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Codex Rosarii Immaculatae Conceptionis

The History of the Rosary of the Immaculate Conception :

otherwise known as the Bridgettine or Carmelite Rosary.

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Brief :

The Carmelite Rosary is parallel with the Dominican Rosary, but adds a Marian Decade to each Chaplet of Mysteries. Thus the First Joyful Mystery before the Annunciation is the Immaculate Conception, the Sixth Sorrowful Mystery is the Deposition of Jesus' Body into Her arms after the Crucifixion, and the Sixth Glorious Mystery is Mary, Queen and Splendor of Carmel, Mediatrix of All Graces. An Apostles' Creed follows every Decade.

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The First Luminous Mystery before the Baptism of Her Son in the Jordan is Jesus' Obedience to Her and Saint Joseph in Nazareth.

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Tactic :

After the Sign of the Cross or Deus + in adjutorium :

Introduction :

  1. The Apostles’ Creed.

  2. Our Father. (for our Holy Father Pope Leo / pro Summo Pontifice nostro Leone)

  3. Hail Mary. 3 times. (for a growth in Faith. ...Hope. ...Charity. / pro augmento Fidei. ...Spei. ...Caritatis.)

  4. Glory Be.

For Each Decade :

  1. Announce the Mystery.

  2. Our Father.

  3. Hail Mary. 10 times.

  4. The Apostles' Creed.

  5. The Fatima Prayer.

  6. Optional : Glory Be.

Conclusion :

  1. Hail, Holy Queen!

  2. V/ Pray for us, o holy Mother of God. R/ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  3. Optional : Let us pray : O God, Whose only begotten Son, by His Life, Death, and Resurrection, hath purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating on these Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Mysteries / Mysteria :

All Mysteries presented are given in English and Latin. Fruits of the Mysteries are listed in italics. ​​The parentheses are enclosed around the parts of the Glorious Mysteries that are more proper to Carmelites than Bridgettines.

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​​The # Joyful Mystery is : (for....)​

  1. Thine Immaculate Conception

  2. The Annunciation : Humility

  3. The Visitation : Fraternal Charity

  4. The Nativity of Thy Son : Poverty of Spirit

  5. The Presentation at the Temple : Obedience

  6. The Finding of Thy Son in the Temple : Piety

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The # Sorrowful Mystery is

  1. The Agony in the Garden : Contrition, Resignation to the Will of God

  2. The Scourging at the Pillar : Purity, Mortification

  3. The Crowning with Thorns : Courage, Fortitude

  4. The Carrying of the Cross : Longanimity, Perseverance

  5. The Crucifixion and Death of Thy Son : Mercy

  6. The Deposition of Thy Son into Thine Arms

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The # Glorious Mystery is 

  1. The Resurrection : Faith

  2. The Ascension : Hope

  3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit : Love of God

  4. Thine Assumption into Heaven : Final Perseverance

  5. Thy Coronation : The Aid of Mary

  6. Thou, Mediatrix of All Graces (Queen and Splendor of Carmel!)

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​# Mysterium Gaudiosum est : (pro....)​

   Primum. Immaculata Conceptio Tua

   Secundum. Annunciatio : Humilitate

   Tertium. Visitatio : Caritate Fraternale

   Quartum. Nativitas Filii Tui : Povertate Spiritus

   Quintum. Presentatio in Templo : Oboedientia

   Sextum. Inventio Filii Tui in Templo : Pietate

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# Mysterium Dolorosum est

   I. Agonia in Horto : Contritione, Resignatione Voluntati Dei

   II. Flagellatio : Puritate, Mortificatione

   III. Coronatio cum Spinis​ : Fortitudine

   IV. Bajulatio Crucis : Longanimitate

   V. Crucifixio et Mors Filii Tui : Misericordia

   VI. Depositio Filii Tui in Ulnas Tuas

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# Mysterium Gloriosum est 

   I. Resurrectio : Fide

   II. Ascensio : Spe

   III. Descensio Spiritus Sancti : Caritate Deo

   IV. Assumptio Tua in Caelum : Perseverantia Finale

   V. Coronatio Tua : Auxilium Mariae

   VI. Tu, Mediatrix Omnium Gratiarum (Regina et Decor Carmeli!)

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Formation and Transmission :

The Carmelite Rosary (here abbreviated R.I.C.) is also called the Bridgettine Rosary, for Saint Bridget, Foundress of the Order of the Most Holy Savior (O.Ss.S : Bridgettine), who would pray this Rosary of 63 Aves and 7 Paters. The 63 Aves represent the tradition that Mary lived for 63 years on Earth before her Assumption, and the 7 Paters represent Her Holy Joys and Sorrows. Saint Bridget, a secular Franciscan, founded her Order in 1344 at the special request and plan of Jesus appearing to her, and it was approved by the Church in 1370. Though she never technically entered her Order, she taught her Nuns to pray this Rosary, which parallels the Dominican Rosary, adding a Marian Decade to each Chaplet of Mysteries and replacing the Gloria Patri with an Apostles' Creed.

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In the mid to late 1500s, Saint Teresa of Jesus, Reformatrix of the Carmelite Order, Mother of the Discalced Carmelites, Mother of the Spiritual Ones, and Doctress of the Church, was founding her Discalced convents. Historically, Bridgettines have often supported their monasteries by offering hotel service, and so, in Saint Teresa's travels, she stayed at a Bridgettine convent, learned how to say their Rosary, and added it to the Discalced devotions. Wherefore, the 6-Decade Rosary was added to the Discalced Carmelite habit. Beforehand and now, the Calced Carmelites wear no Rosary.

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Hints in Our Lady's Apparitions :

See The Voice in the Darkness for general information about the Apparitions.

Certain patterns in our Lady's Apparitions seem to point to this holy devotion and the Carmelite Order in general. Firstly, She appeared in Paris as the Mediatrix of All Graces in 1830, which is the 6th Glorious Mystery in this devotion. In this Apparition, She revealed the design of the Miraculous Medal, first called the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, yet before the Dogma thereof was formally recognized by the Church. Thus we see in this Apparition a reference to the 1st and last Mysteries of the R.I.C., which are not included in the original 15 Mysteries.

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At La Salette, Mary spoke explicitly about Saint Elias, the Founder of the Carmelite Order, coming with Enoch as one of the 2 witnesses in Revelation 11. Coming in 1846, She prophesied a special unleashing of demons in 1864, which was 18 years later, the number of Decades for this devotion. The precise date was September 19, which was back then the Eve of the Feast of Her 7 Sorrows, also honored by the R.I.C.

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Then our Lady of the Immaculate Conception appeared at Lourdes and prayed the Dominican Rosary with Saint Bernadette. However, Saint Bernadette reported that the Rosary She held in Her right hand was white, made of pearls, and had 6 decades.​ Providentially, Mary appeared to her 18 times in the course of 6 months. The first day of Her apparition was on February 11, which was then the Feast of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order, which Order produced the 7 Sorrows Rosary. The 7 Sorrows are also honored and commemorated by the 7 Paters in the R.I.C. Moreover, the last day of the apparitions at Lourdes was on July 16, 1858, the Feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel. Later Saint Bernadette insisted that the 6-Decade Rosary be properly represented in a statue of Mary that was being set up, calling it the Rosary of the Immaculate Conception, wherefore it is here thus denoted. Saint Bernadette also tried to become a Discalced Carmelite, but because of her health became a Sister of Charity instead. Her original Feast is February 18, moved in 1969 to April 16.

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At Pontmain, Mary appeared for 3 hours, and there were 3 parts to Her Message.

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At Fatima, Mary appeared as our Lady of the Rosary 6 times to the 3 children. It is likely that the 3 angels that accompanied Mary to Saint Dominic, who also stand for the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Chaplets, might have foreshadowed Her appearance to the children at Fatima, and that Fatima may begin the fulfillment of the final plan of the Rosary. In any case, let the 3 children at Fatima recall our Lady's Apparition to Saint Dominic. On October 13, Her last apparition there, Mary appeared as our Lady of Mount Carmel and our Lady of Sorrows. Lucia, the oldest and longest surviving visionary, became a Dorothean Sister and then entered a Discalced Carmelite convent and spent the rest of her life promoting our Lady's message.

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At Garabandal, to which the Church has allowed private devotion (non constat), Mary appeared as our Lady of Mount Carmel to 4 children first on July 2, 1961. Apparitions of Saint Michael, however, had been occuring 15 days earlier, since the 18th in June : the 6th month of the year and the Month of the Sacred Heart, 1961. The First Secret was revealed on the 18th in the Month of the Holy Rosary : October, 4 months later. The Second Secret was revealed on June 18, 1965.

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Mary appeared 3 times at Akita.

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At Kibeho, on the 6th day of the 3rd month (March, Month of Saint Joseph) in 1982, Mary commissioned Marie-Claire Mukangango to spread the 7 Sorrows Rosary devotion.

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At Medjugorje, 6 seers have been given 10 Secrets in the country called Bosnia and Herzegovina, which happens to be under the special patronage of Saint Elias the Prophet, Founder of the Carmelite Order.​​​​

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The Carmelite Mysteries :

1. The Revelation on Mount Carmel :

The Blessed Virgin Mary said to Saint Peter Thomas, a Carmelite Bishop, that the Holy Prophet Elias (Elijah) obtained a favor from God, so that his Order, the Carmelite Order, would last until the end of the world. Firstly, the Carmelite Order is the Order of Saint Elias, whom Mary calls the Founder of the Order. In the Jewish world according to the Books of Kings, it was common to have schools of Prophets, who would devote their lives to God as Hermits, while retaining the ability to preach and serve the people when necessity or obedience required. God commanded the Holy Prophet Elias to found an Order of Prophets on Mount Carmel in a similar manner, and this Order must have continued to this day, if it will also, by our Lady's own graceful lips, remain unto the end of the age. Frequently in the Books of Kings, the Sons of the Prophets are mentioned, at least some of whom were members of this Order. The Carmelite Order thus has the unique privilege of having been in the Scriptures, albeit that its form was not fully mature.

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In the chronicle of our Holy Father Elias, 3 Kings 18 (1 Kings 18) relates his contest with the 450 false prophets of Baal at the foot of Mount Carmel. After beheading them all with the help of the converted Israelites, he tells King Achab to go, eat, and drink, and himself ascends the mountain with his puer (Latin for boy, servant, or apprentice). For 3 1/2 years prior there had been a terrible drought, which God through the Holy Prophet Elias had caused. Going to the top of the mountain to pray, Elias knelt down with his head between his knees and told his puer to go look over at the Mediterranean sea below. Looking, the puer came back and said, "There is nothing." Elias told him then, "Return seven times." On the 7th, a cloud like a footprint ascended and took the shape of a man (Hebrew : ish, Latin : vir), and from the cloud issued a great rain.

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The Carmelite Tradition states that while there was the man, the cloud also foretold Mary to the Holy Prophet, with the cloud symbolizing Mary, and the great rain Her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. By our understanding (referring to myself, by the help of God, in Carmel-ese), this and other visions foretold Mary and Her Prophetic Spirituality to Saint Elias and his Order. In unbroken succession, the Carmelites awaited This Great Woman their Sister ever since. Knowing that God does not make accidents or mistakes, there is a slight pun in the original Hebrew, wherein 'out of the sea' is conveyed by the word 'miyam', which is one letter away from 'Miryam', the name for Mary in Hebrew, meaning Great Lady.

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2. The Rapture of Elias :

In the Codex 4 Kings 2 (2 Kings 2), Saint Elias is taken up in a fiery chariot. According to the Fathers, such as Pope Saint Gregory the Great, our Lady at La Salette, and pious tradition, the 2 witnesses spoken of in Revelation 11 will be the Patriarch Enoch and the Prophet Elias, who notably have not died, according to the Holy Scriptures. Currently they wait in the Earthly Paradise, since they cannot enter Heaven yet, having not yet paid the debt of the flesh. In fact, the Feast for Saint Elias on July 20 is celebrated with red vestments in the Carmelite Rite, because he will eventually be martyred by the antiChrist.

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Saint Elias leaves his Prophetic Mantle with his successor Eliseus (Elisha). In the ancient Jewish practice, the mantle was the garment of the Prophets, and the Carmelites retain their Mantle to this day. From the time of Eliseus until the Propagation of the Order under Saint Simon Stock (mid-1200s), the Prophetic Mantle was white with seven black or brown stripes, representing the scorch marks left by the fiery chariot. Because of the pressure and ridicule imposed by members of the Clergy and of the existing Religious Orders in Europe, the stripes were removed by the Order in 1287, and the Prophetic Mantle became white in reference to the Innocence of Mary, which those ought to have, who follow in the way of the Spotless Lamb of God (cf. the Carmelite Ceremonies of Investiture and Profession).

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3. The Fraternal Recognition of Mary at Pentecost :

It is likely that, filled and sanctified by the grace of the Blessed Virgin's Visitation, Saint John the Baptist, in the spirit of Elias : the Spirit of Fraternity with Mary, became a Carmelite, or else befriended the Prophets on Mount Carmel as a quasi-Tertiary hermit, and told them that their Sister, Whom they were long expecting or doubting, was then alive! According to the Readings at Matins for the Feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Carmelite Prophets came down to Jerusalem, likely filled with expectation, for the Jewish Feast of Pentecosts. While Saint Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed the Jews in the Codex of Acts 2, the Carmelite Prophets beheld their Sister, and they and Mary mystically recognized each other. Thenceforth they were immediately baptized by the Apostles, converted to Christ, and dedicated themselves to their Sister Mary while She still lived. They became known as the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, Brothers because they shared the Spirituality of Her Immaculate Heart, and because She is the greatest model of that Prophetic Spirit.

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Mary's life is the holiest life of Prophesy. The 1st and greatest prophesy of a Prophet is his ordinary pursuit and witness of God through smallness, stillness, silence, and solitude. These Mary practiced in the Holy Home of Nazareth. Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen notes in his Life of Christ that Nazareth, existing near the shadow of Mount Carmel, was surrounded by geographical difficulties and substantially removed from the mainstream traffic and commerce, so that it does not even exist on some Roman maps. Nazareth even means 'Despised' or 'Despicable'.

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Thus secluded in the terrain and by an externally unremarkable life as a peasant Wife and Mother, Mary lived a high degree of smallness, stillness, silence, and solitude. Yet in the context of Her Virginal and Contemplative Life, in which She received Saint Gabriel's Ave! She acted as Prophet to Saint Elisabeth and Saint John, bearing not only a word but the Incarnate Word Himself, and traveled to Jerusalem every year for the Holy Pasch. Thus She lived reclusively like a Carthusian, but would depart from that solitude on occasion to do Her Father's Will. Therefore, Carmelite Spirituality savors that solitude and hides in it, but remains available for active service, especially when necessity or obedience demands it. The Carmelite Saints and Blesseds thus tend to be Discalced Nuns, Friars, or Hermits that emphasized solitude, silence, penance, and withdrawal in their preaching and practice, and who came out on occasion to witness, by obedience, necessity, or the special command of God.

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Therefore, the Tradition and Practice of the Carmelite Order regard our Lady as the original Carmelite, foreknown by Holy Elias, and all Carmelites before and after Her live by Her example and spirit. In the rationalistic age that we live in, there is too much of an inclination to reject anything not backed by hard evidence. However, we the race of Men are doomed with ignorance and inexperience, and therefore we rely so heavily on testimony and tradition. Moreover the hard evidence often comes to us through sources that, for all we know, could technically have secret agendas. For that reason the constancy and origin of the Scriptures are more certain and able to be verified, because of the agreeing testimonies and practices of millennia, than are many scientific articles in the modern day, which receive their information from and through sources and locations that are far less accessible to the common people. Though evidence of this or that period of Carmelite history may be lacking or obscure, that narrative is not thereby disproven. In fact, the testimony of God-fearing Saints, witnessing to the words of Mary Herself, is enough evidence for us as the Faithful, since a writer for science, history, or any human art is far more likely to lie than a Saint.

 

Until She died and was assumed, Mary continued Her most Holy Prophesy under the roof of another Saint John, who received Her memory of Her Son's first public work at Cana and of Her most glorious moment during Her Son's last public work at the Foot of the Cross. Though an Apostle, Saint John perhaps lived more prophetically, even like a Carmelite, especially being our Lady's Last Guardian, and recording the continuation and fulfillment of the Prophesies of the Old Testament in the Holy Apocalypse, which he wrote after the Assumption of our Mother. (I can almost promise that I just wrote (or prophesied) the entire paragraph above in a moment of deep contemplation, struggling to put it in words and savoring invisible images, and I record it here so that I do not erase it later due to a seeming overabundance of speculation and lack of hard evidence.)

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4. The Transmission of the Holy Rule of Saint Albert :

By the 1200s, the Carmelites were celebrating Mass and the Divine Office according to the Latin Rite of the Holy Sepulcre, which was the Mass celebrated in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and in the Orders of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller. Because the Carmelites continued to celebrate it as they spread into Europe, the Rite, similar to the Latin Rite in the Pre-Tridentine Gallican pattern, is now generally known as the Carmelite Rite.

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A group of French Crusaders in the 1100s followed the inspiration to lay down their arms and pray for those who kept them. These Crusaders joined the Prophets on Mount Carmel, and the Carmelites, being Latinized, were set under the holy Prior Saint Berthold. His successor Saint Brocard, seeking to preserve the Spirit of the Order in those times, asked the Latin Patriarch (Bishop of an especially sacred territory) of Jerusalem, Saint Albert, O.S.A., to give them a Rule. Saint Albert, a very close friend of the Carmelites, gave this Rule in the first decade of the 1200s, and the Carmelite Liturgy remembers his Excellency as the Legislator of the Order (Double Major, 2nd class, otherwise a II Class Feast). Sadly, as far as I know, he does not appear in the Augustinian Calendar, despite being 1, as our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV also is.

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The Carmelites began spreading West soon after this, which was quickened especially by the attacks of the Muslim Turks. Going into Europe they faced severe opposition from other Religious, Priests, and Bishops. Moreover, Pope Innocent III had them added to the Mendicant movement, and so the Prophets began living a more Apostolic life rather than the Eremitical. In 1247, they petitioned the Holy Father to approve a modified Rule, better adapted to their life in the city and among the people. After 2 centuries, when many were abusing the clerical state and not following the Rule, the Order further modified the Rule of 1247, hoping that the new Rule, approved in 1453, would be followed.

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The Discalced Movement of Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross (another John!) was especially founded on returning to the Rule of 1247. In our own Millenium, 2018, the Discalced Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (edcarm.org) have returned to the original Rule of Saint Albert and readopted the Rite of the Holy Sepulcre. This more Eremitical life was the hope of Saint Teresa but was interrupted then by worldly politics and social issues. Saint Therese of the Child Jesus also wists in her letters about being a Hermitess, even if removed from the very dear members of her family, all for love of God.​​​

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5. The Reception of the Holy Scapular by Saint Simon Stock :

Removing to the European Propagation of the Carmelite Order, in 1177 a young boy at the age of 12 ran away from his house to live the austere life of a Hermit, which he did in the trunk, or stock, of an oak tree, praying, mortifying, preaching, and awaiting an Order that would soon come to England. Soon, around 1241, the Carmelites arrived in Aylesford, and Simon, now an old man, joined. About 3 years later, he became their Superior General by his great Sanctity at 80 years old. In 1251, when the Carmelites were heavily pressured and questioned by the European Ecclesiastical Authorities, he begged the protection of the Mother of God. On July 16, Mary appeared to him, conferring on him the Brown Scapular and told him, "Receive, beloved son, this Scapular of thine Order, as a badge of My confraternity and a special sign of grace, which I have obtained for thee and all Carmelites ; whoever dies in this garment shall not suffer everlasting fire. It is the sign of Salvation, a safeguard in dangers, a pledge of peace and of My special protection until the end of the ages." Saint Simon of the Stock continued to govern the Carmelite Order until his death at 100 in 1265.

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This Scapular soon was dispensed in its smaller form to laypeople and is a common sight to see today, jumping out of shirts with low necklines. Thus throughout the 1200s, the Mantle lost its stripes, and the Scapular was added to the preexisting tunic and leather belt, which became officially brown, though at times favoring black. This is the current habit of the Calced Carmelites. At Fatima, Mary urges us to wear this same Scapular.

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6. The Discalced Reform of Saint Teresa :

​​As mentioned, many members of the Carmelite Order in the 1400s were living relaxed and impenitential lives as Religious. They disregarded the importance of silence and solitude and brought severe dishonor on their Brothers, Fathers, and the Church as a whole. This was actually a trend throughout the whole of Europe in almost every Religious Order and in every layer of the Hierarchy. The 1500s therefore proved afterwards to manifest the consequences of that spiritual relaxation and abandonment of prayer and penance, especially in the Protestant Revolution and all the European Civil Wars and division that resulted. In the face of such loss and desolation that would ruin the world to this day, there also arose within the Church movements that sought to remedy the present by the advice of the Apostles, Prophets, Patriarchs, Angels, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who All came before them. Therefore the first era of Protestantism was also the first era of the Jesuits, Capuchins, the Council of Trent, the 1570 Tridentine Latin Rite, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the Discalced Carmelite Reform.

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In response to the abuses, the highest Carmelite superiors tried many times to initiate a renewal, aimed at restoring the practices of poverty, silence, penance, solitude, and the true Prophetic Spirit. However, the superiors and many of the Friars under them were not cooperative, and the abuses continued. 

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Meanwhile, there were certain communities of pious single women especially in France and Spain called Beguinages. The Beguins or Beatas would live absolute chastity, prayer, and work, in a rigor between that of a Nun and a common laywoman. Certain Beguins would devote themselves to the spirit and Rule of the Carmelites, since there were not yet any Carmelite convents for them.

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Then, around 1463, Blessed John Soreth (O. Carm., Prior General) and Blessed Frances D'Amboise established the Carmelite Nuns, and the convents quickly spread throughout France into Spain and Italy. One such convent in Avila, Spain, the Carmel of the Incarnation, received the young Saint Teresa of Jesus when she was 20 in 1534. However the convent was far too relaxed, and proper silence, cloister, and discipline were not observed. Some of the Nuns kept servants and wore jewelry, makeup, and ornamentations on their habits. Often were the parlor admitting guests, the Nuns leaving the cloister for no real matter of business, and much superfluous and superficial conversation echoing through the Convent. Therefore, receiving direction from Jesus her Spouse, Saint Teresa founded the Discalced Convent of Saint Joseph in 1562, dedicated to the Rule of 1247, and began her reform.

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With Saint John of the Cross and Fr. Anthony of Jesus, Saint Teresa founded convents for the Discalced Friars, starting in 1568, the year in which Pope Pius V promulgated the Hail Mary in its present form, and 3 years before the Battle of Lepanto. As the movement spread, the undiscalced Carmelites heavily persecuted the Discalced. In the most notable instance, they abducted and imprisoned Saint John of the Cross in their convent in Toledo, where he lived on scant bread, water, and sardines in an unsanitary condition. The Calced Carmelites also imposed upon him a severe punishment called the Circular Discipline, in which the Friars rotated around the kneeling Saint John, taking turns to lash him with a whip. Thus Saint John endured a very harsh treatment, and, when Saint Teresa heard about her Father and little Brother being thus cared for, she was furious in her Mother's heart and begged the Authorities to take notice. (Saint John was much younger than her and only about 4'10", apparently.)

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By Divine Providence, Saint John was extremely intelligent : he memorized the floor plan of the Toledo convent and observed certain vulnerabilities in his cell door. When God told him it was time to escape, having cut his sheet into strips and tied them together into a cord, Saint John broke through the door when the friars were asleep, went to a balcony he knew of, tied the cord fastly, and lowered himself. Though his cord was 10 ft. short, he survived the fall and escaped to a Discalced Nuns' convent.

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The Nuns had heard of the injustice and, recognizing their dear Father and pitying his poor condition, they hid him in their sacristy. In the morning, when the Calced came to search for Saint John at the Discalced convent, a nun sweetly told them that it would be a miracle if a Discalced Friar could get into their cloister. The Calced bought it, and the Nuns brought Saint John back to life.

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When the story got out, the Calced suffered the appropriate shame, and the Discalced movement proceeded with further Ecclesiastical protection. They became completely independent from the Calced in 1581, so that there were 2 separate Carmelite Orders rather than 2 branches of the same. 

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Among the numerous Discalced reformations, the habit became simpler, and excess fabric was cut off. Calced capuces fall down to the elbows, while Discalced capuces rest on the shoulders. The Prophetic Mantle was also trimmed to not completely envelop the wearer, and the 6-decade Carmelite Rosary was added. Thus may the Calced and Discalced be distinguished apart from their footwear.

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Proportionally speaking, after Saint Teresa, although the Calced Carmelite Order is still a Holy Order, and I do not mean to discredit them at all! I also observe that there are far more Discalced Saints, Blesseds, and Venerables, in witness of the Spirit of Saint Teresa. Among the Doctors of the Church, 3 are Discalced Carmelites : Saint Teresa of Jesus, Saint John of the Cross, and Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, teaching the Church especially on prayer, mysticism, the development of the spiritual life, zeal! dark and obscure Faith, and spiritual childhood.​​

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Other great Prophets of the Discalced Order include Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity, Saint Miriam of Jesus Crucified, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, Blessed Marie of Saint Peter, and Venerable Anne of Jesus. Overwhelmingly, I observe they tend to be cloistered Nuns, mostly withdrawn from the world as their ancient Fathers were.

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