The Blessed Virgin Mary is the patroness of the Carmelites, and as such is known as "Our Lady of Mount Carmel". New embossments dedicated to Carmelite figures are hoisted on all four corners of the central hall. On the western wall of the church is a large organ that is played during religious ceremonies and at special church music concerts. Annual procession During the First World War, the statue of Our Lady of the Scapular, holding Baby Jesus and the scapular, was removed from the church and placed in a safer place in Haifa. After the war, in 1919, it was brought back to its place in a small procession. Since then, every first Sunday after Easter, on the same date as in 1919, what has become the second largest Catholic procession of the Holy Land after the Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem, takes place between downtown Haifa and Stella Maris, up the western slope of the Carmel. Large crowds of Catholic Christians, including such of eastern rites, are led by the Latin Patriarch and other Church leaders in accompanying the statue on its way. See also Cave of Elijah Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for nuns, also in Haifa, on Mount Carmel Shmuel Oswald Rufeisen (1922–1998), Jewish convert to Christianity, Carmelite friar at Stella Maris, who was refused Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return Gallery References Bibliography Irby and Mangles, 1823, p.193 Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites Stella Maris [in Polish], from Silvano Giordano (OCD), "Il carmelo in Terra Santa dalle origini ai giorni nostri" [Carmel in the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings to the Present Day], 1994, Sagep, Genova. Via the website of the Krakow Province of the Discalced Carmelites. Accessed 10 December 2020. A precise history of Christian and specifically Carmelite presence on Mount Carmel and of the monastery. External links https://www.carmelholylanddco.org/ Carmelite monasteries in Israel Carmelite spirituality History of Ottoman Syria Our Lady of Mount Carmel Basilica churches in Israel 19th-century Christian monasteries Roman Catholic churches in Haifa Church buildings in the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1836 establishments in Ottoman Syria 1631 establishments in Ottoman Syria 1820s disestablishments in Ottoman Syria 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Israel Mount Carmel