He became a professed Carmelite in 1564, and was ordained priest at Salamanca in 1567.
On the mount of Olives are the Russian church, tower and hospice, near the chapel of the Ascension; the French Paternoster church; the Carmelite nunnery; and the Russian church of St Mary Magdalene, near Gethsemane.
He founded the Congregation of the French Oratory in 1611 and introduced the Carmelite nuns into France, notwithstanding the opposition of the friars of that order, who were jealous of his ascendancy.
The ecclesiastical seminary contains an important library with a collection of manuscripts, and there is a public library in the Carmelite chapel, a building of the 17th century.
Some of these were refounded, and the principal monastic remains now existing are those of the Benedictine priories at Rochester (1089), Folkestone (1095), Dover (1140); the Benedictine nunneries at Malling (time of William Rufus),Minster-in-Sheppey (1130), Higham (founded by King Stephen), and Davington (I 153); the Cistercian Abbey at Boxley (1146); the Cluniac abbey at Faversham (1147) and priory at Monks Horton (time of Henry II.), the preceptory of Knights Templars at Swingfield (time of Henry II.); the Premonstratensian abbey of St Radigund's, near Dover (1191); the first house of Dominicans in England at Canterbury (1221); the first Carmelite house in England, at Aylesford (1240); and the priory of Augustinian nuns at Dartford (1355).