Mass for the Solemn Commemoration
of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
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.