Stella Maris Monastery

Stella Maris Monastery

Stella Maris Monastery on Mt. Carmel
Monastery information
Order	Discalced Carmelite Order
Established	1631
Architecture
Completion date	1836
Site
Location	Haifa, Israel
Coordinates	32°49′36″N 34°58′13″E / 32.82667°N 34.97028°E / 32.82667; 34.97028Coordinates: 32°49′36″N 34°58′13″E / 32.82667°N 34.97028°E / 32.82667; 34.97028
Other information	Facade faces South

The Stella Maris Monastery (romana) or the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for monks is a 19th-century Discalced Carmelite monastery located on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Another Carmelite monastery of the same name (Monastère Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel in French) is reserved for nuns and is located higher up on Mount Carmel.

In the 12th century, during the Crusader rule of the region, groups of religious hermits began to inhabit the caves of this area in imitation of Elijah the Prophet. In the early 13th century, their leader and prior (referred to in the rule only as 'Brother B,' although sometimes claimed despite an absence of supporting evidence to be either Saint Brocard or Saint Bertold) asked the patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Albert, to provide the group with a written rule of life.

This was the originating act of the Order, who took the name 'Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel' or Carmelites. The oratory was dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her aspect of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, (Latin: ). Within a few decades, these monastic hermits left the troubled Holy Land and the Carmelite order spread throughout Europe.

At the end of Saint Louis’ first crusade to the Holy Land in 1254, he took six Carmelites back to France with him and the Order had begun to found houses throughout Europe from 1238 onwards. However, when Saint Jean d'Acre fell in 1291, they were forced to withdraw by Mamluks.