Carmelites of St Elias Celebrate 125th Anniversary in New York

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The North American Province of St. Elias is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the Carmelites in New York City.

Four intrepid Irish Carmelite friars from the Ireland Province arrived in Manhattan in 1889 to minister to the vast Irish population in the newly formed parish of Our Lady of the Scapular of Mount Carmel at 329 E. 28th St. and to New York’s poor at the nearby Bellevue Hospital.

“The Irish friars were very dedicated,” said Father Mario Esposito, O. Carm., prior provincial of the St. Elias Province, headquartered in Middletown.

“The first Mass took place in an old tobacco factory,” he added.

“Our order has always taken very seriously our connections to our roots,” continued Father Esposito. “For many years, many Irish Carmelites served here. We learned at their hands the importance of service and faithfulness to our vocation.”

Cardinal Dolan celebrated Mass this past March 29 to open the congregation’s anniversary year. The liturgy, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, was offered 125 years to the day the Carmelites arrived in New York City.

The Carmelites arrived in Middletown in 1912, first staffing Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish and its missionary churches. The national shrine, originally located at Our Lady of the Scapular in Manhattan, was transferred to Middletown in 1991, where St. Albert’s Priory is located. Both the Carmelite novitiate and cemetery are located on the grounds of St. Albert’s.

Concelebrants at the anniversary Mass included Father Esposito; Father Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., prior general; Father Raúl Maraví Cabrera, O.Carm., general councilor for the Americas; Father Martin Kilmurray, O. Carm., provincial of the Irish Province; Father Bill Harry, O. Carm., provincial of the Most Pure Heart of Mary Province, and three former provincials of the St. Elias Province: Father Matthias DesLauriers, O. Carm., Father Michael Driscoll, O. Carm. and Father Michael Kissane, O. Carm.

About 300 faithful filled the shrine chapel to capacity. They included Carmelite friars and sisters, some of whom had traveled from Rome, Ireland, Vietnam, Trinidad and Tobago. They were joined by diocesan priests; representatives of the order’s lay Carmelite branch; benefactors, friends and other guests of the province.

Through the years, the order has branched out substantially in New York.

A General Commissariat was formed in 1922 and the Province of St. Elias was established in 1931.

From 1889 to 2006, the friars served Bellevue Hospital in lower Manhattan. “We’re very proud that over all of those decades—over 100 years—we were really with the New York people at some of their worst moments, with all the emergencies and crises that come in and out of Bellevue,” Father Esposito said.

The congregation has shared many jubilant moments with New Yorkers as well, including participating in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, for which several friars have had the honor of serving as grand marshal.

“The order is over 800 years old, and has managed to make it to 800 years, because we can see the finger of God and adapt ourselves without losing the core,” he explained.

“Since the order was founded, we’ve gone through the Black Death,” which claimed numerous lives, including those of religious, in Europe; “we’ve been through the Protestant Reformation, the suppression of the religious orders in the 19th century, we’ve survived communism and many, many things,” said the provincial.

Not only has the order survived, it’s become multicultural and managed to expand, added Father Esposito, who cited the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Carmelite charism as integral to the congregation’s growth and ability to adapt to a new reality.

“We were not always involved in campus ministry in our province,” the provincial noted as an example. “Now we have three friars working with the college-age students. This is sort of the front line today to reach out to the young and to help them to appreciate their Catholic faith.”

The congregation can, collectively, draw on the “wellspring of our own vocation to serve the young people,” he said. “Catholic identity and outreach have become very much an important work of the Church and we’re happy to be sharing in that.”

In the archdiocese, the Carmelite friars serve in the parishes of St. Simon Stock, the Bronx; Transfiguration, Tarrytown; Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middletown and the missions of St. Paul’s, Bullville and Our Lady of the Assumption, Bloomingburg.

They also minister at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middletown, as well as Brandsma Priory, the novitiate in Middletown for the North American Province of St. Elias in Middletown and the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary in Chicago. The novitiate includes novices from Canada, Trinidad and Vietnam.

The friars also have a presence on the campuses of Cardinal Hayes High School and Fordham University, both in the Bronx; Iona College, New Rochelle; Mount St. Mary’s College, Newburgh, and at Orange Regional Medical Center, Middletown.