As with individuals, the origins and identity of the particular charism that gives rise to a Religious Order are closely interwined. The Carmelites can trace their documented history back to the Formula of Life (c.1206-14) that Albert, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, addressed to some Latin hermits on Mount Carmel and to their leader, known only as ‘B.’ The eight centuries since the have witnessed the rise and slow demise of the so-called ‘Elijan succession’, the claim that the Carmelites were founded as a group of monks by the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, nine centuries before the Incarnation. This book traces the gradual emergence, and the gradual decline, of the claim to an Elijan succession following the advent of critical Hagiography from the late fifteenth century. As that succession grew to become the dominant tradition in the Order, the role of Patriarch Albert of Jerusalem in foundation of the Carmelites was gradually sidelined and eventually abscured. With the decline of that succession, however, Albert’s role in the origins of the Carmelites has increasingly been recognised and, by clarifying that role, this book hopes to shed some further light on the true nature of charismatic identity that is the common heritage of all Carmelites, an identity whose first expression Albert shaped so indelibly.