Saint Simon Stock reçoit le scapulaire du Mont Carmel des mains de la Vierge Marie

Summary:

Simon was born around 1164 in Kent, England, a region administered by his father. As a young man, he decided to devote himself to God by becoming a hermit. Hermitry was common in medieval Europe, but Simon’s conversion is still hard to comprehend for most people: like St. Francis of Assisi, Simon gave away all his possessions and traded his social rank to become very poor, relying on Providence alone until the day he died. He was an itinerant hermit at the time when traveling was very dangerous and avoided. He overcame this fear and found himself constantly on the road.

Around 1185, he joined a group of solitaries in the caves of Mount Carmel, near Haifa, in Israel, to imitate the prophets Elijah and Elisha. In 1187, the collapse of the Frankish kingdom of Jerusalem and Saladin's capture of the city prompted Christians to head for Europe. In 1206, St. Albert, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote the first draft of what was to become the "Carmelite Rule".

When the Fourth Lateran Council began in 1215, the future of Carmel was in jeopardy: the Church wanted to bring the new communities into the fold of the Franciscans and Dominicans, the only recently recognized orders. Deeply attached to the specific spirituality of Carmel, Simon prayed to the Virgin Mary to keep the Carmelite order alive, and his prayer was granted: incredibly, the Holy See spared that order altogether. On January 30, 1226, Honorius III's bull Ut vivendi normam upheld the order and the rule of Saint Albert. Since the close of the Fourth Lateran Council, however, 22 religious families were suppressed.

A priori, the Church remained cautious about new fringe movements, fearing that they may be susceptible to doctrinal or mystical drift. The Papacy's "swing" in favor of Carmel is inextricably linked to the apparition of July 16, 1251: on that day, in Cambridge, Simon saw Our Lady showing him a scapular, which was later worn by the entire order.

Was this a posthumously invented legend to glorify the order? We have extensive documentation from at least two sources relating the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Saint Simon Stock. All of them, without exception, tell the same story, apart from minute details:

- Vitae Fratrum (Lives of the Brethren) is the work, not of a Carmelite, but of the Dominican Gerard de Frachet (first half of the 13th century).

- Three editions of a List of the Prior Generals of Carmel (late 14th century).

The theory that the 1251 apparition was a late invention to compete with other mendicant orders doesn’t hold. If that were the case, there would be no documentary trace dated so soon after the fact. What's more, those responsible for this deception would have been taking a great risk, and with them the whole of Carmel, under the scrutiny of the Inquisition.

It was from this apparition onwards, therefore, that the Order experienced prodigious growth and enjoyed the unfailing protection of Rome. On January 13, 1252, six months after the visit of Our Lady, Innocent IV gave Simon a letter assuring him of his protection. Convents were founded in Paris and Bologna (1260), then in Bordeaux. Within twenty years, they were established throughout Europe. Even in modern times, contemporary popes have expressed their attachment to Carmel (St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XII, St. John Paul II...).

The development of Carmel is all the more surprising given the many persecutions the order has suffered in the course of its history. Each time, its members found the strength to carry on:

After 1550, the Wars of Religion led to the closure of convents and to massacres. During this period, anyone seen as a "mystic" was held in suspicion: this is why St. John of the Cross was so severely punished.

• In the 18th century, Emperor Joseph II suppressed the contemplative orders in the German-speaking territories, not sparing Carmel.
• In 1790, French revolutionaries decided to put an end to congregations, and several Carmelites were guillotined.
• The Spanish Civil War of 1937 dealt a terrible blow to the Carmelite Order.

 Etc.

When it comes to persecution, Carmel was not spared, and in fact all Catholic orders have suffered oppression at some point in their history. But Carmel is the only order to have begun its existence under such difficult auspices, at every level.

Today present in 50 countries, in 150 houses, the Order has provided spiritual nourishment for millions of faithful, bishops, priests and lay people alike. Great Carmelite figures are numerous: three have been proclaimed Doctors of the Church (Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and Therese of Lisieux). They include scholars and apostles of charity: Italian bishop and Latin poet Andrea Corsini (d. 1373), Marie of the Incarnation, the first French stigmatist (d. 1618), Louis and Zelie Martin, etc. The highest mystical experiences have been experienced and described by Carmelite men and women religious for over 500 years.

Finally, the Church chose to add St. Simon's last words - "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death" - to the Hail Mary. This liturgical addition is a definitive recognition of Simon's holiness, and validates the Virgin Mary's apparition of 1251.

Beyond reasons to believe:

The story of Saint Simon Stock is an opportunity to discover the meaning and significance of the scapular. When Our Lady appeared to Simon, she held in her hand the scapular, a piece of brown habit, and said: "This shall be a privilege for you and for all Carmelites: whoever dies clothed in this shall not suffer eternal fire, rather, he shall be saved." In giving the scapular, Mary wishes to clothe her children in salvation, which no one can acquire on their own. She asks them to cooperate in salvation by putting into practice the commandments given by Christ. The scapular is not, therefore, a substitute for the grace of baptism. On the contrary: if worn on a daily basis, it signifies that we are working every day to conform our lives to our faith, letting the grace of the Holy Spirit, first received at baptism, unfold within us.

This garment is given by Mary in a maternal gesture, just as a mother wraps her newborn baby in swaddling clothes. Putting on the scapular is a way of taking Mary as mother, of taking Mary home (cf. Jn 19:27: "Behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home").

Even today, it is possible to receive the scapular, in the form of a cloth or a medal. It is received from the Church, through its own ritual. It's a genuine commitment to living a spiritual life.

Saint John Paul II, himself a wearer of the scapular, spoke of it in his letter of March 25, 2001: "May those who put on the scapular experience Mary's gentle and maternal presence, in the daily commitment to clothe themselves interiorly with Jesus Christ and to manifest him vividly in themselves for the good of the Church and of all humanity [...]. In this way, the scapular becomes a sign of covenant and mutual communion between Mary and the faithful."

Going further:

Simon Stock and the Scapular Vision by Richard Copsey, journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. , No. , October. Printed in the United Kingdom - Cambridge University Press

More information:

• The Life of St. Simon Stock: The Gift of the Brown Scapular, by Rev. Peter E. Magennis (Independently published, April 22, 2022)