A SPECIAL mass is expected to draw 1,000 people to York Minster next month to celebrate the admission of women and lay people to a religious order.
The service, on Friday, May 16, is being held by the Carmelites, a religious order within the Roman Catholic Church.
It marks the 550th anniversary of the issue of the Papal letter Cum Nulla, by Pope Nicholas V, to the Carmelite Order in 1452.
It was this letter which enabled the founding of Carmelite communities for nuns, and gave official recognition to lay people as members of the order. The order developed from a group of lay hermits in Palestine in the 12th century.
The service will be the mass for the feast of Simon Stock, a 13th century English Carmelite saint, whose feast occurs on May 15.
Admission to the service, which begins at 11.30am, is by ticket only. For tickets and more information, contact the Carmelite Projects Office, More House, Heslington, York, YO10 5DX. Updates to the programme can also be found at www.carmelite.org/cumnulla
Updated: 11:04 Monday, April 07, 2003
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