Carmelite Rite
The rite in use among the Carmelites beginning in about the middle of the twelfth century is known by the name of the Rite of the Holy Sepulchre, the Carmelite Rule, which was written about the year 1210, ordering the hermits of Mount Carmel to follow the approved custom of the Church, which in this instance meant the Patriarchal Church of Jerusalem: "Hi qui litteras noverunt et legere psalmos, per singulas horas eos dicant qui ex institutione sanctorum patrum et ecclesiæ approbata consuetudine ad horas singulas sunt deputati.
The Sanctorale shows influence from Angers, the prose traces of meridional sources, while the lessons and prayers on Holy Saturday are purely Roman.
The Temple itself, the Holy Sepulchre, the vicinity of the Mount of Olives, of Bethany, of Bethlehem, gave rise to magnificent ceremonies, connecting the principal events of the ecclesiastical year with the very localities where the various episodes of the work of Redemption had taken place.
The rite is known to us by means of some manuscripts one (Barberini 659 of A.D. 1160) in the Vatican library, another at Barletta, described by Kohler (Revue de I'Orient Latin, VIII, 1900–01, pp.
An Ordinal, belonging to the second half of the thirteenth century, is preserved at Trinity College, Dublin, while portions of an Epistolarium of about 1270 are at the Maglia, becchiana at Florence (D6, 1787).
The entire Ordinal was rearranged and revised in 1312 by Master Sibert de Beka, and rendered obligatory by the General Chapter, but it experienced some difficulty in superseding the old one.
At the same time the Holy See withdrew the right hitherto exercised by the chapters and the generals of altering the liturgy of the order, and placed all such matters in the hands of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
Great care was taken that the smoke of the thurible and of the torches did not interfere with the clear vision of the host when lifted up for the adoration of the faithful, but the chalice was only slightly elevated.
A solemn commemoration of the Resurrection was held on the last Sunday before Advent; in all other respects the Carmelite Liturgy reflected more especially the devotion of the order towards the Blessed Virgin.
[1] The calendar of saints, in the two oldest recensions of the Ordinal, exhibited some feasts proper to the Holy Land, namely some of the early bishops of Jerusalem, the Biblical Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Lazarus.
The only special features were the feast of St. Anne, probably due to the fact that the Carmelites occupied for a short time a convent dedicated to her in Jerusalem (vacated by Benedictine nuns at the capture of that city in 1187), and the octave of the Nativity of Our Lady, which also was proper to the order.
The rapture of Elijah (17 June) is first to be found in the second half of the fifteenth century in England and Germany; the feast of the Prophet (20 July) dates at the earliest from 1551.
[1] For singing, the Ordinal of 1312 allowed fauxbourdon, at least on solemn occasions; organs and organists are mentioned with ever-increasing frequency from the first years of the fifteenth century, the earliest notice being that of Mathias Johannis de Lucca, who in 1410 was elected organist at Florence; the organ itself was a gift of Johannes Dominici Bonnani, surnamed Clerichinus, who died at an advanced age on 24 October 1416.
After considering the question at its General Chapters of 1965, 1968 and 1971, the Order of Carmelites of the Ancient Observance (formerly styled "calced") decided in 1972 to abandon its traditional rite in favour of the Mass of Paul VI.
The hermits see in it a return to something of the older usage, a liturgical pattern that is better suited in style and shape to the needs of a contemplative community that spends much longer in choir than the friars.
The cloistered religious community of the Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Wyoming celebrate mass according to the traditional Latin liturgy of the Carmelite Rite.
