Historyfish.net Carmelites

The Friars

The friars differed from the monks in certain ways. The brethren by their profession were bound, not to any locality or house, but to the province, which usually consisted of the entire number of houses in a country. They did not, consequently, form individual families in their various establishments, like the monks in their monasteries. They also, at first, professed the strictest poverty, not being allowed to possess even corporate property like the monastic Orders. They were by their profession mendicants, living on alms, and only holding the mere buildings in whey they dwelt.

Carmelites

The Carmelite Friars were so called from the place of their origin. They were also named “White Friars” from the colour of the cloak of their habit, and Friars of the Blessed Virgin. These friars are first heard of in the twelfth century, on being driven out of Palestine by the persecution of the Saracens. Their Rule is chiefly founded on that of St. Basil, and was confirmed by Pope Honorius III, in A.D. 1224, and finally approved by Innocent VI, in 1250. They were brought into England by John Vesey and Richard Grey, and established their first houses in the north at Alnwick, and in the south at Ailesford in Kent. At the latter place the first European Chapter of the Order was held in A.D. 1245. In the sixteenth century there were about forty houses in England and Wales.

English Monastic Life by F.A. Gasquet. (pages 234 & 241.)

Carmelite Houses in England (Gasquet doesn't give a lot of information about Carmelite houses in his index. All that is available is listed here. For more English Religious Houses, see the index page):

Allerton, North	Yorks, W. R.
Alnwick (see Holne)	Northumberland.
Appleby	Westmoreland.
Aylesford	Kent.
Blakeney, or Sniterley	Norfolk.
Boston	Lincoln.
Bristol	Somerset.
Burham Norton	Norfolk.
Cambridge	Cambridge.
Cardiff	Glamorgan.
Chester	Cheshire.
Coventry	Warwick.
Denbigh	Denbigh.
Doncaster	Yorks, W. R.
Gloucester	Gloucester.
Hitchin	Herts.
Hull	Yorks, E. R.
Hulne (Alnwick)	Northumberland.
Ipswich	Suffolk.
Lenton	Notts.
Lincoln	Lincoln.
London	Middlesex.
Losenham, in Newenden	Kent.
Ludlow	Salop.
Lynn	Norfolk.
Maldon	Essex.
Marlborough	Wilts.
Newcastle-on-Tyne	Northumberland.
Northhampton	Northants.
Norwich	Norfolk.
Nottingham	Notts.
Oxford	Oxford.
Plymouth	Devon.
Pontefract	Yorks, W. R.
Ruthin	Denbigh.
Sandwich	Kent.
Shoreham, New	Sussex.
Stamford	Northants.
Taunton	Somerset.
Winchester	Hants.
Yarmouth	Norfolk.
York	Yorks.

Carmelite Links:

A wonderful site, beautifully laid out: The Virtual Carmelite Museum.

The British Province of Carmelites, a lovely page with links to pictures and information to three medieval friaries: Hulne, Coventry, and Hitchin.

Through the Carmelites.info page, links to monasteries of the Carmelite Nuns, and listings of the Carmelite Hermit Communities.

The 'Discalced (Teresian) Carmelite Family in England, Scotland and Wales.

The Carmelite Order, an article from Newadvent.org.

'Friaries: Carmelite Friars', especially the Carmelite Friars of Ludlow. A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 2 (1973), pp. 93-5. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=39936. From British History Online.

Corrections, questions? email me