Scapular of Mount Carmel

The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

 

Contents

 

1. Origin and Meaning  
2. The Great Promise of Preservation from Hell  
3. Assistance and Deliverance from Purgatory  
4. Miraculous Testimonies and Marian Apparitions  
5. Spiritual Goods and Indulgences of the Confraternity  
6. Valid Material and Proper Manner of Wearing  
7. Imposition and Replacement  
8. The Medal as an Authorised Substitute  
9. Living as a Child of Mary  

 

List of Sources

  

 

The brown scapular is a small garment with a great promise. Whoever wears it devoutly entrusts himself to the special protection of Mary in life and in death. Pius XII ranks this devotion among the first rank of recommended Marian devotions: it concerns our most precious interest, eternal salvation. He calls the scapular a sign and pledge of the protection of the Mother of God. [1]

 

1. Origin and Meaning

 

The Carmelite Order venerates the prophet Elijah as its spiritual father and Mary as its Mother and Protectress. Its tradition links its origin with the hermits on Mount Carmel. [5,14]

 

In the thirteenth century, the Carmelites were forced by the threat of Muslim forces to leave their dwellings on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land and to seek safety in Europe. There they subsequently encountered opposition to the establishment of their order. In this distress, Saint Simon Stock, an Englishman and prior-general of the order, begged Mary for special protection. The account of the apparition links his prayer of petition with the Flos Carmeli, of which a stanza follows below. [5,13,14]

 

According to Carmelite tradition, Our Lady appeared to him at Aylesford in Kent, England, on 16 July 1251, accompanied by many angels, holding the scapular of the order in her hands. She gave him the scapular as a pledge of her protection. Saint Alphonsus Liguori renders the promise in this Latin form: [5,14,15]

 

“Accipe, fili dilectissime, hoc tui ordinis scapulare, meæ confraternitatis signum, tibi et cunctis Carmelitis privilegium; in quo quis moriens æternum non patietur incendium.”

 

Translation: “Receive, most beloved son, this scapular of your order, the sign of my confraternity, a privilege for you and all Carmelites; whoever dies wearing it shall not suffer eternal fire.” [15]

 

“Scapular” comes from the Latin scapula, shoulder. The small scapular imposed upon the faithful is a reduced form of the shoulder garment of the Carmelites. Later, lay people were indeed also joined to the Carmelite family by the imposition and enrolled in the confraternity. [7,13]

 

The ecclesiastical concessions are documented by explicit decrees. The official summary of 1908 mentions the confirmation of the Saturday privilege by Clement VII in Ex clementi of 12 August 1530, by Saint Pius V in Superna dispositione of 18 February 1566, and by Gregory XIII in Ut laudes of 18 September 1577. Benedict XIII in 1726 extended the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, on 16 July, to the entire Latin Church. Benedict XIV treated the privilege in his work on the feasts and recommended trust in Mary’s assistance. [3,5,13,23]

 

Pius XI confirmed the significance of this devotion in Petis tu quidem of 18 March 1922, on the commemoration of six centuries since the spread of the Saturday privilege. Pius XII welcomed in his letter of 11 February 1950 the preparation of the seven-hundredth anniversary of 1951. He also linked the scapular with devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. [1,10]

 

2. The Great Promise of Preservation from Hell

 

The greatness of the promise lies in Mary’s special assistance to die in God’s grace: perseverance for the just and conversion for the sinner. Thus Blessed Claude de la Colombière explains it. Even one who has fallen may have recourse to Mary in order to convert with her help. [2]

 

This explanation rests on Mary’s intercession as Mediatrix of all graces. Saint Alphonsus also accepted the promise of salvation and praised the scapular as a sign of dedication to her service and of belonging to her family. [13,15]

 

The ordinary practical conditions are summarised as follows: [7,8]

 

– To receive the scapular validly by the required blessing and imposition.

– To wear it faithfully and habitually day and night.

– To be clothed with it at death, or to wear the medal permitted according to ecclesiastical regulation.

 

The scapular is a sacramental. It requires faith, trust, and a Christian manner of life. Pius XII expressly warns against the idea of “being saved by spiritual laziness”. Mary’s promise dispenses no one from contrition, the observance of God’s commandments, and the reception of the sacraments. On the contrary, it encourages us to work with confidence for our salvation. [1,7]

 

A good death for the sinner includes true contrition and reconciliation with God. Perfect contrition, which proceeds from love of God and includes the intention to confess, can already reconcile him with God before sacramental absolution. Whoever has fallen must therefore convert and confess as soon as possible. The scapular gives no licence to persevere deliberately in sin. [1,16]

 

3. Assistance and Deliverance from Purgatory

 

The Saturday privilege concerns Mary’s special help after death. It is proclaimed by the bull Sacratissimo uti culmine attributed to John XXII, dated 3 March 1322. L’Année liturgique recounts that the Holy Virgin Mary in 1316 predicted to Jacques Duèze his elevation to the papacy and commanded him to make known the special help for her Carmelite children. His election as Pope John XXII did indeed take place in 1316. [5,18,24]

 

The transmitted text of the bull speaks of the promise of Our Lady of deliverance from purgatory on the first Saturday after death.

 

The Decree of the Holy Office under Paul V of 20 January 1613, repeated in the official summary of 1908, confirms the bull: the faithful may piously trust in Mary’s assistance to deceased members of the confraternity, through her continuous intercession, merits, and special protection, especially on Saturday, the day dedicated to her. [3]

 

Pius XII also confirmed that Mary helps her children in purgatory by her intercession so that they may reach the eternal fatherland as soon as possible.

 

For this special privilege the following conditions apply: [3,7]

 

– To die in God’s grace.

– To have validly received the scapular and to have worn it during life.

– To observe chastity according to one’s state of life: married, unmarried, priest, or religious.

– Daily to recite the Little Office of Our Lady, or to perform a validly permitted substitute work. Most priests commute this requirement into the daily recitation of a rosary.

 

Indeed, whoever cannot recite the Little Office observes the ecclesiastical fasts and moreover abstains from meat on Wednesday and Saturday, except when Christmas falls on such a day.

A competent priest may, within his competence, prescribe a substitute work, such as, for example, the daily recitation of five decades of the rosary. A self-chosen rosary does not automatically replace the Little Office. These additional prayer conditions belong to the Saturday privilege and must be distinguished from the ordinary conditions of wearing the scapular. [3,4,7]

 

4. Miraculous Testimonies and Marian Apparitions

 

Old Catholic writers recount numerous cases of miraculous protection. Blessed Claude de la Colombière expressly appeals in his scapular sermon to the miracles that confirm this devotion. The following examples deserve mention. [2,5]

 

– Winchester, 1251. Savaria recounts that Simon Stock was called to a dying sinner who refused the sacraments. After Simon had imposed the scapular upon him, the man converted, confessed, and received the sacraments. He died reconciled with God. This story is linked by Savaria with the day of the apparition. [5]

– Montpellier, 1622, during the siege by Louis XIII. According to Claude de la Colombière, a bullet pierced the clothes of a soldier but stopped at the scapular without wounding the man. [2,21]

– Ypres, 1648. The same priest J. T. Savaria recounts that a captain was protected by his scapular against a musket ball. He refers to a procès-verbal drawn up on 9 September 1651 at the Discalced Carmelites in Bruges. [5]

– Ballon, 1719. Savaria further mentions that a fire in this place in the diocese of Metz subsided after someone had thrown a scapular into the flames. The scapular remained preserved on a burning beam. According to his account, the bishop had the event verified. [5]

– King of the Ocean, 1845. Haffert recounts that a young Irish sailor during a violent storm threw his scapular into the sea and invoked Mary. The storm subsided; the scapular returned to the deck with a wave. [19]

– Saint Alphonsus Liguori. Haffert mentions that the saint was buried with his scapular and that this was found intact at a later exhumation, although his body and episcopal vestments had decayed. [17]

– Protection against lightning. Savaria mentions, according to a letter from Ghent of 2 February 1896, a case at Merendree in East Flanders: of two men standing under a tree during a thunderstorm, one was killed by lightning, while his companion clothed with the scapular remained unharmed. [5]

 

These are historical miraculous testimonies. They support trust in Mary’s protection and give no claim to invulnerability. The protection is attributed to God through Mary’s intercession. [2,5,17,19]

 

Lourdes and Fatima also have a remarkable connection with the Carmelite feast and Carmelite devotion. The last apparition at Lourdes took place on 16 July 1858. Lucia describes in her Fourth Memoir that on 13 October 1917 she saw Mary in an apparition form that resembled Our Lady of Carmel. [11,12]

 

According to Haffert’s account of his conversation with Lucia in 1946, Mary appeared in the Carmelite habit with the scapular in her hand. In his book of 1956 he moreover reproduces the conversation of Father Howard Rafferty with Lucia on 15 August 1950. To the question about the connection with the rosary she answered, according to that account:

 

“The Scapular and the Rosary are inseparable.”

 

Translation: “The scapular and the rosary are inseparable.” This concerns a conversation report transmitted by Haffert. [20,22]

 

5. Spiritual Goods and Indulgences of the Confraternity

 

Whoever is enrolled in the Scapular Confraternity is joined to the spiritual family of Carmel and shares in its prayers, good works, and spiritual merits. The Church has moreover granted numerous plenary and partial indulgences. The official summary of 1908 mentions among others plenary indulgences on the day of enrolment, on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on 16 July, and at death, each time with the conditions prescribed for them. [3,5,7]

 

For the ordinary plenary indulgences, confession, Communion, and prayer according to the papal intentions are prescribed. For the indulgence at the hour of death the summary mentions at least contrition and the devout invocation of the Name of Jesus, if possible with the mouth, otherwise in the heart. The indulgences enumerated therein can also be applied to deceased faithful, except the proper indulgence at the hour of death. [3]

 

6. Valid Material and Proper Manner of Wearing

 

The ordinary ecclesiastical prescriptions for the cloth scapular are clear: [6,7]

 

– Material: the two proper pieces consist of pure, woven wool. Cotton, silk, synthetic or mixed fabric, knitted wool, and exclusively pressed wool felt do not suffice for this. Additional decorations may be of other material.

– Colour and form: brown or black, square or rectangular. Images are permitted but not required; the prescribed colour must predominate.

– Connection: the two pieces are joined by cords or ribbons; these may be of other material.

– Manner of wearing: over the shoulders, with one piece on the breast and one on the back. Carrying it in a pocket or bag does not replace this manner of wearing. Direct contact with the skin is not required.

 

7. Imposition and Replacement

 

A priest competent for this blesses the scapular and imposes it according to the rite of the Rituale Romanum, with enrolment in the confraternity. This imposition and enrolment is once only. One wears it thereafter day and night. The priest also takes care of the prescribed registration; if this is omitted, according to the ecclesiastically approved instruction of 1945 this does not therefore deprive the enrolled faithful of the spiritual favours. [7] Because of the Church crisis and the absence of a genuine Carmelite Order (Fathers and Brothers Carmelites), this enrolment has in fact fallen into disuse.

 

A worn-out or lost cloth scapular is simply replaced by a new one, without new enrolment and without new blessing. Temporarily taking it off does not of itself break membership. Whoever has laid it aside without contempt simply resumes wearing it. Every substitute scapular medal must, however, be blessed anew. A cloth scapular that has become unusable is burned out of reverence. [5,7,9]

 

8. The Medal as an Authorised Substitute

 

Saint Pius X, by decree of the Holy Office of 16 December 1910, permitted the cloth scapular to be replaced by a metal medal. According to the ordinary regulation one first receives the imposition of the cloth scapular. The prescriptions for the medal are: [8]

 

– On one side is Christ showing his most Sacred Heart; on the other side is Our Lady of Carmel.

– The medal is blessed by a priest with the required competence. For every scapular that it replaces, it receives the separate blessing; this can be given with one sign of the cross.

– One wears it around the neck or in another reverent manner on one’s own person.

 

One medal can replace several approved small (other) scapulars. The proper conditions remain in force. The decree preserves all spiritual favours and indulgences attached to it and expressly names the Saturday privilege. The concession does not concern the proper scapulars of the third orders. [8]

 

Pius X expressed his strong preference for continuing to wear the cloth scapular. The medal can be practical for, among others, missionaries, soldiers, hospital patients, athletes (swimmers, combat sports, etc.), or when the cloth garment is difficult to wear in warm regions. Its permission is, however, not legally restricted to allergy, tropical countries, or emergency situations. [8,13]

 

9. Living as a Child of Mary

 

The scapular reminds us day and night of our dedication to Mary. It invites us to imitate her virtues, to invoke her daily with trust especially with the rosary, and with her help to remain faithful to Christ. Pius XI linked the hope of her assistance at death with the avoidance of sin and the honouring of Mary during life. Worn thus, the scapular is a precious pledge of maternal protection for our way to the eternal fatherland. [1,10]

 

The ancient Carmelite prayer summarises that love:

 

“Flos Carmeli, vitis florigera, splendor caeli, Virgo puerpera singularis.”

 

Translation: “Flower of Carmel, flowering vine, splendour of heaven, incomparable Virgin and Mother.” [13]

 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

 

Sources

 

1. Pius XII, letter Neminem profecto latet, 11 February 1950, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, XLII, Rome, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1950, pp. 390–391. Latin.
2. Claude de la Colombière S.J., Œuvres du R. P. Claude de la Colombière, de la Compagnie de Jésus, nouvelle édition, Avignon, Seguin Aîné, 1832, vol. III, sermon on the scapular, especially pp. 26–27 and 33–47. French.
3. Congregation of Indulgences and Holy Relics, Summarium indulgentiarum, privilegiorum et indultorum confratribus S. Scapularis B. M. V. de Monte Carmelo a Romanis Pontificibus concessorum, approved 4 July 1908, Acta Sanctae Sedis, XLI, Rome, 1908, pp. 608–611; reprint of the decree of 20 January 1613 on pp. 609–610. Latin.
4. Congregation of Indulgences, Decretum de Guatemala, decree 11 June, approved by Leo XIII on 14 June 1901, Acta Sanctae Sedis, XXXIV, Rome, 1901–1902, pp. 120–121. Latin.
5. J. T. Savaria, Le scapulaire de Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel suivi de quelques considérations sur la communion des saints et sur la dîme, Montréal, Monastère des Carmélites, 1898, pp. 5–7, 41–48, 66, 185–189 and 235–237. French.
6. Congregation of Indulgences and Holy Relics, decree Urbis, 20 July 1868, confirmed by Pius IX on 18 August 1868, Acta Sanctae Sedis, IV, Rome, 1868, pp. 99–101, questions I–V. Latin.
7. Scapular Instructions, ecclesiastically approved edition with imprimatur of Archbishop Daniel Mannix, Melbourne, 20 January 1945; sections on the imposition, the scapular itself, and the scapular medal. English.
8. Holy Office, decree Cum sacra, 16 December 1910, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, III, Rome, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1911, pp. 22–23. Latin.
9. Holy Office, Solvitur dubium de ss. numismatibus loco scapularium benedicendis, decree 10 May, approved by Benedict XV on 11 May 1916, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, VIII, Rome, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1916, pp. 175–176. Latin.
10. Pius XI, letter Petis tu quidem, 18 March 1922, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, XIV, Rome, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1922, p. 274. Latin.
11. Henri Lasserre, Les apparitions de la Très-Sainte Vierge Marie à la grotte de Lourdes et le jaillissement de la source miraculeuse. Premier extrait de Notre-Dame de Lourdes, Trois-Rivières, Librairie du Sacré-Cœur, P. V. Ayotte & Cie, 1883, pp. 124–125. French.
12. Sister Lucia, Fourth Memoir, completed on 8 December 1941, part II, § 8, in Memórias da Irmã Lúcia I, collected by Luís Kondor, thirteenth edition, Fátima, Secretariado dos Pastorinhos, 2007, p. 182. Portuguese; consulted reissue of the 1941 testimony.
13. Christian P. Ceroke O.Carm., The Scapular Devotion, in Juniper B. Carol O.F.M. (ed.), Mariology, vol. III, Milwaukee, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1961, pp. 129–142; Flos Carmeli on p. 131, note 10. English, with Latin texts.
14. Anonymous, Carmelite Order, in Manly. Pro Deo et Australia, vol. VIII, no. 3, July 1951, p. 48, within the series Deus Incrementum Dedit. English.
15. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, translated from the Italian, second American edition, New York, Edward Dunigan and Brother, 1852, vol. II, Devotion VI — Of the Scapular, pp. 659–661, especially p. 660 with the Latin promise. English; original language Italian.
16. Council of Trent, session XIV, 25 November 1551, doctrine on the sacrament of penance, chapters IV–V on contrition and confession. Originally Latin.
17. John M. Haffert, Saturday in purgatory?, New York, The Scapular Press, 1943, p. 12; imprimatur Francis J. Spellman, 13 February 1943. English.
18. L’Année liturgique, under the name of Dom Prosper Guéranger, Quatrième volume de la continuation, Le Temps après la Pentecôte, vol. IV, Propre des Saints du VIII juillet au XXII août. L’Assomption, tenth edition, Paris–Poitiers, Librairie H. Oudin, 1913, p. 152. French.
19. John M. Haffert, Mary in Her Scapular Promise, section A Heavenly Garment, story about King of the Ocean. Second edition: Sea Isle City, New Jersey, The Scapular Press, 1942. Printed pagination of the consulted text rendering not established. English.
20. John M. Haffert, Sign of Her Heart, Washington, New Jersey, Ave Maria Institute, 1971; later account of the conversation with Lucia in 1946, section Saint Dominic’s Prophecy, Fatima and the Scapular. Printed pagination not established. English.
21. Maria-Dominik, Szkaplerz w życiu chrześcijanina (The Scapular in the Life of the Christian), Głos Karmelu, year XX, nos. 7–8, 1951, p. 183, note 9. Polish.
22. John M. Haffert, Russia Will Be Converted, Washington, New Jersey, AMI, 1956; conversation report of Father Howard Rafferty with Lucia on 15 August 1950. Imprimatur George W. Ahr, Bishop of Trenton. Printed page not established with certainty. English.
23. Joseph Hilgers, Sabbatine Privilege, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. XIII, New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1912, corresponding lemma. English.
24. Johann Peter Kirsch, Pope John XXII, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. VIII, New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1910, corresponding lemma. English.