In some of Oxfordshire's most beautiful countryside there is a Discalced Carmelite community continuing a charism that dates back to the twelfth century, when St. Teresa of Ávila founded the Discalced order in 16th-century Catholic Spain.
While helping maintain a tradition stretching back to 1562, the Boars Hill Discalced Carmelites are admittedly a comparatively new community. Arriving in 1958, they created a new Mount Carmel at Chilswell House, formerly owned by Poet Laureate Robert Bridges.
The brothers quickly began giving retreats in their great spiritual tradition, and the Carmel became a place where the faithful could come to rest and receive spiritual direction.
