“Look to the rock whence you are hewn, the quarry from which you were cut” Isaias 51:1
The Carmelite order developed from a single community of hermits. They were Latin Christians living after the example of St. Elijah the prophet on Mt. Carmel, in Palestine. In the early years of the thirteenth century, they were given a rule of life by St. Albert, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Their chapel was dedicated to Our Lady. Carmelites have been always regarded themselves as children in a very special way of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
From about 1238, hermits from Mt. Carmel began establishing communities in various parts of Europe. In 1247, their rule of life (now solemnly conformed by the Holy See), was adapted to meet the needs of an order spreading to all of Europe. They became a mendicant order; though the old hermit way of life was not forgotten and never died out, since it was ever present to them in their rule.
In 1562, however, a Spanish Carmelite, known to us as Our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila, later assisted by another great Carmelite Our Holy Father St. John of the Cross, established what was to become a completely new branch of the Carmelite Order: The Discalced Carmelites. Discalced comes from the Latin word meaning “without shoes.” They were so called because in sign or token of their more austere way of life, they wore the rope sandals of the poor in place of leather shoes. The Discalced Carmelites, both nuns and friars, aimed at a more retired and contemplative way of living, in keeping with the spirit of the original thirteenth century rule.
For Our Holy Mother, St. Teresa of Jesus, every new foundation became a Carmel where the life of those hermits on Mt. Carmel in Palestine was imitated. Every Carmel is a dessert, in a mountain, where the consecrated community lives in allegiance to Jesus Christ in a life of prayer, silence and solitude.
“Fix your eyes always on the ancestry from which we have come, those holy prophets. How many saints we have in heaven who have worn this habit! Let us adopt the holy presumption that with the Lord’s help we will be like them”
Holy Mother St. Teresa – Foundations, 29,33
in Eugene, Oregon
Our Carmel of Maria Regina here in Oregon was founded November 6, 1957, by 6 sisters who came from the Carmel of St. Teresa in Alhambra, California. Mother Mariam Quinn, our founding prioress, sister Mary Grace Lalonde, Sister Mary Veronica Doerner, Sister Mary Gauvin, Sister Mary Genevieve Reyes and Sister Mary Margaret Wright.
The Alhambra Carmel was nearing its capacity for the third time in eight years, due to a number of aspirants. Mother Miriam, then prioress, approached Cardinal James Francis McIntyre about the possibility of yet another foundation. His Eminence wrote to his old friend, Archbishop Edward D. Howard of Portland, Oregon, asking him to give consideration to the establishment of a Carmel in his Archdiocese. Monsignor Edmund J. Murnane, vicar for the Eugene area (125 miles south of Portland), said that he would welcome a Carmel in his region.
Mother Miriam and Sister Mary flew to Eugene in August, 1957, to find a suitable property. When they had but given up, they came upon an ideal place; a hunter’s lodge built of logs, subsequently a family home, on thirty-five acres of forested land in a rural setting west of the city.
The six nuns, accompanied by father Columban Fitgerald, OCD, flew to Eugene on November 4, 1957. Eugene, a small city and seat of the University of Oregon, is surrounded by farming and timber lands. Catholics are only about 10 percent of the population, but they together, with non-Catholics, have been very supporting from the beginning until now. Father Columban celebrated the first Mass of the new foundation on November 6, 1957.
The first few nights spent in the deep silence of the wilderness, as it seemed to them (being used to the roar of the big city), were a bit intimidating. They kept the outside light on all night to protect against possible incursion of the wild animals, who seemed to them lurking behind every tree. Soon they happily adjusted and settled into making the necessary alterations to turn the “log cabin” into a Monastery.
And like St. Peter the Apostle we say: “Lord it is good to be here”
