WALKING WITH THE SAINTS l FEAST OF ST. BERTHOLD, THE FOUNDER OF THE CARMELITE ORDER l MARCH 29
The Carmelites are among the famous religious Orders in the world. They live community life, contemplate, pray, give service, and due to their practice of exceptional poverty, they are regarded as one of the four mendicant Orders of the Church. Today, we shall trace its birth and origin through the life of St.
Berthold, the saint who despite the fact that he never claimed to be the initiator of the Order, is however considered by many historians as the founder of the Carmelite Order. St. Berthold, also known as Bartoldus of Calabria (instead of “Westerner”) was born in Limoges, France, in 1155, the son of a Count. He was a brilliant student at the University of Paris. After his ordination to the priesthood, he and his uncle Aymeric, the Latin patriarch of Antioch, joined the third Crusade, a movement to reclaim the Holy Land from the Muslims. While Berthold was in the Holy Land, he travelled to Mount Carmel where he found a
group of hermits living in separate cells or huts. These monks observed strict silence, seclusion, austerity, abstinence and made penances. Berthold gathered the hermits scattered all over Palestine and together they formed a group to live in a common hermitage in honor of the Prophet Elijah. Berthold managed the
building of a church and the first Carmelite monastery dedicated to the Prophet Elijah, who defeated the priests of Baal many years earlier at Carmel as told in the Old Testament. The monks professed to imitate the way of life of the prophet Elijah whom early Christian writers considered as the originator of
monasticism. The holy life of Berthold inspired his companions and they regarded him as a trustworthy leader, so Aymeric appointed Berthold to be the superior of the group, a position he held until his death. Berthold guided the first group of Carmelites for many years until 1195. He knew what was to be done and worked firmly to accomplish the task before him. The people around were drawn to prayer and penances following his examples. Many concluded that it was the life and work of St.
Berthold that laid the foundation for the Carmelite Order, but Berthold distanced himself from this title, although unknowingly, he had done great things very special for the Order. Earlier, he
started to compose a rule to be followed, but he died and did not complete it. His successor, St. Brocard petitioned St. Albert, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, to complete the work Berthold had begun. He codified and completed the work and it was approved by Pope Honorius III in 1226. It is considered to be the primitive rule that became the foundation of the Order of Mount Carmel. The feast of St. Berthold is celebrated on March 29. A few
years after the death of St. Berthold in 1195, Mount Carmel became unsafe for the Western hermits. In 1240 they set out for France, England, Cyprus and Sicily. The first general chapter of the Order was held in England in 1247 under St. Simon Stock, the saint to whom Our Lady entrusted the devotion of wearing the Brown Scapular. In the year 1452, the first group of Carmelite nuns was founded. The most important movement in the Carmelite Order was the reform initiated by St. Teresa of Avila with the cooperation of St. John of the Cross.
His outstanding Virtues are:
piety, humility, charity, courage, commitment, perseverance, integrity and obedience
“Lord, through the intercession of St. Berthold,
help us to imitate his humility and detachment from worldly honors and
