Carmelite
an order of mendicant friars and nuns, who wear a scapulary, or small woolen habit of a brown color, thrown over the shoulders. They claim to be in direct succession from Elijah, but their real founder was Berthold, a Calabrian, who, with a few companions, migrated to Mount Carmel about the middle of the 12th century, and built a humble cottage with a chapel, where he and his associates led a laborious and solitary life. In 1209, Albert, patriarch of J Jerusalem, gave the solitaries a rigid rule, containing articles, and enjoining the most severe discipline. After their establishment in Europe, their rule was in some respects altered, the first time by Pope Innocent IV., and afterward by Eugenius IV. and Pius II. The order is divided into two branches, viz., the Carmelites of the ancient observance, ealled moderate or mitigated, and those of the strict observance, who are known as the barefooted Carmelites. There are about 500 Carmelite nunneries and convents.