Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites

Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites

Ordo Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Saecularis
Coat of arms of the order
Abbreviation	OCDS
Formation	1452; 572 years ago (1452)
Founder	John Soreth
Type	Third order
Headquarters	Casa Generalizia dei Carmelitani Scalzi, Corso d’Italia 38, 00198 Rome, Italy
Affiliations	Discalced Carmelites
Website	www.carmelitaniscalzi.com/en/

The Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites (Latin: Ordo Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Saecularis; abbreviated OCDS), formerly the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and of the Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus, is a third order of Catholic lay persons and secular clergy associated with the Discalced Carmelites.

Secular Discalced Carmelites profess promises to strive to live evangelical perfection in the spirit of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, obedience, and of the beatitudes.^[1] They are an integral part of the Discalced Carmelites,^[2][3] juridically dependent upon the Discalced Carmelites friars,^[4] and in "fraternal communion" with them and the cloistered nuns. They share the same charism with the friars and nuns according to their particular state of life.^[2]

Members of the OCDS are distinct from the third order known as the Lay Carmelites (TOCarm), who are instead associated with the Carmelites.