Friday, July 14, 2023

Commemoration Of Blessed Virgin Of Mount Carmel - 16 July

Quoted from Learn Religions [1]:

According to the traditions of the Carmelite order, on July 16, 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite. A hermit by nature, Simon Stock had became a Carmelite during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from England. It was upon his return to England that Simon received his vision of the Virgin Mary while in Cambridge, England. During the vision, she revealed to him the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, popularly known as the "Brown Scapular."  The words she spoke were: 

Receive, my beloved son, this scapular of thy Order; it is the special sign of my favor, which I have obtained for thee and for thy children of Mount Carmel. He who dies clothed with this habit shall be preserved from eternal fire. It is the badge of salvation, a shield in time of danger, and a pledge of special peace and protection."

This was a transformative moment for Simon Stock, and in the following years he transformed the Carmelite order from one of hermits to one of mendicant friars and nuns that lived in social service to the poor and sick. He was elected Superior-General of his order in 1254 CE. 

A century and a quarter later, the Carmelite order began to celebrate the day of Simon's vision, July 16, as the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.


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