The Stella Maris Monastery (Hebrew: )מנזר סטלה מאריס or Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Haifa is a 19th-century Discalced Carmelite monastery located on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel.
1 History
In the 12th century, during the Crusader rule of the re-gion,
groups of religious hermits began to inhabit the caves of this areainimitation
of Elijahthe Prophet. In the early 13th century, their leader and prior
(referred to in the rule only as ‘Brother B,’ although sometimes claimed
despite an absence of supporting evidence to be either Saint
Brocard or Saint Bertold) asked the patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Albert, to
provide the group with a writ-ten rule of life.
This was the originating act of the Order, who took the name
‘Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel’ or Carmelites. The oratory
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her aspect of Our Lady, Star of the Sea,
(Latin: Stella Maris). Within a few decades, the semonas-tic hermits left the troubled
Holy Land and the Carmelite order spread throughout Europe.
AttheendofSaintLouis’firstcrusadetotheHolyLandin
1254,hetooksixCarmelitesbacktoFrancewithhimand the Order had begun to found
houses throughout Europe from 1238 onwards. However, when Saint Jean d’Acre
fell in 1291, they were forced to withdraw by Mamluks.
In 1631 the Discalced branch of the Order returned to the Holy
Land, led by the Venerable Father Prosper. He had a small monastery constructed
on the promontory at MountCarmel,closetothelighthouse,andthefriarslived
thereuntil1761,whenZahiral-Umar,thetheneffectively independent ruler of Galilee,
ordered them to vacate the site and demolish the monastery.
The Order then moved to the present location, which is directly
above the grotto where the prophet Elijah is said to have lived. Here they
built a large church and monastery,firstclearingthesiteoftheruinsofamedieval
Greekchurch, knownas“theAbbeyofSt. Margaret”and
achapel,thoughttodatebacktothetimeoftheByzantine Empire.
This new church was seriously damaged in Napoleon’s 1799
campaign. Sick and wounded French soldiers were accommodated in the monastery,
and when Napoleon withdrew, the Turks slaughtered them and drove out the
friars.
In 1821, Abdallah Pasha of Acre ordered the ruined churchtobetotallydestroyed,
sothatitcouldnotserveas a fort for his enemies, while he attacked Jerusalem.
The masonry was used to build a Abdallah Pasha’s summer palace and a
lighthouse,[1] which were sold back to the Carmelite order in 1846.[2]
The current church and monastery, built under the orders of
Brother Cassini of the Order, was opened in 1836. Three years later Pope
Gregory XVI bestowed the title of Minor Basilica on the sanctuary, and it is
now known “Stella Maris”, meaning Star of the Sea. For much of the
20th Century it was occupied by the Military, first the British,
and later the Israeli, but at the end of their lease it was handed back to the
Order.
2 Carmelite center
The Monastery serves as a centre of Carmelite spiritu-ality
throughout the world. The symbol of the Order is mounted right above the
entrance door. During the
erec-tionofthechurch,friarswereassaultedbytheirneighbors and had to defend their property and the church guests. As a result, the monastery’s ground floor
is built out of thick walls with few and small openings covered by bars.
The monastery’s main church resembles the shape of a cross. The
ceiling of the hall is roofed and decorated by colorful paintings based on
motifs from Old and New Testaments: Elijah rising to the heavens, David strings
his harp, the prophet Isaiah, the holy family and the four evangelists. Latin
inscriptions of biblical verses are writ-ten around the roofed dome.
Above the altar stands the statue of the Virgin Mary car-rying
Jesus on her knees. The statue is called “our mis-tress the Carmel”. The platform stairs lead to a quarried
caveinwhichastonealtarwasbuiltontopofthestatueof Elijah. New embossments
dedicated to Carmelite figures are hoisted on all four corners of the central hall. At the western wall of the church is a large organ that is played in
religious ceremonies and special concerts dedicated to church music.
3 Gallery
• View from the monastery
• Stella Maris Church interior.
• Stella Maris Church dome.
• Stella Maris monument and lighthouse in a back-
ground
• Stained glass window depicting prophet Elijah
• Church of Notre Dame du Mont Carmel in Haifa
4 References
[1] Dave Winter (1999). Israel handbook. Footprint Travel
Guides. ISBN 1-900949-48-2. pp. 568-570
[2] סטלה מאריס[Stella Maris] (in
Hebrew). Retrieved 2010-07-19.
5 Bibliography
• Irby, Charles Leonard; Mangles, James (1823).
Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria, and Asia Minor; during the
years 1817 & 1818. London: Printed for Private Distribution by T. White
& Co. Irby and
Mangles, 1823, p.193
