The Carmelite Tradition (review)

A pilgrim to the Holy Land in the early-thirteenth century who passed by a small band of hermits meditating on the Law of the Lord on Mount Carmel near the fountain of Elijah could never have predicted what would become of those simple hermits. This book by Steven Payne, a North American Discalced Carmelite friar teaching at Tangaza, a college of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi, would have astonished not only pilgrims but also the hermits. These hermits from Mount Carmel have become two separate orders of mendicant friars, with cloistered nuns, active sisters, and laity affiliated with the Carmelites who lead a formally consecrated life. Modern Carmelites are spread across the globe, and their numbers are growing in developing countries. Among the women and men known as Carmelites are three doctors of the church as well as numerous saints and blesseds. Moreover, many other members of the Carmelite family are recognized unofficially for their holiness. In the past the Carmelites were known as one of the principal schools of spirituality along with the Benedictine, Dominican, Franciscan, and Ignatian schools of spirituality. Today, more commonly since the Second Vatican Council, we speak of the Carmelite charism or, as Payne does in this book, the Carmelite Tradition.

Payne prefaces his anthology of Carmelite texts with an insightful but brief overview of the Carmelite tradition (pp. xxi–xxxiii). Readers next learn about the Carmelite Rule that began as a formula of life between 1206 and 1214, approved by Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem. The Albertine formula of life, with slight but significant adjustments, was recognized as a formal rule by Pope Innocent IV in 1247. Payne then introduces his readers to documents that are not well known by those outside the Carmelite Family: The Flaming Arrow, a jeremiad by a former prior general who regretted the move to mendicancy, and The Institution of the First Monks, a fourteenth-century work of legends that stressed the role of Elijah and Mary to the order and affirmed its contemplative tradition as mystical.

The anthology then takes up such well-known Carmelites as Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi, Thérèse of Lisieux, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Titus Brandsma, Edith Stein, and Jessica Powers. Payne does a genuine service for his readers by selections and introductions to lesser-known Carmelites who reveal the great variety of paths in the Carmelite tradition. These are John of St. Samson, Lawrence of the Resurrection, Michael of St. Augustine, Maria Petyt, and the Martyrs of Compiègne.

Each entry has a substantial but brief introduction followed by selections from the Carmelite authors. Notes for these entries occur at the back of the book. There are select bibliographies for each entry. In the entry “Recent Voices,” Payne samples some ways that the Carmelite charism is lived and understood in Christianity’s third millennium.

Payne writes clearly; his text moves swiftly; his scholarship is broad, inclusive, and impeccable. The author has made a significant contribution to the dissemination of the wisdom of the Carmelite tradition about ways that one may be called to live the Christian gospels.