Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Sombor (Fides Service) - To mark 100 years of Carmelite presence in Sombor, a town with a population of 50,000 in the Vojvodina region situated about 150 km north west of Belgrade, 18 speakers from 4 different countries will take part in an International Symposium, 13 and 14 July, on the history and service of the local Carmelite community. On the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16 July as every year Mass will be celebrated in Slovak, German, Hungarian and Croatian. This centenary year will be marked by a cycle of monthly public conferences on various aspects of Carmelite history and spirituality.
According to information sent to Fides by the Carmelite General House, in 1904 a group of Carmelites from the Hungarian province were sent by the civil authorities to the town of Sombor to care for a new church which had just been built. Soon a monastery was built next to the church, and it was not long before it filled with young Carmelites who had finished their novitiate at Györ and had come to Sombor to continue studies in philosophy and theology. In 1924, after World War I, the monastery was put under the direct jurisdiction of the General Curia. It was from this monastery that the present day Carmelite Croatian Province of St Joseph developed. One member of the first group of Carmelites who founded the community of Sombor was the Servant of God Gerard Tomo Stantic: his beatification cause is being examined by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
With these centenary celebrations the Carmelites intend to encourage the local Catholic community in Sombor and the rest of the region which suffered material, spiritual and cultural hardship during the last ten years of war. At the same time they hope the celebrations will boot vocations. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 6/7/2004 - Righe 20; Parole 282)
