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Provinces

Province - Introduction

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The Province is the basic unit of the life and activity of the Order. It consists of the friars who belong to it, gathered in several houses and governed by a Prior Provincial with his Council, in accordance with the norms of canon law and with the Order's own laws (Carmelite Constitutions 179). At this moment the Carmelite Order has 19 Provinces in the world.

Province of Arago-Valentina

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The origin of the Order in Spain remains shrouded in mist, though the researches of such scholars as Frs. Otger Steggink, Pablo Garrido and Balbino Velasco Bayon, have done much to clarify the problem.
According to a 16th century English Carmelite, the General Chapter of London in 1254 decreed the founding of houses of the Order in Spain. In fact a number of houses are known to have been in existence not long after that date.

Province of Australia and Timor Leste

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After the short-lived mission at Merthyr Tydvil in Wales, the Irish Carmelite Province undertook a foundation in far-off Australia, to which Ireland in the past had contributed many inhabitants in the persons of political exiles. Among the deportees to Botany Bay after the Rebellion of 1798, were members of the Third Order or Scapular Confraternity, James Dempsey and John Butler, who arrived in Sydney in 1802. The former was a religious leader in the priestless Catholic community and supervised the construction of the first St.

Province of Betica

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The first house was opened in Andalusia in Gibraleón (1306 - 1320) by the Infantes de la Cerda. From there, the Carmelites made a foundation in (1358) under the patronage of King D. Pedro I. Later on, in the vicinity of the capital, they opened the convent of Escacena del Campo (Huelva) in 1416, and Ecija (Seville) in 1425.

Province of Castile

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This Province is honoured by the fact that it is the Province of two great saints of the Church: Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross. It was founded in 1416, when the Province of Spain was split into the two Provinces of Aragon and Castile. It was this Province which preserved the title and location of the ancient Province of Spain up to 1469.

Province of Catalonia

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Some of the foundations of the Province of Catalonia are among the oldest in the Order. The early history of what is now the Province, involving Southern France, Northern Spain and the Balearic Islands, reflects the complicated political situation of the time. In 1336 the Vicariate of Perpignan was erected from the Province of Spain, also called Aragon. In 1339 it appears as the Vicariate of Perpignan and Majorca. In 1342 it was raised to the status of Province with the name Majorca; from 1354 it bore its present name.

Province of Great Britain

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England was one of the earliest sites of the Carmelites in Europe. Their coming exemplifies the classic scenario of the Carmelites fleeing from the Holy Land (Israel) under the protection of the crusaders; in fact it was the crusader, Sir Richard Grey of Codnor, who brought them back in 1242 and settled them on his lands at Aylesford in Kent. Sir William de Vescy also gave them a home in Hulne in Northumberland about the same time, or earlier.

Province of St Thomas - India

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On June 13, 1973, the Provincial Chapter of the Upper German Province decided to start a foundation of the Carmelite Order in India. The Prior Provincial, Fr. Joseph Kotschner, travelled to India looking for opportunities to establish the Order in the subcontinent. As a result of the discussions with many bishops the first group of students arrived in Bamberg, Germany, at the end of 1973.

Province of Indonesia

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Carmelites visited Indonesia in the 17th century, when Blessed Dionysius of the Nativity and Redemptus of the Cross suffered martyrdom on Sumatra.
Having successfully contributed to the restoration of the Rio de Janeiro Province (Brazil), the Carmelites in the Netherlands turned their thoughts to undertaking the work of evangelisation in the Dutch East Indies.

Province of Ireland

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The houses of the Order in Ireland, the first of which was founded in Leighlinbridge, Co. Kildare in 1271, were once part of the English Province. But because of dissension, this association seemed to last only till 1300 and the autonomous Irish Province was erected in 1305. The Protestant Reformation brought much damage to the Province: in 1570 there were only four or five houses left in the Province and the Prior General, Fr. Rubeus, ordered the surviving confreres to return to these houses under the authority of a Vicar Provincial.
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