Church History.
The church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and its attached presbytery is a Grade II listed building.
The church was designed by a London architect and built by local craftsman circa 1940. Its proportions were taken from a Theatre at Clwyd, which had been converted from a barn, and provides a spacious building with nave, chancel, and three-sided apse.
Reasons for listing include its “special architectural interest as a well-designed and harmonious complex of buildings” and its historic interest as “one of the best examples of mid-20th Century churches in mid-Wales”. [source:http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk].
The Catholic community between the war years was very small and many Irish families were starving.
The Irish, Italian, and Polish came to west Wales to find work. Fr. Malachy Lync O.Carm realised the growing need for a Catholic church, in Lampeter, the nearest being 60 miles away. Fr. Malachy O.Carm began fund raising; he asked the church and schools in Ireland to assist; he also received generous donations from the local community. The church was built at a difficult time between the wars 1939 -1940. Soon donations began to arrive and by appealing to the local community work began on the church. The architect T.H. Scott from London began the work in 1949. Despite being built in poverty the church is a beautiful example of what can be achieved through faith. Bibliography : Fr. Malachy Linc O.Carm. The more than average height candles in the first photo represent the high altar 'forma antiquior'.
Attached is a picture when the church was complete and the reader will see little has changed.
Mass for the solemn commemoration.
Carmelite Celebrations; a public Mass held here on Tuesday July 16th, (the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), at 11am, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the British Province of the Carmelite Order.
Celebrated by the Most Rev. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., Prior General
Fr. Fernando was born on August 19, 1962 in Madrid. He studied at the Colegio Santa Maria del Carmen in Madrid. Following his simple profession in 1981, he studied philosophy at the Pontifical Comillas University and completed his studies in theology at the C.E.T. in Seville, at the Milltown Institute in Dublin and at Comillas. He obtained a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Comllas University in 1990.
He made his solemn profession in Madrid in 1987 and was ordained a priest in the same city on January 21 in 1989. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher at Colegio Santa Maria del Carmen in Madrid he spent a number of years at the St. Albert’s International Centre in Rome (CISA) and obtained a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University with a thesis on the theology of penance of Fr. Bartolomé Xiberta, published in 1997 by Edizioni Carmelitane.
Returning to Spain, he taught as an Ordinary Professor of Sacraments in the Theology Faculty in the Pontifical Comillas University beginning in February 1995. He taught as an guest professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University and gave courses in a number of other universities as well.
He was a member of the Institutum Carmelitanum in Rome, the Centro de Estudios judeo-cristianos in Madrid and the General Commission for Culture of the Carmelite Order. Further, he was a member of the advisory editorial team for such reviews as: Escapulario del Carmen (Jerez de la Frontera), Sal Terrae (Madrid); Fonte (Madrid) y Estudios Eclesiásticos (Madrid). He is a literary prize-winner for his short story writing.
He was elected Prior General of the Carmelite Order at the 2007 General Chapter in Sassone, Rome and was re-elected to serve for the second term 2013-2019 at the General Chapter 2013.
Please note; to enlarge a photo please click on it.
Wales has long been important in the history of the re-establishment of the Carmelite Order's presence in Britain.
The Catholic Church in Lampeter was opened on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16th July) 1940, and was the first church dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Wales. The building of the church was overseen by Carmelite friar Fr. Malachy Lynch, O.Carm.
The Carmelite Order began in the thirteenth century in the Holy Land. It has become an international family of religious and lay people, who 'follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ' through a life of prayer and service, in the midst of the people. The Order has produced many saints, such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, who have given the world great insights into the spiritual life.
The Carmelites established themselves in Wales in 1350, with a friary in Denbigh. Sadly, the Dissolution of the Monasteries brought that presence to an end. However, the friars returned to Wales in 1936, with a 'Welsh Mission' based in Aberystwyth. The celebration this year would not be possible, were it not for that work, which spread to Lampeter, Llandeilo and then to Cheltenham.
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