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Discalced Carmelite Architecture

I have just ordered a Spanish book on 'Discalced Carmelite Architecture', which I came across in my researches into the legacy of St Teresa. I look forward to reading it, but the title is a reminder of just how powerful and embedded the Discalced have become over the centuries in Spain and in the Mediterranean lands. So embedded as to have their own distinctive architectural tradition - that is quite something. While these islands bear witness to an immensely powerful Mediaeval Catholic architectural tradition which has left its mark on towns and villages everywhere, we missed out on the development of Catholic architecture (and culture in general) after the Reformation because we were cut off from Catholic Europe. The Discalced came to us only with Hermann Cohen in the mid-nineteenth century and they have remained somewhat on the margins, small in number in the Church - though the Sisters have had quite a numerical presence. Nonetheless, our great saints have quietly exerted an enormous influence on minds and hearts in these islands through the printed word and nowadays through the media in general. Thank God for these channels that can be used by the Holy Spirit even while they are also vulnerable to the spread of evil. The wheat and the weeds grow side by side.

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