The emergence of the religious devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel goes back to the middle ages. In the early 12th century, a group of pilgrims and former crusaders decided to organize themselves into a community and live as hermits, settling in Mount Carmel (Palestine) around a little chapel dedicated to Mary. Thus was born the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, also known as the Carmelites, and was recognized as a mendicant order by Pope Innocent IV in 1247 through a papal bull.

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