15 Things to Know about Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

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Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. On July 16, 1251, our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock, in Kent, England. She gave him a scapular for the monks to wear all the time and told them that “Those wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.”

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Mount Carmel is a real place in Palestine. Carmel or “Karmel” means garden. This region was considered a lush garden and a place of beauty. “Splendor of Carmel” was to be blessed indeed (Isa 35:2).

2.  In the Old Testament, this is the place where the priests of Baal challenged the power of God and the Prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven,

3.  In the book of Judith,  King Nabuchodonosor sent his general to “bring all the earth under his empire.” The inhabitants of Carmel were able to resist this invasion. Judith eventually kills the general in his own camp.

4.  The Prophet Elijah lived on Mount Carmel and attracted other men to come and live a life of prayer and sacrifice.

5. In the 12th century, history repeated itself as many men came from England to live as Elijah and to honor the Blessed Mother.

6.  Chapels to the Blessed Mother have been built on Mount Carmel, and this is where the Carmelites lived. 

7. Around 1235, the Carmelite Order had to move back to Europe after persecution and incursions by the Saracens. 

9. Later, St. Simon Stock, born in England in 1165’s, joined the Carmelite Order in England, where there was great devotion to the Blessed Mother. He became the general of the Carmelite Order, and spent several years in the monastery on Mount Carmel.

10.  Our Lady appeared to Simon Stock on Sunday, July 16, 1251 as he knelt in prayer. She appeared holding the child Jesus and a brown scapular. She said, “This shall be the privilege for you and for all the Carmelites that anyone dying in his habit shall be saved.”

11. The Order spread through Europe, and on January 13, 1252 Pope Innocent IV gave official recognition to the Carmelite Order.

From the Carmelite Web site:

12.  Since then, the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has become a favorite with Catholics all over the world, many popes and saints wearing it daily. The Church has granted many spiritual benefits to the wearing of the Brown Scapular.

13.  Saint Simon Stock wrote a famous prayer called the Flos Carmeli: 

O Beautiful Flower of Carmel, most fruitful vine,splendor of heaven, holy and singular, who brought forth the Son of God, still ever remaining a pure virgin, assist us in our necessity! O Star of the Sea, help and protect us! Show us that you are our Mother! Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us!

14.  Pope John XXII spelled out the promises and conditions of wearing the scapular in 1322.

15.  Here are the conditions:

• Wear the Brown Scapular continuously.
• Observe chastity according to one’s state in life.
• Recite daily the “Little Office of the Blessed Virgin.” 
• OR  Observe the required fast of the Church as well as abstaining for meat on Wednesday and Saturday
• OR  Recite the Rosary daily
• OR With permission, substitute some other good work.

We made our own Mt. Carmel with brownies drizzled with carmel.

Scapular Facts