Our Federation
The Federation of Discalced Carmelites under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a communion structure under pontifical law currently composed of 7 monasteries of Our Order.
In the Middle East and North Africa
Places of biblical revelation and the beginnings of Christianity.
The Federation of Carmelite Nuns of the Middle East and North Africa, under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, extends over a vast territory: from Syria to Morocco, including the West Bank, Israel and Egypt. We belong to a Christian minority, residing in a Muslim or Jewish environment.
Historically, our countries have been the places of biblical revelation and ancient Christianity, where most of the Fathers of the Church, the Fathers of the Desert, were born, with the progressive development of the expression of faith, shaping our life in the middle of a multicultural world.
More recently, figures like St. Mariam of Jesus Crucified and St. Charles de Foucauld lived out their inner call of burial and absolute gift in these places.
We also feel united with the Carmelite communities around the Mediterranean: with our sisters in Athens in Greece, with the Church present in Cyprus where there were five convents of brothers in the 13th-14th centuries, in Lebanon where brothers and sisters began their presence in the 20th century, in Tunisia and Algeria which once had their Carmelite Monastery. Even further, we are linked by history to Iran where Father Prosper of the Holy Spirit founded the first convent of Carmelite fathers at the beginning of the 17th century, to Iraq where the Carmelite presence has continued for 400 years approximately.
Our Federation expanded its horizons after the meeting in Cyprus in 2019.
International Communities
Different cultures, different origins…
the same call to mission.
Our communities are formed by sisters from the local church and others who, moved by the Spirit, come from 16 different nations. We are united by the same call to mission. We are rooted in the countries where we are. Our communities have the face of the particular churches in which we are established.
Called to live unity in diversity, as a prelude to the unity of the whole Church, gathered in a single Body, animated by love, we would like to be a testimony of prayer and authentic fraternal relations.
Following the prophets, especially the prophet Elijah and all the righteous who believed in the promises of God, we want to be ourselves a prophetic sign that invite to walk towards this other land which does not belong to the geography of this world, towards Jerusalem above.