Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

According to the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship, the Brown Scapular is "an external sign of the filial relationship established between the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and Queen of Mount Carmel, and the faithful who entrust themselves totally to her protection, who have recourse to her maternal intercession, who are mindful of the primacy of the spiritual life and the need for prayer.

[3] The first Carmelite hermits who lived on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land in the 12th century are thought to have worn a belted tunic and striped mantle typical of pilgrims; when the Carmelites moved to Europe in the 13th century and became a mendicant order of friars they adopted a new habit that included a brown belted tunic, brown scapular, hood, and white mantle.

[4] The small brown scapular and Mary's promise of salvation for the wearer, began to be promoted to the laity in the form we are familiar with today by Giovanni Battista Rossi, prior general of the Carmelites from 1564 to 1578.

[3] According to traditional accounts, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared at Cambridge to Simon Stock, a man not otherwise documented in historical record, but often described as a Prior General of the Carmelite Order in the middle of the 13th century.

[7] The first mention of the vision appeared almost 150 years after the date in 1251 when it is said to have occurred and is not noted in the earliest accounts of Simon Stock's life and miracles.

Hornby showed no sign of being aware of any similar claim that had been made by a fellow English Carmelite in the preceding century.

The most recent Rite for the Blessing of and Enrollment in the Scapular, approved in 1996 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, is available in booklet form.

[11] The short form of the investiture is as follows:[12][13][14] Receive this Scapular, a sign of your special relationship with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, whom you pledge to imitate.

If possible, they will meet periodically to build up the sense of fraternity, to study the spirit of Carmel, to care for brothers and sisters in need, all in union with Mary.

Today, at least in North America, those enrolled by a priest into the Confraternity of the Brown Scapular typically have no visible group to belong to, nor are written records kept concerning membership.

In 1951, Pope Pius XII wrote in an Apostolic letter to the Carmelites on the 700th anniversary of the vision of Simon Stock, that he hoped the Scapular would "be to them a sign of their consecration to the most sacred heart of the Immaculate Virgin.

It states that Pope John XXII had a vision of Mary personally delivering the souls of Carmelites and Confraternity members out of Purgatory on the first Saturday after their death, as long as they fulfill certain conditions.

[24] The Vatican has denied the validity of this document since 1613, but has not forbidden the Carmelites "to preach that the Christian people may piously believe in the help which the souls of brothers and members, who have departed this life in charity, have worn in life the scapular, have ever observed chastity, have recited the Little Hours [of the Blessed Virgin], or, if they cannot read, have observed the fast days of the Church, and have abstained from flesh meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays [...], may derive after death — especially on Saturdays, the day consecrated by the Church to the Blessed Virgin [...].