Bethlehem, Nazareth and many other sites associated with the life of The Lord Jesus, from the Moslems. After they achieved their task of freeing the Holy Land, many of them stayed on Mount Carmel; a mountain range which juts out into the Mediterranean Sea near the present city of Haifa, along the southern border of present-day Lebanon.
We can read about the Prophet Elijah in the First and Second Books of Kings. There were also Jews and Moslem Hermits on Mount Carmel dedicated to the life of Elijah the Prophet. This all took place between 1190 and 1206. The first written document of the Carmelites, our RULE, dates to 1206. The Christian Hermits from Mount Carmel went to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Albert, (not of Trapani) and asked for a Rule of Life. That was the official beginning of the Carmelites. In 1245, the Moslems recaptured much of the Holy Land. They massacred most of the Carmelites. Those who escaped returned to their home countries of Italy, France, England and Germany. It is from these 4 countries in Europe that the Order spread throughout the world. Today, there are 5200 Carmelites of all branches of the Order, male and female, throughout the world.
WHO ARE THE CARMELITES?
