Mount Carmel is referred to several times throughout Sacred Scripture. It was on Mount Carmel that Elijah defended the purity of Israel's faith in the living God. Mount Carmel is celebrated throughout the Old Testament for its beauty, and is said to be the place that angels carried the body of St. Catherine after she was beheaded. In the twelfth century, hermits withdrew to that mountain and later founded the Order of Carmelites which is devoted to the contemplative life under the patronage of Mary, the holy Mother of God.
Some saints of the Carmelite order who have been extremely influential on the Church have been St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Theresa of Liseaux. The tradition of wearing a scapular is said to have started with a vision of Mary to one of the members of the Carmelite order.