75th ANNIVERSARY | CARMELITES IN PERU

Our Carmelite Order celebrates, with great joy, the 75th anniversary of the Carmelites in Peru. It was in 1949 when two friars from the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, in the United States, arrived in Lima after a long journey by ship. These two Carmelites were Matthew O’Neill and Leon Battle, who decided to leave their country to found a new mission in South America.

These two friars arrived in Lima with a great missionary spirit and with the desire to share their faith and Carmelite vocation wherever the Church authorities would send them. Thus, the archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Guevara, assigned them to establish in the south of the city, in an area where no other priests wanted to go and carry out a pastoral mission. In this way they arrived at a new and small urbanization on the outskirts of the then city of Miraflores, today part of Greater Lima and a highly developed neighborhood.

After Matthew and Leon, other brothers arrived and helped with the growth and development of our Order in Peru through various parishes and Carmelite schools, ministering to a multitude of faithful.

This year 2024, our Carmelite Order is happy to celebrate these 75 years of the Carmelites in Peru with several celebrations that began in March at the parish of Pucusana, a fishing neighborhood in the far south of Lima. Then in May, the festivities took place at the parish of José Gálvez, a very poor area in the near south of Lima, and finally the main celebrations were held in our parish of Miraflores, in the place where the Peruvian foundation began.

The main celebrations took place on the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th of August with the presence of numerous Carmelite friars, nuns and lay people, among whom the following stood out: Fr. Miceal O’Neill, Prior General; Fr. Fernando Millán, former Prior General; P. Luis Maza, General Councilor; Fr. Carl Markelz, Prior Provincial; and many other Carmelite friars who arrived from Canada, the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.

On Friday 2^nd we had a Key Lecture addressed by Fr. Miceal O’Neill and Fr. Fernando Millán, who shared with the group of participants the history and expansion of the Order at an international level, and the beginnings of the Carmelite presence in Peru. Then, on Saturday 3^rd, a beautiful and crowded procession was organized around the neighborhood of our first parish. The procession was followed by a solemn mass in which more than a thousand people participated. On Sunday 4^th August the celebrations were concluded with a fraternal lunch in Villa Carmelitas, and a gorgeous musical show, organized by our prestigious school in Miraflores.

Nowadays, the Carmelites in Peru serve the people of God through three parishes, three schools, a retreat house and a spirituality center, among other ministries.

Raúl Maraví, O.Carm.
Commissary Provincial of Peru