| |
Compendio
Istorico dello Stato antico, e moderno del Carmelo, dei paesi Adjacenti,
e dell’Ordine monastico orientale
Giovanni Battista, de Sant' Alessio
This book, a concise history of Mount Carmel, was
written by an Italian Carmelite and engineer in the latter part
of the 18th century. Bertoldo Antonio Gioberti was born in 1723
in the area of Torino. He aspired to priesthood but was forced to
abandon his training after the death of his father. He studied engineering
instead, in order to help support his family. Later he joined the
order of the Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites (Ordo Carmelitarum
Discalceatorum), and was accepted into its ranks as a lay brother
in 1747. He changed his name to Giambattista di Sant' Alessio. After
serving the order for several years in Rome, in 1765 he was sent
to Mount Carmel to supervise the construction of a new site for
the Carmelite community at the location on which the monastery is
found today (“Stella Maris”). In 1774, commanded by the head of
the order in Rome, Giambattista was forced to return to Italy while
the new monastery was still under construction because he was accused
of misdoings. The remainder of his life was spent in a monastery
in Torino where he died in 1802. His book was first published in
a Latin translation of one of a fellow Carmelite (Augsburg, 1772)
and later in Italian (Torino, 1780). There are some differences
between the two versions but they are not relevant at present to
understanding the importance and historical significance of the
work.
The reformation of Benedictine monasticism in the
11th and 12th centuries that called for stricter rules and a return
to ancient monastic ideals was also evident in the Crusader kingdom,
in which several Western communities were established. Some of them
even lived with Orthodox monks. After the Third Crusade, when the
area under crusader rule was reduced to the northern coastal region,
the Carmel became a preferred site for monastic communities, and
there is documented evidence for this in the Itinerary of Rabbi
Benjamin of Tudela, among others. A group of hermits on the mountain,
according to tradition, requested that Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem
(who resided in Tyre), draw up a rule for them – a compendium that
regulates their lives as a religious community. The Rule of St.
Albert was completed around 1210 and thus became the foundation
for the Carmelite Order (officially named the Order of Our Lady
of Mt. Carmel). By the middle of the century the order began to
flourish and spread throughout Europe and became one of the mendicant
orders. With the fall of Acre (1291), the Carmelites left the Carmel
but never forgot the mountain. The process of establishment of the
Carmelites in Europe was accompanied by a rich body of literature
in which the Carmel played a prominent role. The scribes of the
order developed a tradition in which the first Carmelite is Elijah
the Prophet. Over the years, the tradition became more elaborate
and described a continuous unbroken, existence of a religious monastic
community on the mountain. The lineage included, among others, Elisha,
Sons of the Prophets, Jonah, Obadiah, John the Baptist and even
the Essenes. Solutions to problems posed by the transition from
Judaism to Christianity and from Eastern to Western Christianity
are also found in the story. In spite of attacks by Christian scholars
from the 14th century onwards on the probability of this tradition,
the Carmelites continued to hold on to it. In the 16th and 17th
centuries, representatives of the new, more stringent, faction of
the Discalced Carmelites even developed the tradition further as
an instrument of spiritual and mystical renewal. Some of them even
cultivated fenced gardens in the wilds of Europe (“deserts”) where
they reconstructed the Carmel landscape and engaged in prayer and
meditation.
The increased European presence throughout the Ottoman
Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries made it possible for the Discalced
Carmelites to initiate a return to the actual Mount Carmel, within
the framework of the general missionary efforts of the Catholic
Church of the period. In 1631 the Carmelite monk Prosper of the
Holy Ghost received permission from the Bedouin Emir Tarab?y to
settle in Elijah’s Cave and the alcoves above it. In the 18th century,
following the destruction of old Haifa and its reconstruction by
the ruler of the Galilee, Dahir al-Umar, the Carmelites were forced
to leave their first habitat. But now they could achieve a goal
to which they aspired for many years – to move to the top of the
mountain. Giambattista di Sant' Alessio was commissioned to plan
the new site. The cornerstone of the site was placed on November
15, 1767. Giambattista planned a square two-story structure that
surrounded two sites connected to the Carmelite tradition – the
cave in which Elijah hid from Jezebel and the first chapel that
was dedicated to Maria (actually a byzantine structure). The work
was delayed by local authorities and by a series of disagreements
within the order during which, as noted above, Giambattista and
the father who supervised him were accused of mismanagement. Giambattista’s
structure was partially destroyed after Napoleon’s expedition to
Palestine and blown up in 1821. Construction of the Carmelite monastery
we see standing today began several years later.
Giambattista’s purpose in writing the book was twofold
– to present anew the history of the Carmelite order in a concise
and authoritative form, and to present a kind of geographical-archeological
survey of the Carmel, accompanied by maps and diagrams. In actuality,
one cannot distinguish between these two axes, because for the Carmelites,
especially those who resided on the mountain itself, the spirit
of the order emanated from the streams and peaks of the holy mountain,
and the geography of the Carmel was actually a sacred Carmelite
geography. Giambattista repeats without hesitation the traditional
story of the prophetic-monastic continuity on the Carmel since the
days of Elijah, and even argues with his critics. Moreover, he also
presents pilgrimage routes among the Carmel sites and lists the
prayers and hymns to be recited at each of them. He learned this
combination from the Franciscan literature that charted the pilgrims’
routes in the Holy Land since the 14th century. Finally, we also
have here a personal diary of a man who traveled, worked and produced
in the Haifa area. Giambattista di Sant' Alessio’s book is important
as a main source for the history of the region in the 18th century,
in all its political and cultural complexity. Through this local
history we also learn about the Mediterranean of the period as a
vibrant arena of human activity. Finally, the work is also important
for the history of ideas and belief. It demonstrates how history,
traditions, and holy sites are intertwined in ways that grant significance
to the human present.
Additional reading:
Boase, T. S. R. "A Seventeenth Century Carmelite Legend Based
on Tacitus," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
3(1939-1940): 107-118.
Friedman, Elias. The Latin Hermits of Mount Carmel: A Study in Carmelite
Origins. Roma: Teresianum, 1979.
Giordano, Silvano, ed. Carmel in the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings
to the Present Day. Arenzano: Il Messaggero di Gesu Bambino, 1995.
Jotischky, Andrew. The Carmelites and Antiquity: Mendicants and
Their Pasts in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2002.
Dr. Zur Shalev
Dept. of General History
and Dept. of Land of Israel Studies
September 2007
|
