All subsequent documents are colored by the Elijan and Marian emphases. A letter of the prior general Peter of Millau requests the favor of King Edward I of England, promising the prayers of the brethren "to the most glorious Virgin . . . to whose praise and glory the Order itself was especially instituted in parts beyond the sea." The general chapter of Montpellier (1287) begs "the prayers of the glorious Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, in whose service and honor our institute of Mount Carmel was founded."

A major source of information about the Marian dimension of the Order is the liturgy. The Ordinal of Sibert de Beka (d. 1332) appeared about 1312. When there was no Marian feast, there was to be a sung Mass in her honor daily, and, normally, on Saturdays there were to be the office and Mass of our Lady. The canonical hours of the Blessed Virgin were to be said daily. Such details as the addition of Mary’s name to the Confiteor were also known. The Salve Regina was said on many occasions. The ancient prayers showed the same influence; for example, from 1281 the Concede was prayed at professions: "Grant to your servants, we beseech thee O Lord, unfailing health of mind and body, and through the intercession of the glorious and blessed ever Virgin Mary may we be saved from present sorrow and partake of eternal joy, through Christ our Lord." This prayer was in Carmelite liturgical books, just after the Litany of Loreto, up until modern times; most recently, it is found in the 1938 breviary.

A subsequent prayer, Protégé (from 1324), was somewhat shorter: "Protect, O Lord, your servants with the support of peace, and they being confident of the patronage of Blessed Virgin Mary, secure them from all enemies, through Christ our Lord." This prayer was used in many contexts (note the term "patronage"). Though not unique to Carmelites, the profession formula began: "I make my profession and promise obedience to God and to Blessed Mary . . . "

Authors, as early as the first part of the 1300s, wrote that Elijah and Elisha began a form of life that lasted until their successors became Christians and built an oratory in honor of the Virgin Mary. Beyond the legendary writings were those of a skilled English theologian, John Baconthorpe (d. ca. 1348). He delighted in applying biblical references of the beauty of verdant Carmel to our Lady: "The beauty of Carmel is given to her" (Isaiah 35:2), where Carmel means the holy life of hermits, and, comparably, "Thy head is like Carmel" (Cant. 7:6). Among Baconthorpe’s extensive writings are the pieces Tract on the Rule of the Carmelite Order (tracing our Lady’s life paragraph by paragraph of the Rule) and In Praise of the Carmelite Order Devoted to Mary (arguing that the Order belongs by right to Mary). His Speculum de institutione ordinis pro veneratione B. Mariae is a defense (and exaltation) of the Order’s relation to Mary.⁴ 

An outstanding contribution of Baconthorpe was the union of the Marian and Elijah elements of the Order’s tradition. In the scriptural story of Elijah, he interpreted the little cloud in the shape of a man’s hand, that presaged the end of the three-and-a-half year drought, as a symbol of Mary (1 Kings 18:44). He wrote: "The love of God descended on Mary . . . and through Mary the rains of mercy and grace descended on what was dried up, and thus restored all things." He is remembered as well for his defense of the Immaculate Conception—a conversion story, for his usual point of departure was the common scholastic denial of that privilege. His writings reflect the factors that turned him into a strong defender, summed up in two statements: 1) the Son of God who came to destroy sin kept his Mother free of all sin; 2) the Mother of God was not to have less than was given to Eve in the state of innocence.

⁴ See A. Staring (ed.), Medieval Carmelite Heritage: Early Reflections on the Nature of the Order (Rome: Institutum Carmelitanum, 1989).