Hermits at the well on Mount Carmel. At the time of the Crusades to the Holy Land, hermits settled in various places throughout Palestine. Some of these, "following the example of Elijah, a holy man and a lover of solitude, adopted a solitary life-style on Mount Carmel, near a spring called Elijah's Fountain. In small cells, similar to the cells of a beehive, they lived as God's bees, gathering the divine honey of spiritual consolation." Unlike most religious orders, the Carmelites have no founder. Instead, we trace our beginning to some hermits who settled on Mount Carmel in Palestine more than 800 years ago. We're not sure what led these men to give up everything they had to live in bare cells, but we can guess that they faced personal disappointments or tragedies that led to a desire for a radical change of life. Some may have been unhappy with the violence and excess they saw around them. Others may simply have felt a call to be closer to God. Moved by "their love of the Holy Land", these hermits consecrated themselves in this Land to the One who had paid for it by the shedding of his blood, in order that they might serve him, clothed in the habit of religious poverty," persevering "in holy penance" and forming a fraternal community. While we call these early Carmelites hermits, they actually lived with others in shared solitude. These first brothers took responsibility for one another. When sometime after 1206 they asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert, to draw up their way of life in a Rule, the relationships among themselves and with their leader were critical. This Rule of Life, which Albert presented to them in 1214, directs the hermits celebrate Eucharist together each day in a place near their cells and to gather weekly encourage and correct each another. This Rule is a formula for living that Carmelites still follow today. Read on about our history in Europe. Read on about our history in the United States. Soon after they received the Rule, Jerusalem fell from Latin hands and the hermits were forced from their mountain. They began to migrate to the West with those leaving the Holy Land. They settled in Sicily, Italy, Spain, France, and England. This journey not only led them to a new home, but also to a very different style of life.