Today, September 17, is the feast of Saint Albert of Jerusalem.
Law-giver of the Order of Carmelites.
Albert was born in Castel Gualtieri, Italy. He was educated in theology and law. He entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross at Mortara and was elected prior in 1180. Albert was a canon lawyer who became bishop of Bobbio and of Vercelli. He served as mediator and diplomat under Pope Clement III. Pope Innocent III appointed him Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1204 or 1205. In Jerusalem, he contributed the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert to the newly-founded Carmelite Order.
In 1214 he had been invited to the Fourth Lateran Council, but the Master of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, whom he had reprimanded and deposed for immorality, stabbed him to death on 14 September while taking part in a procession on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.