Carmelites: The Carmelite Province of Our Lady Help of Christians, Australia and Timor Leste: Resources: Carmelite Library

It has been called “a national treasure” but for well over 100 years it has been accessible to just a few.

Now that has changed. The Carmelite Library – Australia’s finest specialised collection of books and journals in the area of Christian spirituality and mysticism – has a new home in Middle Park.

And it welcomes both “the scholar and the seeker” to make use of its rich resources.
Fr Paul Chandler, wants it to be “a library for everyone interested in the spiritual journey: for church members, students of spirituality, scholars working on major research projects, members of the community in search of personal enrichment and those seeking understanding between religions.”

He says it is important to preserve the books that represent traditional Catholic piety, many of which are in danger of being lost in this time of rapid change. Fr Chandler also wants to provide a resource that will help carry a renewed spiritual tradition into the future.

Its move from Donvale means the library now offers easier access and more comfortable facilities for users.

The Carmelite friars arrived in Australia from Ireland in the early 1880s and brought with them the nucleus of today’s Carmelite Library.

Among its treasures were the Ceremoniale of 1616 which guided the priest through the intricacies of celebrating mass according to the Order’s ancient Rite of the Holy Sepulchre which dated to the time of the Crusades; and the Carmelite Constitutions of 1625 (reprinted 1721) then still in force.

In 1928 the Carmelites began training their Australian novices and students in Melbourne rather than send them to Ireland. An academic library began to develop at Whitefriars House of Studies, which was first in Kew and from 1937 in Donvale.

It included the textbooks and other works required by the students and their professors across a broad philosophical and theological range. By the 1980s financial pressures, the development of new theological centres and the Order’s changing educational strategy prompted a change of policy and focus.

In 1985 it was decided to discontinue collecting across the whole range of theological disciplines and today the library is concentrated in three areas closely associated with the life and spirit of the Order. These are:

The Rare Book Collection includes about 300 pre-1800 titles, most of them with a Carmelite connection. The oldest book, a controversial work against Lutheranism by the Italian Carmelite Giovanni Maria Verrato, dates from 1538.

In 2003 the Library contains some 30,000 books and other items and is housed in the heritage Carmelite Hall at the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park, where the Carmelites have ministered since 1882.

The Carmelites know the library requires further development if it is to realise its potential as a cultural, intellectual and spiritual resource for the Australian community. The first task is to find the funding to create an online public access catalogue and in the long term to establish an endowment fund to ensure the library’s mission in the future.

They are appealing for financial assistance from those who share their vision of a centre for study and reflection on the great Christian spiritual traditions. Donations are tax deductible and details are available from the librarian.

You can find The Carmelite Library beside the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at

Carmelite Library Website: www.carmelitelibrary.org