Elijah is a prophet living in solitude, who maintains a thirst for the one God and lives in His presence. He is a man of contemplation, captivated by a burning zeal for God’s sovereignty, whose “word burned like a torch” (Sir 48:1). He is a mystic who, after a long and arduous journey, learns to read new signs of God's presence. He is a prophet who intervenes in the life of the people and guides them in the struggle against false idols back to fidelity to the covenant with the one God. He is a prophet in solidarity with the poor and the marginalized, defending those who suffer violence and injustice. (Constitution 1995, Art. 26)
Since the founding of the Order, the Carmelites find inspiration in him; his influence is present throughout the history of the Order, so they rightly regard him as their spiritual founder.
During the time of the Crusades, several crusaders, drawn by the beauty of Carmel, its geographical location, and also its connection with the name of the prophet Elijah, sought refuge on Mount Carmel. Jacques de Vitry, who was a bishop in Acre from 1216-1228, later described the spiritual rebirth of the Holy Land after the Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries:
Pilgrims devoted to God and pious people flowed into the Holy Land from various parts of the world... Some holy men, however, renounced the world, for they were internally driven by feelings of love and holy desires, burning with spiritual zeal; they chose places to dwell that suited their intentions and pious aspirations better. ... Others, following the example of the holy hermit prophet Elijah, led a hermit life on Mount Carmel, especially in the part that lies above the city of Porphyria, now called Haifa, near the spring that is called Elijah's spring, not far from the monastery of Blessed Mary Magdalene. In their humble cells, resembling beehives, like bees of the Lord, they produced honey that was spiritual sweetness.
Sometime between 1206 and 1214, a group of Latin hermits living “by the spring on Mount Carmel” received from Albert, the patriarch of Jerusalem, “rules for life,” which were later confirmed by Pope Honorius III in 1226. It is unclear whether the reverence for the prophet Elijah led these hermits to Carmel. The rule does not state that the Carmelite way of life is inspired by Elijah. Even later, in the treatise “Fiery Arrow,” written in 1271 by the general prior Nicolaus Gallus in an attempt to lead the Carmelites back to a purely hermit life, there is no mention of this great Old Testament hermit. It is more likely that the simple fact that the first monastery was located on Mount Carmel, along with the subsequent memory of this fact, contributed to the rise and development of these hermits' reverence for St. Elijah. Only in the course of history did the theme of “Elijah” become an integral part of Carmelite spirituality. Some hints at legends about the hermit life that persisted on Carmel from the time of the prophet Elijah until the Crusades can be found in the first section of the constitutions from the general chapter in London in 1281:
We declare and swear that without a doubt, from the time when the prophets Elijah and Elisha lived in piety on Mount Carmel, the holy fathers of both the Old and New Testament, attracted to the solitude of this mountain by the contemplation of heavenly goods, led, at the spring of Elijah, a life of holy penance and uninterrupted fruitful elevation. It was their followers whom Albert, the patriarch of Jerusalem, during the times of Innocent III, united into one community by giving them the Rule, which Innocent’s successor, Pope Honorius, and many other popes afterwards confirmed with respect, thereby approving this order. By taking vows under this Rule, we, their followers, serve the Lord in various parts of the world up to the present day.
Here we can still perceive the difference between the first hermits from the times of the Old and New Testament and their followers during the time of Pope Innocent III. However, in the first section of the constitutions from 1324, these followers are already situated in the time of Jesus Christ. This is to support the idea of an uninterrupted succession of the existence of the Carmelite order from the time of the prophet Elijah. This conviction will lead to unfortunate disputes between the Carmelites and the Jesuit Daniel van Papenbroeck. Meanwhile, the figure of the prophet Elijah became increasingly significant for the spirituality of the Order; in the 15th century, the Carmelite Thomas Netter of Walden wrote without further specification: “Our profession urges us to be like him.”
It seems that the one who first united Marian devotion with the memory of the prophet Elijah was John Baconthorpe († ca. 1348), who writes:
According to the statements of the prophets, the monks settled on Carmel mainly in order to venerate the Blessed Mary... And because Mary is honored and revered by Carmel, it is also right that Carmelites, who venerate her in a special way, can meet on Carmel, dedicated to her. This has been the case in the past, as evidenced by events prophesied in prophecy. Saul also built his triumphal arch as a sign of victory on Carmel, dedicated to the Blessed Mary (1 Sam 15:12); on Carmel, Elijah made a sacrifice (1 Kings 18:23), and Ahaz understood who God was after this sacrifice; Elisha settled on Carmel (2 Kings 4:25). Thus, the prophets and kings had a relationship with Carmel, honoring the “Lady of the Place,” the blessed Mary.
In order that the veneration of the Virgin Mary on her Carmel may continue without interruption, the Carmelite religious order arose. The veneration that we can find in places where the saints lived and died has its origin in sensitivity to God's guidance... But although all who were to be redeemed already venerated in the time of the prophets, according to St. Augustine’s idea in letter 29, the Son of the Blessed Mary who was to come, nevertheless, the fathers of Carmel in the time of Elijah and Elisha, while venerating the Messiah, simultaneously began their order on the Carmel of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is recalled in the ancient history of the order.
The most complete form of this Elijah-like and prophetic spirituality is found in the “Book of the First Monks” from the 14th century. This writing was probably edited by the Catalan provincial Philip Ribot between 1380 and 1390. Ribot presents the history of the Order from Elijah to its relocation to Europe. To add credibility to his narrative, he dates this writing to the early fifth century. In this book, there is an explicit reference to the tradition of the desert fathers:
The prophet Elijah is regarded as the founder of monasticism. With him begins this ancient institution. He was indeed the one who, out of a desire for greater perfection, first went far from cities to devote himself entirely to the contemplation of the divine. He renounced all earthly and worldly things. Led and urged by the Holy Spirit, he began to lead a prophetic and hermit life.
In the cloud rising above the sea (1 Kings 18:44), the prophet distinguished, according to the Book of the First Monks, the symbol of Mary's virginity, which the Carmelites strive to imitate fervently – this image is also incorporated into the current liturgy of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Elijah became a truly significant figure in the life of Edith Stein. He touched upon a very sensitive issue – her Jewish identity. Regarding Elijah, Edith writes, among other things:
“By becoming Catholic, I felt for the first time in my life like a true Jew.”
“We honor the prophet Elijah as our leader and father. Some people consider this merely a ‘legend’ of little significance. We, who live on Carmel and pray to our holy father Elijah every day, know that Elijah is not some mythical figure from ancient history. His spirit actively acts among us in a living tradition and determines our way of life.
The contemporary understanding of the “following” of the prophet Elijah is expressed in the Constitutions of the Order from 1995 in Article 26:
From Elijah, the Carmelite learns to be a man of the desert, of an undivided heart, standing completely before God, wholly committed to the service of God, a man who has uncompromisingly chosen God and burns with zeal for God. Like Elijah, the Carmelite believes in God, allows himself to be led by the Spirit and the Word of God, received deep within his own heart, to testify to God’s presence in the world – by allowing God to be truly God in his life. Finally, the Carmelite sees in Elijah, associated with his band of prophetic disciples, a model of brotherhood lived in community, and learns with him to be a mediator of God’s tenderness towards the needy and humble.
(1) Albert of Vercelli († 1214), Latin patriarch for the Holy Land residing in Acre, venerated in the Order as a saint since 1504.
(2) Elijah, however, had significant combative traits for the crusaders, which – especially against the backdrop of ideas about vassal service to Christ – could resonate: he opposed the cult of Baal supported by Queen Jezebel, announced to King Ahab the Lord’s vengeance for the unlawfully appropriated vineyard of Naboth, and brought the people of Israel back to faith in the Lord. And the desire for the prophet’s experience with God, for an encounter in the “sound of sheer silence” attracted many hermits to Mount Carmel as early as the first centuries of the Christian era: we have testimonies from the Byzantine period of a monastery of Greek monks dedicated to St. Margaret of Antioch, whose feast – July 20 – coincides with the feast of the prophet Elijah.
(3) The actual feast of the prophet Elijah is documented in the liturgy only in the “Missale Carmelitarum” from 1551.
(4) Since the very beginnings of the Order, references to the prophet Elijah, “the founder,” were carried by the necessity of defending the very existence of the Order. The IV Lateran Council prohibited the establishment of new orders in 1215 (just a year after Albert of Vercelli’s death, the author of the Rule). Although the brothers received certain approvals from Popes Honorius III (1226), Gregory IX (1229), and Innocent IV (1245), they received definitive confirmation of their Rule only in 1247. The Franciscans and Dominicans, who could easily regard the newcomers, the Carmelites, as unwelcome competitors, had their well-known founders (Francis † 1226, Dominic † 1221).
The conviction of Elijah as “the founder” of the Carmelites was challenged in the 17th century by the Jesuit Daniel van Papenbroeck. Nevertheless, the Carmelites persistently insist on their position. When the escalation of the dispute loomed, Pope Innocent XII prohibited in 1696 the Jesuits and Carmelites from writing against each other and two years later even ordered silence regarding the origin of the Carmelites.
At the beginning of the 20th century, even the Carmelites officially distanced themselves from Elijah as their historical founder; however, they continue to hold on to his personality as a model, an example, and a source of inspiration.
(From various sources processed by: Norbert Žuška, O.Carm., editorially revised)
