Carmelite Use

In Brief

The Carmelite Use is the old Mass of the Carmelites — traditionally called the Rite of the Holy Sepulchre, after the claim of its 1574 Missal to follow "the norm and custom of the Church of Jerusalem". It is the Roman Mass in its older structure, with the Order's own prayers and gestures: a Confiteor that invokes the prophet Elijah, the chalice prepared at the sedilia, arms outstretched in the form of a Cross at the Unde et memores. Today it is prayed daily, in Latin with Gregorian chant, by the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming, and occasionally by Carmelite friars.^1,2,3

Where to Experience It

The use's daily home is the Wyoming monastery of the Carmelite Monks, in the Diocese of Cheyenne, where the community's priests celebrate a daily sung Mass in the Carmelite rite. Occasionally it appears among the Carmelite friars (O.Carm.) themselves: Fr Lucian Beltzner regularly offers the traditional Carmelite Rite at St Joseph's in Troy, New York, and in July 2020 a solemn Mass was celebrated at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, New York, the motherhouse of the order's North American Province.^2,3

Your First Visit

The Wyoming monastery is cloistered and contemplative; its liturgical life is the monks', and visitors should approach it on the community's terms — the monastery's site gives the horarium and the terms of a visit. The occasional friars' celebrations, like the Middletown solemn Mass, are public liturgies: Latin, sung, with the older structure and the use's unmistakable gestures.

The Shape of the Liturgy

The marks to watch for: the Mass opens, after the Carmelite Litany of the Saints in procession, with Veni Sancte Spiritus and the Asperges. The prayers at the foot of the altar are the Order's own, and the Confiteor specifically invokes the prophet Elijah — it is similar, the account notes, to the Dominican one. The celebrant reads the Missal's texts seated at the sedilia while the subdeacon chants the Epistle, and the chalice is prepared there, on a corporal spread on the celebrant's lap. At the Unde et memores the celebrant stretches his arms out in the form of a Cross, "as in most medieval Uses of the Roman Rite", and the ministers return repeatedly to a cruciform arrangement through the Mass. There is a Last Gospel.²

What makes it distinctive

• The Carmelite Confiteor invokes the prophet Elijah, and is similar to the Dominican one.²
• The celebrant reads the Missal's texts at the sedilia while the subdeacon chants the Epistle; the chalice is prepared there, on a corporal on the celebrant's lap.²
• Arms outstretched in the form of a Cross at the Unde et memores, as in most medieval uses of the Roman Rite.²
• The Mass begins with Veni Sancte Spiritus and the Asperges, after the Carmelite Litany of the Saints in procession.²
• Latin with Gregorian chant, in a daily sung Mass at the Wyoming monastery.³

History

The Carmelites began as hermits on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, given a Rule around 1210. Their liturgy grew up with the Order in the thirteenth century, and it carried a grand pedigree: the use of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The 1574 Missal's title page makes the claim in full — the Mass "ad normam, et consuetudinem Hierosolymitane Ecclesiae", according to the norm and custom of the Church of Jerusalem.^1,5

The scholarly account is cooler. Zimmerman's history traces the substance to France: the Parisian use, brought east by the French clergy with the Crusaders, and carried home again as the Order spread in Europe. "Holy Sepulchre" and "Parisian" are not contradictory on this telling — the rite took its shape in the Crusader East from French materials, and kept the Jerusalem name as its pedigree.⁵

The medieval landmarks: Sibert de Beka's ordinal of 1312, which ordered the Order's liturgy, and the printed Missals culminating in the 1574 Venice edition.^1,5 Pius V's Quo primum (1570) exempted the use with the other customs older than 200 years.⁶ The Discalced reform of Teresa and John of the Cross, for all its Carmelite mysticism, adopted the Roman books in the 1580s — the old Carmelite Mass is the older observance's, the O.Carm.'s.⁵

Milestones

1. 13th centuryThe hermits on Mount Carmel receive their Rule (c. 1210); the Order's liturgical use takes shape⁵
2. 1312Sibert de Beka's ordinal, a landmark of the medieval Carmelite liturgy⁵
3. 1570Pius V's Quo primum exempts uses with a custom older than 200 years from the imposed Roman books⁶
4. 1574The Carmelite Missal printed at Venice, 'ad normam, et consuetudinem Hierosolymitane Ecclesiae'¹
5. 1580sThe Discalced Carmelites adopt the Roman books — not to be confused with the older use⁵
6. 2020Solemn Mass in the traditional Carmelite rite at Middletown, NY, with the prior provincial's permission and encouragement²
7. 2026The Carmelite Monks of Wyoming live 'a full, reverent, and traditional Carmelite liturgical life using the Carmelite Mass in Latin with Gregorian Chant'³

Texts & Books

The book is the Order's Missal. The landmark printing is the 1574 Missale of Venice — "Missale antique professionis Regularium beatissime Dei genitricis … de Monte Carmelo, ad normam, et consuetudinem Hierosolymitane Ecclesiae" — scanned on archive.org from the University of Seville's copy.¹ For the Mass as actually celebrated in our time, the fullest record is the booklet prepared for the July 2020 Middletown solemn Mass, after more than a year of research under Fr Beltzner's guidance, consulting a variety of liturgical texts.²

Theology & Spirit

Elijah is the Order's father — the prophet of Mount Carmel, invoked in the Confiteor where other uses name apostles. The Carmelite Mass wears its origin story on its sleeve: a hermit order that became mendicant, a French liturgy that claimed Jerusalem, a rite whose ministers stand in the form of a Cross. The Wyoming monks' own telling holds both ends of the charism at once: the mystical spirituality expounded by Teresa and John of the Cross, and "a full, reverent, and traditional Carmelite liturgical life".^2,3

Family & Relations

It is a use of the Roman Rite — the Roman Canon, the older structure, the Order's own prayers around both.^2,5 Its nearest kin among the order uses is the Dominican Use: the other great mendicant rite, with the notably similar Confiteor. Its closest kin in the rite at large is the Vetus Ordo: the same Canon, the same pre-conciliar horizon. Do not confuse the users with the Discalced: O.C.D. took the Roman books in the 1580s, and the Wyoming monks — whatever their spiritual lineage — are not O.C.D. but a public association of the faithful on the way to becoming a religious institute.^3,5

Compare with

• Vetus Ordo: the received Roman Missal; the Carmelite use keeps the Roman Canon with its own prayers and gestures²
• Dominican Use: the other great mendicant use; the Carmelite Confiteor is similar to the Dominican one²

The Rite Today

Two facts, kept distinct. First: the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming — a monastic, cloistered community in the Diocese of Cheyenne, founded as a public association of the faithful "in itinere" toward becoming a religious institute — live "a full, reverent, and traditional Carmelite liturgical life using the Carmelite Mass in Latin with Gregorian Chant", with a daily sung Mass.³ Second: among the Carmelite friars of the St Elias Province, the old rite is an occasional, permitted thing — the July 2020 Middletown solemn Mass was celebrated "with the permission and encouragement" of the prior provincial, Fr Mario Esposito, as an official Year of Vocations event, by Fr Lucian Beltzner, who "offered this Mass in his youth" and offers it regularly at Troy.²

Neither fact makes the Carmelite use the Order's norm. It is kept — daily in Wyoming, occasionally among the friars — and that is the whole of what is claimed.

As of 20 September 2026.

Disputed Questions

Go Deeper

The name is the dispute, and it is worth having straight. The 1574 Missal's title page claims the custom of the Church of Jerusalem — the Holy Sepulchre — and the traditional name "Rite of the Holy Sepulchre" comes from that claim. The scholarly history derives the substance from the French/Parisian use carried east by the Crusaders.^1,5

The steelman for the Jerusalem name: the Order was born in the Holy Land, its liturgy took shape there, and the title page is a primary witness to how the Order understood its own rite. The steelman for the French derivation: liturgical substance is traced by texts, not titles, and the texts point to Paris. This page uses "Rite of the Holy Sepulchre" as the traditional name — the catalog's note, the use's own pedigree — not as a verdict on the origin question. What matters for the Index is the plainer fact: the Mass described here, with Elijah in the Confiteor and the chalice prepared at the sedilia, is the Order's own, and it is still prayed.²

On Domus Dei

• The Roman RiteThe rite from the fourth century and the lineage of its Missals
• Dominican UseThe other great mendicant use, with a notably similar Confiteor
• Vetus OrdoThe received Roman Missal of 1962, the Carmelite use's closest kin

Official resources

• The Carmelite Monks of Wyoming

Recommended reading

• Zimmerman, Benedict, “Carmelite Rite”, Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 13, s.v. Rites, 1912.The 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia's account of the use's Jerusalem claim and French derivation Read online
• DiPippo, Gregory, “Photos of the Recent Solemn Carmelite Mass”, New Liturgical Movement, 2020.A detailed photo-account of the traditional Carmelite Mass as celebrated in 2020 Read online
• Carmelite Monks of Wyoming, “Carmelite Monks: Men's Cloistered Monastery”, carmelitemonks.org.The Wyoming monks on their community and its liturgical life Read online

Sources

1. Primary textMissale antique professionis Regularium beatissime Dei genitricis semper que virginis Marie de Monte Carmelo, ad normam, et consuetudinem Hierosolymitane Ecclesi[a]e, Venetiis: Apud Iuntas, 1574. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · archive.org metadata for item ARes10417 (Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla scan): full title claims the rite 'ad normam, et consuetudinem Hierosolymitane Ecclesiae' (according to the norm and custom of the Church of Jerusalem), Venice: Apud Iuntas, 1574. Scan not read in full
2. ReferenceDiPippo, Gregory, “Photos of the Recent Solemn Carmelite Mass”, New Liturgical Movement, 2020. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · read in full: solemn Mass in the traditional Carmelite rite, July 2020, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middletown, NY (motherhouse of the order's North American Province); celebrant Fr Lucian Beltzner, OCarm ('who offered this Mass in his youth'), 'with the permission and encouragement of Fr Mario Esposito, OCarm, Prior Provincial of the Carmelite Friars Saint Elias Province', as an official Year of Vocations event; Fr Beltzner regularly offers the Traditional Carmelite Rite at St. Joseph's, Troy, NY; the Mass: Carmelite Litany of the Saints, Veni Sancte Spiritus and Asperges, Carmelite prayers at the foot of the altar, Carmelite Confiteor 'specifically invokes the prophet Elijah', celebrant reads at the sedilia while the subdeacon chants the Epistle, chalice prepared at the sedilia on a corporal on the celebrant's lap, arms outstretched in the form of a Cross at the Unde et memores, Last Gospel
3. Primary textCarmelite Monks of Wyoming, “Carmelite Monks: Men's Cloistered Monastery”, carmelitemonks.org. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · read in full: the community is a 'public association of the Christian faithful founded "in itinere" to becoming a religious institute', in the Diocese of Cheyenne; the monks 'live a full, reverent, and traditional Carmelite liturgical life using the Carmelite Mass in Latin with Gregorian Chant'; the community preaches at 'the monastery's daily sung mass'
4. ReferenceFortescue, Adrian, “Rites”, Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 13, 1912. LinkVerified 2026-09-14 · read in the New Advent text: the general part, signed ADRIAN FORTESCUE (New Advent's citation line names P. Griffin, wrongly): 'merely the Roman Rite with local additions and modifications, most of which are to its disadvantage'; dioceses (e.g. Lyons) and orders 'keep their special uses'. It misdates Quo primum to 19 July 1570 (the bull: pridie Idus Julii, 14 July), so that date is not repeated
5. ReferenceZimmerman, Benedict, “Carmelite Rite”, Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 13, s.v. Rites, 1912. LinkVerified 2026-09-14 · read in the New Advent text, the section signed BENEDICT ZIMMERMAN: the Rule of about 1210; 'the Patriarchal Church of Jerusalem'; 'the Gallican family of the Roman Rite'; the Parisian Rite; the French clergy with the Crusaders
6. Magisterial / canonicalPius V, Quo primum (bull promulgating the Roman Missal), 1570. LinkVerified 2026-09-15 · Latin read in the front matter of the 1962 editio typica (archive.org sp07mr62-editio-typica, page images pp. [V]-VI) and of an 1862 Missal: 'nisi ab ipsa prima institutione a Sede Apostolica approbata, vel consuetudine, quae, vel ipsa institutio super ducentos annos … assidue observata sit'; dated 'pridie idus iulii' 1570; the Council of Trent's decrees had left the Missal to the pope: 'inter alia Sacri Tridentini Concilii decreta, nobis statuendum esset de sacris libris, Catechismo, Missali, et Breviario edendis, atque emendandis' (1862 front matter)