Displaying items by tag: Calendar of Feasts and Memorials

6 November Memorial

St. Nuno Alvares was always a religious man. As a soldier and knight of the noble class, he carried the sacred images of the crucified Christ, the Virgin Mary, and of the two patron saints of the knight, St. George and St. James.

Having fulfilled his obligations as parent, re-established the peace with Castile, and concluded the African expeditions which he took part in as supreme head of the Portuguese army, the Constable began his work on a promise he had made to the Virgin: the building of a votive church. He chose the highest spot in Lisbon and placed the first stone in 1389. The construction lasted for 30 years. When completed, it was most sumptuous with beautiful gothic architecture and rich decoration. Nuno wanted a Marian order to take possession of the church and chose the Carmelites.

The Constable was very familiar with the Order. A former military companion, Juan Gonçalves, had professed in the monastery of Moura; also he had a great friendship with Alfonso de Alfama, Vicar General in Portugal.

In 1423, the Carmelites celebrated their first Provincial Chapter in Portugal, an occasion for Nuno to publicly request admission into the Order as a layman. He took the name Fray Nuno de Santa Maria and renounced his titles and declined to enter the clerical state despite his family lineage, wisdom, and cultural preparation. For Nuno, to serve the servants of God, to be the lowest in the community, was an evangelical option that he fully embraced. He refused to maintain any honors in the cloister.

The king, down to the lowest of his vassals, were shocked by the news that the Grand Constable intended to become a lay brother in a religious order. Nuno had no doubts however and chose the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady as the date to be invested in the habit.

Numerous stories are told about Nuno’s life with the Carmelites. When he met his old friend and former vassal, Fr. Juan Gonçalves, then prior of the house in Lisbon, Nuno would kiss the prior’s hand and ask permission to go out with the classical formulation “Benedicite Pater” to which the prior would respond “At your orders, my Constable. God bless you.” Both took a humble stance toward the other.

He lived the rest of his life in such humility until he died in April of 1431 (Some sources give his death date as November 1, 1431). His fame for holiness rapidly spread throughout the whole country; for the Portuguese he was always the Holy Constable.

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5 November Optional Memorial

On November 5, we celebrate the memory of Frances D’Amboise, once duchess of Brittany, who died as a Carmelite nun in Nantes, France. Her meeting with the prior general, John Soreth, and her subsequent efforts on behalf of the Carmelites had a transforming effect on Carmel in France. The Carmelite historian, Joachim Smet, calls it “one of those warm and human friendships between saints.” In fact, the establishment of enclosed Carmelite monasteries in France is generally attributed to her. She and her husband had already founded a monastery of Poor Clares in Nantes which she intended to join after the death of her husband. However, her health failed her. She considered devoting herself to the care of the poor in a hospital.

Frances received the Carmelite habit on March 25, 1468 from Bl. John Soreth. She insisted on being treated the same as any novice. Later, as prioress, Frances taught, “We are all sisters wearing the same habit and making the same profession. The Rule is not longer for one than for another.”

During the French Revolution the memory of Bl. Frances D’Amboise were dispersed, and her body was desecrated. Unfortunately, most of the instructions and exhortations she gave her nuns for their formation, like the one above, have been lost. The few fragments that remain reveal her to be a strong, loving, generous woman who was truly in love with God. She is depicted wearing an ermine cape* instead of the white wool cape of Carmel to recall her rank as duchess— iconography she herself would not have allowed.

 * Portrait of Blessed Françoise d'Amboise - wearing the habit of a Carmelite nun and the crown and ermine cape signifying her rank as Duchess of Brittany.

15 October Feast

Known to her family as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, she became the reformer of Carmel, mother of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars, "spiritual mother" (as is engraved under her statue in the Vatican Basilica), patron of Catholic writers (from 1965) and Doctor of the Church (1970), the first woman with Saint Catherine of Siena to ever receive this last title.

Saint Teresa is among the most important figures of all time for Catholic spirituality. Her works - especially the four best known (The Life, The Way of Perfection, The Mansions and The Foundations) - together with her more historical works, contain a doctrine which encompasses the whole of the spiritual life, from the first steps right up to intimacy with God at the centre of the Interior Castle. Her Letters show her occupied with a great variety of everyday problems. 

Read more about the life of St Teresa

To learn more about the life of St. Teresa and her work and legacy, we suggest reading the books both published by Edizioni Carmelitane:

• The Heirs of St. Teresa of Avila
   
• "I Consider the Labor Well Spent" A Mini-Course on the Interior Castle

1 October Feast

The year 2023 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marie-Francoise Thérèse Martin on January 2 in Alençon in the Normandy region in northwest France. In 1888 she became a cloistered Discalced Carmelite nun in the town of Lisieux where her family had moved following her mother’s death. Following her death on September 30, 1897, of tuberculosis at the age of 24, she became known around the world as St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face through the publication of her autobiography now known as Story of a Soul.  

This year also marks the 100th anniversary of St. Térèse’s beatification. Pope Pius XI performed the ceremony on April 29, 1923. Two years later he would canonize her. Two years after that, in 1927, he declared her patroness of the missions along with the Jesuit Francis Xavier. The pope referred to Thérèse as “the star of his pontificate.” During his homily at the canonization, the pope said, “If everyone follows this path of spiritual childhood, everyone will see how easily reformation of human society can be achieved, which we have proposed since the beginning of our pontificate. On the wall of the niche in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica where Pius XI is buried, there is a mosaic of the saint.

Thérèse’s simple yet powerful spirituality has captured the imagination of Catholics and non-Catholics alike for the last century. Her sense of commitment led her to a profound experience of the love of God and of neighbor. She never had an easy life, but she did live with a great sense of peace and joy.

To learn more about St. Therese

St. Thérèse, Her Family and Her Spirituality

Proclamation of St. Therese of Lisieux as Doctor of the Church

150^th Anniversary of the Birth of Thérèse of Lisieux Celebrated in Association with UNESCO

Edizioni Carmelitane recently published a book in a year of anniversaries associated with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: the 150th anniversary of her birth in 1873 and the 100th anniversary of her beatification by Pope Pius Xi in 1923.

To learn more visit

Singing the Mercies of the Lord Writings on Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

17 September Feast

Saint Albert was born towards the middle of the 12th century in Castel Gualtieri in Emilia, Italy. He entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross at Mortara, Pavia, and became prior there in 1180. In 1184, he was named bishop of Bobbio, and the following year he was transferred to Vercelli which he governed for twenty years. 

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Edizioni Carmelitane, the editorial house of the General Curia of Carmelite Order, has recently published Albert and His Rule, a book written by biblical scholar and Carmelite Michael Mulhall.

The Carmelites are one of a small handful of religious communities that can trace their origins back into the Middle Ages. The Rule that Carmelites continue to follow started with Albert, the patriarch of Jerusalem from 1206 to 1214. Some thirty-three years after Albert's death, Pope Innocent IV granted full recogntion of these Carmelites and to the Rule first written for them by Albert.

Albert's spirit still imbues the Rule. Over the years following his death three popes addressed themselves to these Carmelite hermits. Pope Honorius III acknowledged the fact that they had received their way of life from Albert, and consequently they need not fear a later prohibition against following their own unique Rule. Pope Gregory IX, who had befriended both St. Francis and St. Dominic, put the hermits under his personal protection. Lastly, Pope Innocent IV authorized two Dominicans to help bring all their changes together into one text. It is this text that we read today as the Carmelite Rule.

The book Albert and His Rule attempts to retrieve the mindset that first enlivened and held together the vision that Albert fashioned for them. lt is this originai spirit that Albert and His Rule attempts to retrieve. 

Visit the New Official Website of Edizioni Carmelitane

1 September Optional Memorial

Saint Teresa Margaret Redi was born in Arezzo on 1st September 1747 into the noble family of Redi. In 1764, she entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Florence, changing her baptismal name of Anna Maria to that of Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

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25 August Optional Memorial

Mariam Baouardy was born at Abellin in Galilee on 5th January 1846 to very poor parents who were good living and devoted Greek-rite Catholics. She was left an orphan after the death of her parents at only three years of age when, together with her brother Paul, she was entrusted to the care of an uncle,who had moved to Alexandria in Egypt a few years earlier. She never received any formal education and remained unable to read. At thirteen years of age, wanting to give herself only to God, she firmly refused the marriage which her uncle, according to the Eastern custom, had arranged for her. The next few years, she worked as a domestic in Alexandria, Jerusalem, Beirut and Marseilles.

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July 27 | Obligatory Memorial (Feast: Ger, Phil, Del Colombia)

A noted writer and journalist, in 1935, St. Titus was appointed adviser to the Dutch bishops for Catholic journalists. In the period leading up to and during the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, he argued passionately against the National Socialist ideology, basing his stand on the Gospels. He continually defended the right to freedom in education and for a free the Catholic Press. As a result, he was imprisoned.

He passed from one prison or camp to another until he arrived in Dachau where he was killed on July 26, 1942. He was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on November 3, 1985 and was canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, in St Peter’s Square.

The Order’s petition to have the celebration of St. Titus Brandsma changed from an optional memorial to an obligatory memorial for the whole Order was accepted. The Provinces of Germany and the Philippines as well as the General Delegation in Columbia who have St. Titus as their patron celebrate the day as a feast.

Read more about the life of St Titus Brandsma

Reflections on St. Titus' Presence Today
      From the Order's Website - ocarm.org
 

Books Available on St. Titus Brandsma, O. Carm.
      Go Here

12 August Optional Memorial

Bl. Isidore Bakanja, a member of the Boangi tribe, was born in Bokendela (Congo) between 1880 and 1890. In order to survive, even as a boy, he had to work as bricklayer or in farms. He was converted to Christianity in 1906. He was working in a plantation run by a colonialist in Ikili and was forbidden by the owner to spread Christianity among his fellow-workers.

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9 August Memorial (Feast in the provinces of Europe: Patron of Europe)

Edith Stein was born at Breslau on 12th October 1891 to German Jewish parents, and after her secondary education, she enroled in the department of philosophy in the city university. In 1913, she transferred to the University of Gotingen to study under Edmund Husserl. Until the age of thirteen years, she was in effect an atheist. She had her first serious encounter with Christianity listening to Max Scheler. In 1916, she continued and completed her studies at Fribourg where she wrote her doctorate directed by Husserl. She remained working in the university until 1921.

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