Carmelite hymns

The Carmelites began as a group of hermits in the area of Mount Carmel known as the wadi 'ain es-siah at the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. Singing hymns necessarily played a minimal role in the liturgical life of the original Carmelites, since as hermits they did not chant the Divine Office together. The rule or way of life they received from Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem 1206-1214, made it clear that they were to come together to celebrate Mass daily but that each hermit was to pray the psalms privately in his cell. Only with the progressive incorporation into the mendicant tradition, culminating in the revised rule promulgated by Innocent III in 1247, did the...