Feast of St. Albert of Jerusalem

Saturday, September 17, 2016 is the Feast of St. Albert Avogadro, more commonly known as St. Albert of Jerusalem, the lawgiver of the Carmelites, who gave the Rule of Carmel to the order in the 13th century. The eremitic Rule of St. Albert is the shortest of the rules of consecrated life in existence of the Roman Catholic spiritual tradition, and is composed almost exclusively of scriptural precepts. To this day it is a rich source of inspiration for the lives of many Catholics throughout the world. St. Albert Avogadro (1149-1214), a priest of the Canons Regular and a canon lawyer, wrote the Rule between 1206 and 1214 as the Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. The Rule is directed to “Brother B.”, held by tradition to be either St. Bertold or St. Brocard (but historical evidence of his identity is lacking), and the hermits living in the spirit of Elijah near the prophet’s spring on Mount Carmel in present-day Israel.