PERSONAL NOTE:
We departed Galilee to go westward to Haifa about 15 miles to the coastline, from Nazareth. Haifa was our last northern destination for the day, and the trip. Haifa is an industrial port to Mediterranean Sea, with predominant Jewish population as it seemed, a great contrast of Galilee region. Mt Carmel Church was the highlight of the visit in Haifa.
BACKGROUND
The Carmelites are a Catholic order of monks, one of the oldest in the Holy Land, and named after Mount Carmel. Their primary saint is the Prophet Elijah. They established the Monastery in the 17th C. It served as a hospital for the French soldiers, who were butchered here following Napoleon's retreat in 1799. The structure was rebuilt in the mid 19th C, and today its church is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site.
LOCATION
The Monastery is located on the north-west corner of Mount Carmel, adjacent to the upper station of the Haifa Cable car.
The following aerial view shows the location of the Monastery and the area of Stella Maris. You can point on the purple points to navigate to the selected point - in this we page and other pages.
HISTORY
Roman/Byzantine
A Roman/Byzantine site existed at this area, and some findings of that era are displayed in a room on the entrance to the church.
Crusaders - and the first Carmelite hermits
The Carmelites are a Catholic order of monks, one of the oldest in the Holy Land, and named after Mount Carmel. The primary Carmelite saint is the Prophet Elijah. The Carmelite monk dresses in brown and walks with biblical sandals.
Their order was founded on Mount Carmel more than 800 years ago, starting from a number of Crusaders who went to seclusion in the caves on mount Carmel, and were inspired by the simple way of life of the prophet. These hermits were lead by the Frenchman Berthold (died 1188). In about 1200 their first church (St. Brocardus) was built in a brook located on the western slopes of mount Carmel. That brook is named e-Siah, now named Nahal Siakh in Hebrew, meaning bush. After the Arabs defeated the Crusaders, they were butchered and their church was destroyed. The survivors later emigrated to Europe and did not return until the 17th C.
Ottoman period
During the mid 17th C the Carmelite hermits returned to reside in the caves below Stella Maris. The head of the Carmelite community was a Spanish monk by the name of Prosper, which arrived here in 1631 and established a makeshift monastery in the western foothills below Stella Maris.
Napoleon
During the 1799 campaign of the French forces, headed by General Napoleon, the sick French soldiers stayed in the monastery, which became an army hospital. After they failed on their siege of Acre, Napoleon retreated , leaving his 200 wounded soldiers in the hospital. They were butchered by the Ottomans, and the monastery was demolished. A monument was erected later in the western entrance to the Monastery to commemorate the French soldiers.
Stella Maris - lighthouse
In 1821 the stones from the ruins of the Monastery, and the earlier Crusader structure, were used by the Ottoman governor of Acre to build a summer palace across the street. A light house was later added to signal the edge of the Carmel to the ships in the bay of Haifa, giving its name to the area (Stella Maris - the "star of the sea").
Late Ottoman period
The Carmelites reestablished the Stella Maris monastery in the beginning of the 19th C. They laid a cornerstone in 1827, and completed the fort-like monastery in 1836. The Carmelites, whose primary saint was Elijah, hold a tradition that the cave inside the church was one of the caves where the prophet hid and stayed. The compound included Monasteries for Men, Women, a Chu
