Today, August 17, is the memorial of Blessed Angelo Agostino Mazzinghi. Carmelite provincial and reformer. Angelo Agostino was born in 1385 in Florence, Italy. He became a Carmelite in 1413 and was ordained priest. He served successively as superior of the Order’s monasteries in Le Selve, Frascati, and his native Florence. He was the first …
Today, August 12, is the memorial of Blessed Isidore Bakanja. Carmelite martyr. Isidore was born in 1887 in Bokendela, Congo. He was a member of the Boangi tribe. The young Isidore had to work as a bricklayer and farmer in order to survive. He was converted to Christianity in 1906. He worked in a plantation …
Today, August 9, is the memorial of Saint Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Carmelite martyr. Born in 1891, Edith was the youngest of seven children in a Jewish family. She lost interest and faith in Judaism by age 13. She was a brilliant student and philosopher with an interest in phenomenology. She …
Today, July 27, is the feast of Saint Titus Brandsma. Titular patron saint of the Philippine Carmelite Province of St. Titus Brandsma. Born in the Netherlands in 1881, Titus was a Carmelite priest, philosophy professor, journalist, educator, and orator. In 1935 he wrote against anti-Jewish marriage laws, which brought him to the attention of the …
Today, July 26, is the memorial of Saint Anne and Saint Joaquim. Protectors of the Order of Carmelites. Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Throughout its long history, the Carmelite Order has promoted devotion to Christ’s family as a means of drawing closer to him. Since the official title of the Order (“The Brothers and …
Today, July 20, is the Solemnity of Saint Elijah the Prophet. Father of the Carmelite Order. The origin of Carmel goes back 800 years before Christ, to a prophet named Elijah, who had a fiery zeal for the Lord. Elijah, meaning “My Lord is Yahweh,” had to face the issues of his day and was …
Today, July 16, is the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early …
Today, July 13, is the memorial of Saint Teresa of the Andes. Carmelite religious. The future saint was born Juana Enriqueta Josefina de los Sagrados Corazones Fernández y Solar in Santiago, Chile into an upper class family in 1900. Early in her life she read “The Story Of A Soul,” the classic autobiography of St. …
Today, July 9, is the memorial of Blessed Jane Scopelli. Carmelite religious. Born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 1439 to parents Simone and Caterina Scopelli, As a child, she recognized she had a vocation, but her parents discouraged her from pursuing it. Jane made the most of her time in the house. She began her …
Today, June 14, is the memorial of Saint Elisha the Prophet. Carmelite and prophet. “Elisha came to Elijah, who threw his cloak over him and he abandoned the oxen, followed Elijah and became his servant” (1 K 19, 19. 21). As Elijah was taken up by a fiery chariot, Elisha asked to inherit “a double-portion” …