Carmel in the Holy Land — Carmelite Sisters

The Carmel of the Pater Noster
Mount of Olives — Jerusalem

The beloved Apostle John, according to an apocryphal Gnostic document circa 130, fled in sorrow from the scene of the Crucifixion and sought comfort in a grotto on the Mount of Olives, where he and the other disciples had spent so many hours with their Lord. As John wept, darkness covered the earth and a luminous Cross appeared with Jesus standing nearby, saying, "It is I who have inspired you to come here so that I might speak with you."

Such legends add richness to our mountain, but Holy Scriptures (John 8:20, 59 and Luke 21:37), confirm the refuge Jesus found in a grotto on the Mount of Olives. The apocryphal story speaks a spiritual language and the "Grotto Most Luminous" becomes an inner sanctuary where Jesus comes to be with a soul, opening to it His transforming Light and speaking to it of sublime and divine mysteries. "If anyone loves me …my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode in him." (John 14, 23)

Certainly, it is here (Matthew 24-25) that Jesus gave His disciples the Teaching of the Last Days, the Eschatological discourses. It is in this vicinity on the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:4-9), that Jesus ascended into Heaven. Thus the Ascension and the Eleona with its holy Grotto are very special to the Carmelites of the Pater.

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In 326, shortly after arriving in the Holy Land, Constantine's mother, St. Helena, began building on the Mount of Olives, to venerate the Grotto, the Basilica of the Eleona, from "elaion" in Greek, meaning "olive grove". (The Basilica was also referred to as the Church of the Disciples.) Destroyed by the Persians in 617, the Basilica was rebuilt, perhaps by Modestus and later destroyed by Hakim in 1009.

Despite the successive destructions, the memory of Jesus' teachings remained. In time, however, there was a significant shift in its content which began to insist especially on Jesus' teaching of the "Our Father" to His disciples. This was the overriding tradition when the Crusaders constructed an Oratory on the site, the Church of the Pater Noster, which fell into ruin after their departure.

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In 1856, The Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne, born in France of Italian parents (Aurélie de Bossi, 1809-1889), bought the site and built the present Church next to the ancient Grotto. The Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne had a particular devotion for both the Grotto and for the Lord's Prayer. Although the Princess never saw the Grotto because its exact location on the Mount of Olives was not known, with some research and intuition, she suggested where it might be buried. Indeed, the White Fathers' excavations in 1911 found the Grotto exactly where she had predicted it to be.

To share her devotion for the Lord's Prayer she had 39 ceramic plaques in as many languages placed in the Eleona. Today, there are 139 plaques and the site is a "must" on the itinerary for Christian pilgrims of all persuasions.

The Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne had wanted a monastery attached to the Grotto as a witness to perpetual prayer. It's said that she was inspired with the idea of a Carmelite monastery as early as 1868 from a visit by the eventual architect of the monastery, a former Carmelite deacon, Jean Guillemot.

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In 1872, a visit from a French Carmelite made this hope become a reality. Mother Xavier of the Sacred Heart of Jesus had left the Carmel of Lisieux as a young nun to assist in the foundation of the Saigon Carmel. Having served in Saigon for a number of years, she was on her way home to France, but her missionary spirit and no doubt the Holy Spirit too, inspired her to visit the holy sites in Jerusalem and to visit The Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne. The 34-year-old Mother Xavier mounted on a donkey, in the overwhelming heat of July, made her way up the Mount of Olives. Looking down over Jerusalem as she came closer to the Garden of Gethsemane, in her heart she too thought of how wonderful it would be to have a Carmel in the Holy Land. Tradition tells us that she stopped off to visit Gethsemane and prayed to Jesus, "Oh, if such a thing could be! If this be your will, Lord, give me a sign. May the gardener give me a rose from Gethsemane!" The gardener looked up, walked over to our young Carmelite and handed her a lovely rose! Yes, it was in God's plan that Mother Xavier be an actor in the planning of a Carmel, but roses have thorns and it would not be long before Mother Xavier would feel their prick.

The Princess, for her part, greeted Mother Xavier as her "angel" and saw in this young religious someone very talented, pious and determined.

Mother Xavier of the Sacred Heart of Jesus	Mother Aloysia first Prioress

Mother Xavier returned to France and the Princess began negotiations, finding a willing heart in the Carmel of Carpentras in southern France (Vaucluse). In 1873, the Princess, accompanied by the 38-year-old Mother Aloysia from Carpentras, the new Carmel's first Prioress along with Mother St. François, sailed from the port of Marseille to the shores of the Holy Land. Mother Xavier arrived in Jerusalem from Carpentras in 1874, to fulfill with her sisters, the dream that she and the Princess had shared together in the summer of 1872.

Still in construction, the Carmel of the Pater Noster officially opened in 1874. Even among its first generation, the "Pater" has always been international, but French speaking. At present, there are nuns from France, Korea, Rwanda, Italy, Switzerland, Jordan, Lebanon, Madagascar, Palestine, United States of America, and including our extern "community", Canada, France, Italy and the Philippines.

The Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne divided the property between the Carmelites, the White Fathers and the French Consul. As the spiritual guardians of the Grotto and the Eleona, the Carmelites share in the missionary spirit of their chaplains, the White Fathers, and remain especially united to France. The spirit of the "Our Father" is nevertheless the Spirit that touches the heart of all humankind, without limits or boundaries.

By 1886, the Carmel's imposing tower with its richly toned bells could be seen from Jerusalem's Old City.

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The Princess died in Florence on the 4 May 1889 and the Centenary of her death, 1989, fell on the Feast of the Ascension, a fitting grace to crown her memory. Her remains were returned to the Eleona in 1957. Her Mausoleum, next to the entrance of the nun's Chapel, was recently and beautifully refurbished by a team of Palestinian artisans under the direction of a young German whose task is to find jobs for Arab Christians.

Mother Xavier died two months after the Princess, at the age of 52. Mother Aloysia and Mother St. François both lived to a ripe old age with the joy of knowing that on the Mount of Olives, near the holy Grotto, Carmelites would continue to be a witness to the power of prayer.

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