El Monte Carmelo (en hebreo: הר הכרמל, Har ha'Karmel; en árabe, جبل الكارمل Yabal al-Karmil) es una cordillera en Israel sobre el mar Mediterráneo. El monte Carmelo tiene forma triangular, mide unos 26 km de largo y alrededor de 7 kilómetros de ancho y su altura máxima de unos 550 m. La ciudad de Haifa está parcialmente situada sobre el Monte Carmelo, como también otras pequeñas ciudades como Nesher, Tirat Karmel. Sus coordenadas son: 32º 50' de latitudNorte y 35º de longitudEste. Su nombre viene a decir jardín ("Karmel" en árabe) o viñedos de Dios ("Karem El" en idioma hebreo). En la antigüedad estaba cubierta por viñedos y fue siempre famosa por su fertilidad.
Un filósofo sirio del siglo IV a. C., llamado Jámblico, escribió que el Monte Carmelo era "el más santo de todos los montes". Las cuevas ubicadas en el Monte Carmelo fueron declaradas Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la Unesco en 2012.[1]
Inspirados en el profeta Elías, durante el siglo XII, un grupo de hombres (probablemente ermitaños o cruzados) fundó en el Monte Carmelo la Orden de los Carmelitas. Éstos llevarían al mundo en siglos sucesivos la hoy extendidísima devoción por Nuestra Señora del Monte Carmelo, referida comúnmente como Virgen del Carmen.
Se menciona en el Antiguo Testamento de la Biblia. De acuerdo al relato del capítulo 18 del Primer Libro de los Reyes, es aquí donde el profeta Elías demuestra que el Señor de Israel es el verdadero Dios. El Altar había sido totalmente destruido, por lo que Elías reunió 12 piedras (una por cada Tribu de Israel) con las cuales lo reparó. Era un altar que había sido edificado desde los tiempos de los jueces y llamado "Altar de Karmel." De acuerdo a los historiadores, Vespasiano consultó en él (Notas de la Traducción Kadosh Israelita Mesiánica, por Diego de Ascunce [2003]) La orden religiosa católica de los Carmelitas fue fundada en el Monte Carmelo en el siglo XII por un grupo, no se sabe si peregrinos, ermitaños o cruzados. La orden creció hasta convertirse en una de las mayores órdenes religiosas católicas. La tradición carmelita sugiere que una comunidad de ermitañosjudíos vivieron en el Monte Carmelo en los tiempos del profeta Elías aunque no hay evidencia documental de que dicha comunidad existiera.
Durante la Gran Guerra, el Monte Carmelo tomó un importante papel estratégico. La batalla de Megiddo, que tuvo lugar en sus cercanías, fue el punto de inflexión que inclinó el fiel hacia el lado británico.
A un paso entre la cumbre del Monte Carmelo que da entrada al Valle de Jezreel, donde tendrá lugar la Batalla de Armagedón según algunas interpretaciones cristianas.
En la falda del Monte Carmelo en el corazón de Haifa se encuentra el Santuario del Báb, lugar donde se enterraron los restos mortales del profeta el Báb en 1909 y cuya estructura externa fue completada en los años 50. Este mausoleo se encuentra rodeado por dieciocho terrazas ajardinadas, junto al Centro Mundial Bahá'í, y forman el centro administrativo y espiritual de la Comunidad Mundial bahá'í. La localización de ambos fue designada por Bahá'u'lláh, fundador de la Fe Bahá'í, en la Tabla del Carmelo. El Santuario del Báb constituye uno de los principales atractivos turísticos de Haifa. La montaña es sagrada y un lugar de peregrinación para los bahá'ís de todo el mundo. Además, desde 2008 representan un Patrimonio de la humanidad.
Los actuales grupos de esenios señalaban que el Monte Carmelo era la fortaleza espiritual del templo B'nai-Amen, de los movimientos esenios del norte - los "Nazarenos" - descritos por Epifanio de Salamis, Padre de la Iglesia, en su Panarion (1:18) y brevemente señalado por el historiador Flavio Josefo en su Guerra de los Judíos. Excavaciones en el Monte Carmelo en 1958 descubrieron lo que parece ser el altar de Elías, la cueva donde él vivió y la fuente de Elias y los restos de un antiguo monasterio.
Fotógrafos y diarios documentaron en 1932 el descubrimiento en el Monte Carmelo, de un esqueleto femenino de neanderthal, Tabun I, uno de los más importantes fósiles humanos descubiertos, hasta ahora. La excavación de Tabun produjo un récord estratigráfico en la región abarcando 600.000 años o más de actividad humana."[3][4]
El Monte Carmelo es ampliamente conocido como un monte sacro, en su origen, para las religiones judía, cristiana y baha'i, los antiguos esenios y un lugar que ha influido en el nombre de otros lugares, movimientos religiosos y en la literatura en todo el mundo. Algunas otras montañas y lugares de todo el mundo han sido llamadas Carmelo, debido a esta montaña bíblica.
Es una localidad meramente turística, debido a su ubicación en las Sierras Chicas y su proximidad con la capital provincial. Además, existen varios complejos de cabañas y una cancha de golf. La capilla es también una importante atracción.
Durante las décadas de 1980 y 1990 se desarrolló en esta localidad el Programa Cóndor. Para el desarrollo y la construcción de la planta de producción se invirtieron unos U$S 400 millones de dólares y llegaron a trabajar alrededor de 800 personas.
La sismicidad de la región de Córdoba es frecuente y de intensidad baja, y un silencio sísmico de terremotos medios a graves cada 30 años en áreas aleatorias.3 Sus últimas expresiones se produjeron:
28 de marzo de 1955 (67 años), a las 6.20 UTC-3 con 6,9 Richter: además de la gravedad física del fenómeno se unió el desconocimiento absoluto de la población a estos eventos recurrentes (terremoto de Villa Giardino de 1955)
7 de septiembre de 2004 (17 años), a las 8.53 UTC-3 con 4,1 Richter
25 de diciembre de 2009 (12 años), a las 21.42 UTC-3 con 4,0 Richter
Esta devoción se difundió por toda Europa y contó con Santos de la talla de San Juan de la Cruz y Santa Teresa; no es extraño que llegara a América y acompañara el despertar a la fe de los originarios que la veneraron desde mediados del siglo XVI. Ya en el siglo XVIII se encuentra en Mendoza la imagen que hoy veneramos, pues don Pedro de Núñez “caballero de gran fortuna y devoción”, donó la imagen y todo lo necesario para el culto de la Virgen del Carmen. Primero estuvo en el templo de los Padres Jesuitas estando fundada la Cofradía. En 1.776, a raíz de la expulsión de la Orden, la imagen fue trasladada a San Francisco, desde donde presidiría una de las más bellas jornadas de la historia de nuestra patria.
Llega el año 1814, momento en el que San Martín hará de los pacíficos habitantes de Cuyo, heroicos soldados forjadores de libertad, pero ellos necesitarán una Madre que los ampare y de sentido a tanto sacrificio. Es de todos conocida la profunda devoción que el Libertador profesó a la Virgen y que lo hizo nombrarla Generala de su Ejército, superando los respetos humanos de una época en la que el liberalismo había impuesto la idea de que “la religión es asunto privado”. Tanta importancia dio al tema, que lo decidió con su Estado Mayor, según dice Espejo en su obra “El Paso de los Andes”. La devoción a la Virgen del Carmen estaba muy arraigada en Cuyo y casi todos los soldados llevaban su escapulario, por eso fue ella la que tuvo preferencia” dice, y más adelante describe la brillante ceremonia (5 de enero de 1817) durante la cual San Martín le entrega su bastón de mando, la nombra Generala, y hace bendecir también la Bandera de los Andes, “saludada por dianas y la banda con cajas y clarines, mientras rompía una salva de veintiún cañonazos, ante el ejército de gran gala y todo el pueblo de Mendoza”. Más tarde, después de sus triunfos, entregará definitivamente su bastón, esta vez en el silencio que acompaña a todo lo grande y dejando aquella conocida carta: ”la protección que ha prestado al Ejército de los Andes su Patrona y Generala la Virgen del Carmen son demasiado visibles...” Ambas reliquias, el bastón y la carta, se conservan hoy en el Camarín de la Virgen, como mudos testigos de la parte que Ella tuvo en la grandeza de alma de nuestro Libertador. Siendo Generala del Ejército Argentino, junto a la banda, acompaña a la imagen nuestra bandera. Como así también las banderas de Perú y Chile, al ser esta advocación Patrona de los 2 países vecinos.
El año 1 de este calendario es la Hégira, cuando Mahoma huyó de La Meca a medina, el 16 de julio de 622, según el calendario gregoriano. En cuanto al judaísmo, la historia oficial le atribuye la versión final de este calendario al sabio Hilel II, en el año 359 de la era cristiana.
It is also known as the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmelfor monks, to distinguish it from the nearby Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for nuns, located higher up on Mount Carmel.
In the 12th century, during the Kingdom of Jerusalem rule of the region, groups of religious hermits began to inhabit the caves of this area in imitation of Elijah the Prophet. In the early 13th century, their leader and prior (referred to in the rule only as 'Brother B', although sometimes claimed despite an absence of supporting evidence to be either Saint Brocard or Saint Bertold) asked the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert Avogadro, to provide the group with a written rule of life, which he did.
This was the originating act of the Order, who took the name 'Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel' or Carmelites. An oratory was dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her aspect of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, the latter part of which translates in Latin to Stella Maris. Within a few decades, when the capital of the CrusaderKingdom of Jerusalem, Acre, fell in 1291 to the Mamluks, these monastic hermits were forced to leave the Holy Land. The Carmelite order spread throughout Europe, where, from 1238 onwards, the Order had begun to found houses -- at the end of Saint Louis' first crusade to the Holy Land in 1254, he had taken six Carmelites back to France with him.
In 1631 the Discalced branch of the Order returned to the Holy Land, led by the Venerable Father Prosper. He had a small monastery constructed on the promontory at Mount Carmel, close to the lighthouse[dubious– discuss], and the friars lived there until 1761, when Zahir al-Umar, the then effectively independent ruler of Galilee, ordered them to vacate the site and demolish the monastery.
Current location: first building (1761-1821)[edit]
This new church was seriously damaged in Napoleon's 1799 campaign. Sick and wounded French soldiers were accommodated in the monastery, and when Napoleon withdrew, the Turks slaughtered them and drove out the friars.
The monument to Napoleon's soldiers
In 1821, Abdullah Pasha of Acre ordered the ruined church to be totally destroyed, so that it could not serve as a fort for his enemies, while he attacked Jerusalem. The masonry was used to build Abdullah Pasha's summer palace and a lighthouse,[2] which were sold back to the Carmelite order in 1846.[3][dubious– discuss]
Entrance to the MonasteryDome of the Stella Maris MonasteryChurch interior with the venerated cave visible under the altar
The current church and monastery, built under the orders of Brother Cassini of the Order, was opened in 1836. Three years later Pope Gregory XVI bestowed the title of Minor Basilica on the sanctuary, and it is now known as "Stella Maris", meaning Star of the Sea. For much of the 20th century it was occupied by the military, first the British, and later the Israelis, but at the end of their lease it was handed back to the Order.[clarification needed]
The monastery serves as a centre of Carmelite spirituality throughout the world. The symbol of the Order is mounted right above the entrance door. During the erection of the church, friars were assaulted by their neighbors and had to defend their property and the church guests. As a result, the monastery's ground floor is built out of thick walls with few and small openings covered by bars.
The monastery's main church resembles the shape of a cross. Its dome is decorated by colorful paintings based on motifs from both the Old and New Testament: Elijah rising to heaven, David stringing his harp, the prophet Isaiah, the Holy Family and the Four Evangelists. Latin inscriptions of biblical verses are written around the dome.
The altar stands on an elevated platform situated above a small cave associated with Elijah. The cave can be reached from the nave by descending a few steps and holds a stone altar with a small statue of Prophet Elijah. The altar above the cave is dominated by a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying Jesus in her lap and holding the Scapular in her right hand, known as Our Lady of the Scapular. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the patroness of the Carmelites, and as such is known as "Our Lady of Mount Carmel".
Main church altar with the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.Stella Maris monastery at the end of the 19th century
New embossments dedicated to Carmelite figures are hoisted on all four corners of the central hall. On the western wall of the church is a large organ that is played during religious ceremonies and at special church music concerts.
During the First World War, the statue of Our Lady of the Scapular, holding Baby Jesus and the scapular, was removed from the church and placed in a safer place in Haifa.[4] After the war, in 1919, it was brought back to its place in a small procession.[4] Since then, every first Sunday after Easter, on the same date as in 1919, what has become the second largest Catholic procession of the Holy Land after the Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem, takes place between downtown Haifa and Stella Maris, up the western slope of the Carmel.[4] Large crowds of Catholic Christians, including such of eastern rites, are led by the Latin Patriarch and other Church leaders in accompanying the statue on its way.[4]
Shmuel Oswald Rufeisen (1922–1998), Jewish convert to Christianity, Carmelite friar at Stella Maris, who was refused Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return
Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the Speakers Balcony at the US Capitol, September 24, 2015, in Washington, DC. Pool/Getty Images
If President Barack Obama had delivered the text of Pope Francis’s speech to Congress Thursday as a State of the Union address, he would have risked being denounced by Republicans as a socialist.
While most Republicans chose not to complain, and Democrats tried not to gloat, Francis’s speech to Congress was stunning in the breadth, depth, and conviction of its progressivism. That might not have been fully and immediately appreciated by everyone in the House chamber because the combination of Francis’s sotto voce delivery and his heavily accented English made it difficult, lawmakers said, to grasp everything he was saying.
But there was no mistaking his thrust. He made detailed arguments for openness to immigrants, addressing the human roots of climate change, closing the gap between the rich and the poor, and ending the death penalty — all of which invigorated the Democrats in the room.
“It was pretty progressive. He had a little right-to-life stuff in it,” Rep. James Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, said as he cracked a smile thinking about how Republicans would receive the speech. “That’s enough for them.”
The pope isn’t going to change many hearts and minds in the badly divided Congress, lawmakers said, but the moment provided a brief respite from political warfare. Several presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, as well as Ben Carson, attended.
Rubio, a Roman Catholic, said in a brief interview that Francis “struck the right tone.” Sanders, a self-described socialist, seemed to like the content even more.
“Pope Francis is clearly one of the important religious and moral leaders not only in the world today but in modern history,” he said in a statement released after the speech. “He forces us to address some of the major issues facing humanity: war, income and wealth inequality, poverty, unemployment, greed, the death penalty and other issues that too many prefer to ignore.”
Democrats were eager enough to present Congress as united that they joined a Republican-led standing ovation when Francis told lawmakers of “our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every state of its development.” Several of them said it was out of respect for the pope. But there was another good reason: It strengthened the perception that the whole speech — most of which they liked — carried unifying themes.
Unity was good for Democrats because the speech favored their policies
Francis was interrupted a few times by whoops from the Democratic side of the chamber — by Steve Cohen, a Jewish Memphis Democrat who got excited about Francis’s mention of the Golden Rule; by New York’s Nydia Velázquez when he called for an end to the death penalty; and by Philadelphia Rep. Chaka Fattah when he mentioned his upcoming visit to that city. The Republicans in the room were a bit more staid. Cruz often appeared unmoved during moments when Rubio, who was sitting nearby, applauded. That was the case when Francis asked whether the greater opportunities sought by past generations of immigrants are “not what we want for our own children?”
It was a home crowd. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) had announced he would boycott the event over climate change, and there was a brief murmur when it became obvious that three conservative Catholic Supreme Court justices — Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas — had not shown up. But it seemed that everyone in attendance just wanted to catch a glimpse of Francis and hear what he had to say.
Big-name guests filed into the public galleries above the House chamber long before the pope’s arrival: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, mega-donor Tom Steyer, and Carson. House members filled the seats in their chamber, followed by the Senate and four Supreme Court justices. At about a minute past 10 am, Francis strode down the center aisle of the House chamber, clad in his familiar white robe and skullcap.
Lawmakers, who had been admonished not to touch the pope, refrained from trying to shake his hand or pat his back. There was no rush to crowd him the way members of Congress try to get into pictures with the president during the annual State of the Union address. When he got to the end of the aisle, he quietly shook hands with Secretary of State John Kerry and then made his way to the rostrum.
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, pulled out a baby blue iPhone and began snapping pictures. Though she later took to Twitter to commemorate the moment, Power hadn’t posted any of her photos by midday.
For his part, Francis warmed up the audience by describing America as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” He was slow to move into more politically charged territory but unimpeded when he did. There were 10 standing ovations after his initial greeting, and they were bipartisan.
Francis tackled tough issues at the heart of the US political debate and gently admonished lawmakers to build bridges
At times, Francis seemed to be speaking directly into the headlines and newscasts of the day.
Less than a week after Carson said that America shouldn’t elect a Muslim president, Francis warned that “a delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.”
As Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump promises to build a wall between Mexico and the US, and to prevent Syrian refugees from being admitted to America, Francis compared the current refugee crisis to the one that arose in World War II and said that “we the people of this continent are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.” That drew a standing ovation. Rubio, who has shifted his emphasis on immigration reform over time, leaped to his feet.
And while Democrats continue to bask in this summer’s Supreme Court decision protecting same-sex marriage, the pope said he was concerned that “fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family.” The issue that caused the biggest stir before the speech — climate change — factored prominently in Francis’s remarks. He spoke of the human roots of global warming and said, “I am convinced we can make a difference.”
But perhaps the most unexpected run in the speech was an admonishment as gentle as it was clear: Politics is about building bridges, not destroying them. Francis never mentioned the international nuclear nonproliferation deal with Iran by name or the gridlock in American politics, but he seemed to be speak to both matters.
“When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue — a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons — new opportunities open up for all,” he said. “A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces.”
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Joe Pitts, speaking about the pope’s limited remarks on abortion and same-sex marriage, said he was displeased that Francis had been “unfortunately politically correct.”
For liberals, though, he was simply correct about politics.
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