Carmelite TimeLine,

Starting with the Prophet Elijah...

900 BC - Prophet Elijah, lives on Mt. Carmel, experiences God in a deep, personal way, instructs first hermits of Mt. Carmel. Motto on Carmelite Crest: WITH ZEAL I HAVE BEEN ZEALOUS FOR THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS (1Kings 19:10 + 14).
1-33 AD - Jesus lives--tie-in of Elijah and the Blessed Mother, our Patroness, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
4th CENTURY AD - St. Helena, Queen and Mother Emperor Constantine, constructs the Basilica of Elijah in Palestine.
614 AD - Persians invade Palestine, destroy the Basilica of Elijah--many Jews and Christians flee the Holy Land.
1095 - 1291 - The time of the Crusades.
1155 - St. Berthold, Italian priest-monk, settles with 10 ex-Crusaders on Mt. Carmel, living in the caves as hermits.
1190 - Hermits on Mt. Carmel construct/dedicate the 1. chapel to Our Lady-demonstrate the Marian character of the Order.
1238 - Muslims in the Holy Land cause problems for the Carmelite Brothers living on Mt. Carmel. The Carmelites migrate to Sicily, England, Cyprus, France... Most begin to live a more communal life, but a few houses follow the true hermit life.
1242 - Sir Richard de Grey returns from the Crusades in the Holy Land and brings Carmelite brothers to England.
1247 - English Carmelite Simon Stock is elected Prior General.
1432 - Pope Eugene IV approved a mitigation of the Rule, theresult of a desire for less strictness in the rule.
July 16, 1251 - Our Lady of Mt. Carmel appears to St. Simon Stock and gives him the scapular promise: "Whosoever dies clothed with this habit shall be saved from Eternal fire."
1478 - 1834 - Spanish Inquisition--religious + political - drive out 2 specific hereies, but grew in proportion.
1517 - Luther starts the Protestant Reformation
August 24, 1562 - St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila begins her reform of Carmel, returning to the original, unmitigated Rule. She establishes the convent of St. Joseph, the first of 17 Discalced Carmelite Convents and many Discalced Carmelite Friaries.
1580 - Pope Gregory XIII separated them into two Orders. St Teresa's followers (unmitigated rule) are "Discalced" meaning "without shoes" while the original order is known as the "Calced" (mitigated rule).
Today - throughout the world there are about 2,200 Carmelite friars on five continents. There are 72 communities of cloistered nuns, 13 Congregations of sisters, a Lay Missionary Family, a Secular Institute, three communities of hermits, and numerous Third Order Lay members and Confraternities of the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
1247 - St. Simon Stock (English) became Carmelite Prior General.
July 16, 1251 - Our Lady appears to St. Simon Stock and gives him the scapular promise, "Whosoever dies in this habit, shall be saved from Eternal death."

1238 - Migration of Carmelites to Cyprus, Sicily, France, England