Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Tradition holds that on July 16, 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Simon Stock, prior general of the Carmelites¹. She offered him a message of hope for the Order, a message that they sorely needed.

At this time, the Carmelite Order was in trouble. They had their origins as a community of hermits on the slopes of Mount Carmel in northern Palestine, the traditional home of the Prophet Elijah. They were founded in the wake of the Crusades, the only contemplative religious (as opposed to knightly) Order so founded in the Holy Land.

With the success of the Islamic counter-counter-attacks, the Order were forced to flee the Holy Land for Europe. By the time of Saint Simon Stock’s vision, they had come to England.

The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the saint, and gave to him the brown scapular, telling him to clothe all of the hermits of the Order in it. She promised that those who died wearing the scapular would be saved from the fires of hell.

Mind you, you’ve still got to be in a state of grace.

The Brown Scapular was extended from the Carmelites to the entirety of the Universal Church. A 1996 statement from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments says:

Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is bound to the history and spiritual values of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and is expressed through the scapular. Thus, whoever receives the scapular becomes a member of the order and pledges him/herself to live according to its spirituality in accordance with the characteristics of his/her state in life.

(source)

The Carmelites encourage the belief of Mary’s aid and prayerful assistance for wearers of the Brown Scapular that live and die in the state of grace, observe chastity according to their state in life, and live a life of prayer and penitence.

They particularly favour the traditional devotions to the Blessed Virgin on Saturdays during the year. Even in my Benedictine Breviary, we pray the Office of the Blessed Virgin on most Saturdays.

May the venerable intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary
come to our aid, we pray, O Lord,
so that, fortified by her protection,
we may reach the mountain which is Christ.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

1. More properly, Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.