by Christian P. Ceroke, O.Carm.  

The most highly developed of Marian Scapular devotions is that of the Brown
Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Since the seventeenth century, the Brown
Scapular has been a universal Catholic devotion, considered to be, together with
the rosary, a customary form of Marian devotional practice. The popularity of
the Scapular devotion was due to the sixteenth and seventeenth century popes,
who promulgated the so-called Sabbatine Privilege and who approved the
Confraternity of the Scapular for every diocese throughout the Catholic world.
The growth and development of the Scapular devotion reached its culmination in
1726 in the extension to the universal Church of the feast of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel for July 16.1

The wearing of the Scapular fosters a true devotion to Mary that is based on her
supernatural mission in the redemption of mankind. Two Marian doctrines are
proposed in the devotion of the Brown Scapular: Mary's Spiritual Maternity and
her Mediation of Grace. The Scapular teaches a practical confidence in the
intercession of the Blessed Virgin to obtain for its wearer the grace of final
perseverance, or a happy death. The two general conditions to obtain this
benefit are that one must honor Mary by wearing the Scapular faithfully until
death and endeavor sincerely to lead a Christian life. This reliance on Mary's
intercession for the gift of final perseverance derives historically from the
belief that the Blessed Virgin promised in an apparition to St. Simon Stock,
Prior General of the Carmelites (1247?-1265), that all who die wearing the
Scapular will not suffer the eternal flames of hell. This tradition has become
known as the "Scapular promise."

The devotion also teaches that the aid of Mary may be confidently expected in
purgatory by all those who have faithfully worn the Scapular and have fulfilled
two other conditions: the practice of chastity according to one's state of life
and the daily recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin.2 This
privilege of the Scapular devotion has been thought to stem from an apparition
of Mary to Pope John XXII, who then promulgated this spiritual benefit to the
faithful in 1322. According to the copies of the Bull of promulgation attributed
to John XXII, the devotee of the Scapular would be released from purgatory on
the Saturday after death. Because of the allusion to Saturday, the document of
John XXII has been called the "Sabbatine Bull" and its Marian privilege the
"Sabbatine Privilege."

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCAPULAR DEVOTION

Historically, the devotion of the Scapular among the Catholic laity originated
from the tradition of the Marian apparition and promise of the Scapular to St.
Simon Stock.3 From about 1400, Carmelite authors allude to the wearing of the
Scapular by the laity in reliance on the Virgin's promise of eternal salvation.
Carmelite authors of the fifteenth century begin to record a devotional view of
the Scapular, insinuating its heavenly origin. According to Grossi (ca. 1411),
Mary gave the Scapular to St. Simon Stock. According to Bradley (ca. 1450), in
bestowing the Scapular Mary changed the Carmelite habit.4 Still later authors
added new motives for the wearing of the Scapular by the laity. Calciuri (1461)
alluded to miracles that had been worked through the Scapular; and Leersius
(1483) added that the Scapular had been worn by saints.5 This tradition of the
fifteenth century, which began to develop the devotional value of the Scapular
and of its promise, culminated in 1479 in a work by Arnold Bostius, a Belgian
Carmelite of Ghent. His manuscript work, De patronatu et patrocinio B. V. M.,
formulated the solid basis of Marian doctrine on which the Scapular devotion was
founded. Bostius explained how the Scapular promise of eternal salvation was a
concrete illustration of the doctrine of Mary as Mediatrix of all Graces. The
reception of the Scapular as the pledge of Mary's promise of eternal salvation
placed the obligation upon the members of the Confraternity to imitate Mary in
her practice of virtue. Bostius' work was popularized by John Paleonydor, a
Flemish Carmelite, in a book entitled Fasciculus Tripartitus. Published in 1495,
the book was frequently reprinted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By
the end of the fifteenth century, the theological structure of the Scapular
devotion had been essentially outlined: its doctrinal foundation was the cult of
Mary as Mediatrix of all Graces; its motive was the tradition of the apparition
of Our Lady to St. Simon Stock with the promise of the Scapular.6

THE SCAPULAR PROMISE AND HISTORICAL CRITICISM

The question of the historical authenticity of the Scapular promise was raised
in the seventeenth century when the modern concept of scientific history was
first developed.7 It cannot be said that the historical value of the tradition
has been decided with finality. Recent historical investigations into Carmelite
medieval history have provided information on the tradition of the Scapular
promise that was not in the possession of scholars of past decades.8

The Carmelites of the fourteenth century preserved the tradition of the Scapular
promise as part of the cult within the Order to St. Simon Stock. The narrative
of the apparition and of the promise of the Scapular was incorporated in the
Carmelite Catalogue of Saints, or Sanctoral, composed for the Order.9 The
account in its earliest known form reads as follows:

The ninth (saint) was St. Simon of England, the sixth General of the Order. He
continually besought the most glorious Mother of God to defend with a privilege
the Order of Carmelites, which enjoys the special title of the Virgin. He prayed
devoutly:

Flower of Carmel Vine Blossom-laden. Splendor of heaven, Child-bearing maiden,
None equals thee! O Mother benign, Who no man didst know, On all Carmel's
children Thy favors bestow Star of the Sea.10
The Blessed Virgin appeared to him with a multitude of angels, holding in her
blessed hands the Scapular of the Order. She said, "This will be for you and for
all Carmelites the privilege, that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal
fire," that is, he who dies in this will be saved.11

There is no doubt that the origin of the Scapular devotion among the laity is
traceable to this fourteenth century narrative.12 Its composition has been dated
about the mid- fourteenth century.13 Of greater significance, however, than the
date of the narrative, is its location in the Carmelite Sanctoral, where it
forms the complete hagiographical notice on St. Simon Stock. If this story of
the Marian apparition and promise were not found in the earliest hagiographical
notice on St. Simon Stock, but only in documents of later origin, this fact
would cast grave suspicion on the authentic origin of the tradition. The
appearance in the fourteenth century narrative of the poem, the Flos Carmeli,
reveals the existence of a cult of the apparition at this time within the
Order.14 A Marian devotion induced by the Scapular promise existed within the
Carmelite Order before it arose among the laity.15 The story of the apparition
of Mary and the promise of the Scapular was a fully formed tradition within the
Order by the mid-fourteenth century, one hundred years after the death of St.
Simon Stock. The tradition was not originally motivated by the spread of the
Scapular devotion among the laity. Nor was the tradition utilized by the
medieval Carmelites to claim a unique Marian privilege.16 The absence of these
motives behind the tradition tells in favor of its authenticity.

In the past, scholars have urged three difficulties against the historicity of
the Scapular promise: (1) absence of documentary evidence for the tradition from
the thirteenth century17; (2) silence of Carmelite authors of the fourteenth
century concerning the promise18; (3) confusion in the tradition between the
Carmelite habit and the Carmelite Scapular as the garment supposedly designated
by Mary.19 These objections no longer constitute serious difficulties against
the authenticity of the Scapular tradition. Documentary evidence cannot be
expected from the thirteenth century since the Carmelite Order did not begin to
produce an extensive literature until the middle of the fourteenth century.20
The appearance of the written tradition of the Scapular promise coincides with
the blossoming of literary activity within the Order.21 In the face of modern
research into the history of Carmelite literary activity in the fourteenth
century, the argument from silence against the tradition of the scapular promise
loses point. The account of the Marian apparition to St. Simon Stock is a
constant written tradition as far back as literary activity reveals itself to be
an important factor in the life of the Order. Finally, the conclusion of some
historians that the apparition was originally associated by the Carmelites with
their habit in general rather than with the Scapular in particular is certainly
mistaken. There is an unbroken line of evidence, beginning with the Chapter of
Montpellier in 1287 that the terms habit and Scapular were used interchangeably
by the medieval Carmelites.22 When the word habit is employed in Carmelite
authors in connection with the Marian promise to St. Simon Stock, the term means
simply "Scapular."

The sole reason for rejecting the historical authenticity of the Scapular
promise is the absence of thirteenth century documentation revealing Carmelite
knowledge and acceptance of the story of the apparition. The absence of such
evidence leaves open the possibility that the Scapular tradition developed as a
legend in the thirteenth or early fourteenth century. While the possibility of a
legendary origin for the tradition of the Scapular promise must be admitted, its
legendary origin cannot be affirmed.23 Beginning with the documentary evidence
in the fourteenth century, the essential details of the tradition remain
invariable: (1) the apparition of Mary, (2) to St. Simon Stock, (3) with the
Scapular, (4) stating the words of eternal life for all who die clothed in this
garment.

THE SABBATINE PRIVILEGE: ORIGIN AND HISTORICAL CRITIQUE

The Sabbatine Bull occupied a place of key importance in the spread of the
Scapular devotion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Throughout this
period the popes repeatedly promulgated the Sabbatine Privilege in allusion to
the Bull of 1322 attributed to Pope John XXII: Clement VII (1530); Paul III
(1534; 1549); Pius IV (1561); Pius V (1566); Gregory XIII (1577); Urban VIII
(1628); Clement X (1673; 1674; 1675); Innocent XI (1678; 1679; 1682; 1684).24
Since according to the Sabbatine Privilege the souls of the faithful departed
would benefit in purgatory from the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, the
Church found it useful to stress the privilege in order to teach the legitimacy
of the doctrine of indulgences and of Marian devotion.25

The tradition of the Sabbatine Bull seems to have been first spread in the
fifteenth century. The Bull was known to the Carmelites Calciuri in 1461 and
Leersius in 1483. It was referred to by the Carmelite General Chapter of 1517.
Historically, however, the tradition of the Sabbatine Bull is clearly
vulnerable. No evidence of the Bull appears in the registers of John XXII.
Although it is recognized that the absence of a papal document from the medieval
registers is not a conclusive argument against its authenticity, no positive
historical evidence from other sources supports the papal origin of the Bull.
Its literary character is entirely too odd to recommend it as the work of John
XXII. For these reasons, historians have rejected the authenticity of the
Sabbatine Bull.26 The apparent spuriousness of the Bull naturally casts serious
doubt on its tradition that the Sabbatine Privilege originated in a Marian
apparition to Pope John XXII. Three theories have been proposed to explain the
origin of the tradition of the apparition and the Bull. According to one view
the tradition would have originated in an oral declaration by John XXII.27 This
theory accounts for the spurious character of the Bull and for its peculiar
style. The explanation is too conjectural to win credence. A second theory would
derive the Sabbatine Bull from an original authentic document from John XXII
which became corrupt in the course of time.28 But no evidence has been produced
from existing copies of the Bull to show a gradual corruption of its text. A
third theory considers the Bull to be an interpretation, based on theological
grounds, of the Marian promise to St. Simon Stock.29 Since Mary's Mediation of
Grace, of which her promise of eternal salvation is a reflection, embraces the
final goal of the Christian life, which is union with God, it is logical to
conclude that her maternal assistance makes itself felt in purgatory.30 This
third theory, that the Sabbatine Privilege is a more developed understanding of
the significance of the Marian promise to St. Simon Stock, is the most plausible
explanation of the origin of the Sabbatine Bull. The copies of the Bull indicate
a close relationship between the promise to St. Simon Stock and the Sabbatine
Privilege. The Bull states, "One who perseveres in holy obedience, poverty and
chastity — or who will enter the Holy Order — will be saved." Then follows the
declaration of the Sabbatine Privilege concerning release from purgatory for
"others" who wear the holy "habit" of the Order. It would seem, then, that the
Sabbatine Privilege arose historically in a fuller understanding of the Marian
promise to St. Simon Stock.

THE DECISION OF THE HOLY OFFICE ON THE SABBATINE PRIVILEGE

Since the early seventeenth century, Carmelite preaching of the Sabbatine
Privilege has been theologically independent of the historical authenticity of
the Sabbatine Bull. In 1613 the Holy Office under Pope Paul V issued a decree on
the Sabbatine Privilege which took account of the papal bulls of the sixteenth
century. These Bulls had promulgated the privilege according to the tradition of
the Sabbatine Bull. The decree of the Holy Office made no reference to the Bull
of John XXII or to the tradition of the Marian apparition to him. It simply
affirmed the privilege itself. The decree follows:

The Carmelite Fathers may preach that the Christian people can piously believe
in the aid of the souls of the brethren and confratres of the Sodality of the
Most Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. Through her continuous intercessions, pious
suffrages, merits, and special protection the Most Blessed Virgin, especially on
Saturday, the day dedicated to her by the Church, will help after their death
the brethren and members of the Sodality who die in charity. In life they must
have worn the habit, observed chastity according to their state, and have
recited the Little Office. If they do not know how to recite it, they are to
observe the fasts of the Church and to abstain from meat on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, except for the feast of Christmas.31

This decree of Paul V stated in effect that the spiritual authority of the popes
of the sixteenth century had sanctioned the Marian teaching of the Sabbatine
Privilege. This aspect of the devotion of the Brown Scapular was thus declared
spiritually fruitful for the laity.

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE SCAPULAR PROMISE

The first affirmation of theologians concerning the Scapular promise of eternal
salvation deals with the necessity of ruling out formalism in the practice of
the devotion. Formalism is the physical wearing of the Scapular without sincere
intent to serve God. The theological reason for ruling out formalism is that
exterior acts of religion must be a reflection of one's interior mind and will
if they are not to be hypocritical. The Scapular is merely a symbol having in
itself no intrinsic power of grace. As a symbol it possesses a twofold import,
one in relation to the Blessed Virgin, one in relation to its wearer. As a sign
of consecration to Mary, the Scapular is a reminder of the spiritual
prerogatives enjoyed by her in the economy of the redemption, and it is a pledge
that her role be activated in favor of the wearer of the Scapular. In relation
to its wearer, the Scapular is a sign that one has resolved to dedicate himself
to the service of Christ and Mary according to his station in life. The Scapular
symbolizes both the recognition of the spiritual maternity of Mary and an
acceptance of the spiritual duties that Christians, as children of Mary, are
obligated to undertake in the service of God. For the layman who becomes a
member of the Scapular Confraternity the spiritual duties are summed up in the
observance of the Ten Commandments, daily prayer, attendance at Mass on days of
obligation, the reception of the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist,
and the faithful performance of the duties of one's state. The Scapular devotion
does not provide an escape from the ordinary duties of Christianity, but is
rather an incentive to undertake them with fervor and exactitude in the
knowledge that one thus prepares himself to arrive at the final goal of the
Christian life, union with God in eternity. In order to insist that the Scapular
is meaningless without interior devotion, the Church has inserted the word pie,
"piously," into the words of the promise concerning those who die in the
Scapular.32

The interpretation of the promise to St. Simon Stock, "He who dies in this will
not suffer eternal fire," must be based on sound principles of theology. The
words themselves simply express the object of Mary's promise, eternal salvation,
and the pledge of her assistance, the material sign of the Scapular to be worn
continually. To ascertain the meaning of the promise, one must have recourse to
two principles for the interpretation of private revelation. (1) All private
revelation must be understood in the light of the truths of salvation divinely
revealed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. These truths are proposed by the
Church, the divinely appointed teacher. (2) Private revelations concerning the
Blessed Virgin must be understood in the light of the spiritual values inherent
in true devotion to Mary. These values have been revealed by God and are taught
by the Church. Only when these two principles are utilized do we arrive at a
correct estimate of the promise of the Scapular.

The practice of the Christian life, however perfectly it may be accomplished,
cannot merit in justice the grace of final perseverance. The grace of final
perseverance is a gift of God by which we die united to Him in supernatural
friendship. All theologians teach it as certain that a good life does not
entitle us, in justice, to obtain this grace from God. To live in the
supernatural friendship of God is His gift, and so it is His gift also to die in
this friendship. The moment of the death of all men, whether in the pursuit of
good or of evil, lies in the hands of God. Those who are faithful to the divine
commands, truly repentant for their sins, and who avail themselves of the means
of grace established by Christ may remain, not absolutely certain,33 but
confident of their salvation. This confidence derives from the virtue of
Christian hope, by which we rely on the promises of God that He wills the
salvation of all men and gives them the means to attain it. It is precisely in
connection with the grace of final perseverance that the Church recommends the
devotion of the Scapular. Mary has promised that the grace of final perseverance
will be granted through her intercession to all those who, by means of the
Scapular, dedicate themselves to her and wear it until death out of devotion to
her and to the teachings of Christ. The particular value of the Scapular
devotion consists in the special help of Mary, so that the grace of final
perseverance, or of a "happy death," may be obtained through her intercession.

This interpretation of the Scapular promise is but an affirmation of the
spiritual value of Marian devotion: one who practices true devotion to Mary
cannot lose his soul for eternity. This proposition of the power of Mary's
intercession has been expressed in papal teaching.34 It is the consciousness of
the Church on the value of true Marian devotion. The same awareness is expressed
in the Ave Maria, wherein the gift of final perseverance is requested: "Holy
Mary . . . pray for us now and at the hour of our death." Reliance on Mary's
intercession, put into these words of momentary prayer, becomes in the symbol of
the Scapular a continual prayer that spans the moments of a lifetime, to the
supreme moment of death.

The necessity of interior devotion does not prevent the sinner from benefiting
from the Scapular promise,35 since all men are sinners. Only the degree, not the
fact, of sin in man is debatable. To affirm that the Scapular devotion is not of
value to sinners, including those humanly judged to be the worst of them, would
be to say that God fails to hear their prayers. The teaching of Christ is that
God hears the prayers of the sinner (Lk. 1 3:9-14). The question of the Scapular
and sinners is falsely posed when it is asked how the Scapular promise can save
the worst of them. The question can only be whether or not the sinner who wears
the Scapular out of devotion makes those interior acts in response to divine
grace that are necessary to his salvation. The answer to this question is known
only to God, who alone may scan the secrets of the heart of man.

THE SCAPULAR DEVOTION IN MODERN LIFE

The popes in modern times have been solicitous in their encouragement of the
Scapular devotion. St. Pius X permitted the substitution of a Scapular Medal for
the cloth Scapular in recognition of the changed circumstances of life,
precisely to encourage the dedication to Mary signified by the Scapular. For any
reason, even simple convenience, the faithful invested in any Scapular except
that of the Third Orders, may substitute a Scapular Medal which need only be
carried on the person. The Medal was not intended as a new form of the Scapular
devotion, but only as an aid to its continual practice. Catholics should be
instructed to make free and wise use of both Scapular and Medal according to
their judgment and circumstances. The permission for the Medal reflects the mind
of the Church that the Scapular itself is only the exterior sign of an interior
devotion.36

In 1890 Leo XIII had begun to grant the faculty to confessors to commute the
condition of abstinence into other good works for the gaining of the Sabbatine
Privilege. In order to gain the privilege one must (1) wear the Scapular or the
Scapular Medal; (2) observe chastity according to one's state in life; (3)
recite daily the Little Office of Our Lady, or if one does not know how to
recite it, abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The commutation of the
third condition, due to practical difficulties in the circumstances of modern
life, has become a common practice. The confessor is free to choose any suitable
good work as the daily substitute. The commutation of Carmelite confessors is
usually to seven Paters, Aves, and Glorias.

OTHER MARIAN SCAPULARS

From time to time in the history of the Church Scapular devotions have arisen to
foster love of Mary and to encourage the practice of particular virtues. The
Black Scapular of the Seven Dolors originated from the habit of the Servite
Fathers. The inspiration for the habit of the Order and for its devotion to Our
Lady of Sorrows is attributed to an apparition of Mary to its founders. Pope
Martin V approved a rule for the Third Order secular in 1424. The Blue Scapular
of the Immaculate Conception, which the Church has favored with an extraordinary
number of indulgences, originated in an apparition of Mary to the Ven. Ursula
Benincasa in 1617. Great graces were promised by Mary to those who would honor
her Immaculate Conception by wearing the Blue Scapular. The condition was
expressed that they live chastely according to their state in life. Other Marian
Scapulars are of more recent origin: the white Scapular of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, approved by Pius IX in 1877; the white Scapular of the Sacred Hearts of
Jesus and Mary, approved by the Congregation of Rites in 1900; the white
Scapular of Our Lady of Good Counsel, approved in 1893 by Leo XIII for the
purpose of invoking Mary's guidance upon its wearer; the white Scapular of Our
Lady of Ransom bearing the cross of Aragon, which originated in the thirteenth
century in connection with the Fathers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the
Redemption of Captives; the black Scapular of Our Lady Help of the Sick, the
badge of the Confraternity founded by St. Camillus de Lellis for the aid of the
sick, approved in 1860 by Pius IX.37

RECENT POPES AND THE SCAPULAR

Pius XI and Pius XII have urged those wearing the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of
Mount Carmel to be especially attentive in their personal lives to the
requirements of true Marian devotion. Pius XI wrote, ". . . although it is very
true that the Blessed Virgin loves all who love her, nevertheless those who wish
to have the Blessed Mother as a helper in [the hour of] death, must in life
merit such signal favor by abstaining from sin and laboring in her honor."38
Pius XII stressed the spiritual importance of the Scapular devotion:

We are not here concerned with a light or passing matter, but with the obtaining
of eternal life itself which is the substance of the promise of the most Blessed
Virgin which has been handed down to us. We are concerned, namely, with that
which is of supreme importance to all and with the manner of achieving it
safely. . . But not for this reason may they who wear the Scapular think that
they can gain eternal salvation while remaining slothful and negligent of
spirit, for the Apostle warns us: "In fear and trembling shall you work out your
salvation" (Phil. 2:12).39

Pius XII likewise emphasized the value of the Scapular devotion for society
itself:

There is no one who is not aware how greatly a love for the Blessed Virgin
Mother of God contributes to the enlivening of the Catholic faith and to the
raising of the moral standard. These effects are especially secured by means of
those devotions which more than others are seen to enlighten the mind with
celestial doctrine and to excite souls to the practice of the Christian life. In
the first rank of the most favored of these devotions, that of the holy
Carmelite Scapular must be placed — a devotion which, adapted to the minds of
all by its very simplicity, has become so universally widespread among the
faithful and has produced so many and such salutary fruits.40

ENDNOTES

1. The feast spread rapidly in the seventeenth century. For its liturgical
history cf. Augustine M. Forcadell, O.Carm., Commemoratio Solemnis Beatae Mariae
Virginis de Monte Carmelo (Romae, 195l). The rank of the feast has been reduced
to a Commemoration by the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites concerning
the new calendar for the breviary and the Mass. Cf. A.A.S., Vol. 52, 1960, p.
706. The retention of the feast as a Commemoration in the new calendar preserves
the memory of the liturgical intent of thanksgiving for which the feast was
originally instituted, as Benedict XIV observed: "Since through the intercession
of the Blessed Virgin God worked numerous miracles in favor of those who
practised this devotion, it must be conceded that the feast of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel was not instituted without serious judgment, and celebrated in the
universal Church with proper Office and Mass." De festis D. N. Jesu Christi et
B. Mariae Virginis (Patavii. 1745), p. 470.

2. As will be noted below, the third condition may be commuted.

3. The historical documentation pertaining to the apparition of Our Lady to St.
Simon Stock has been collected and evaluated by Bartholomew F. M. Xiberta,
O.Carm., De visione Sancti Simonis Stock (Romae, 1950).

4. The implication of fifteenth-century authors that the Scapular came directly
from Mary as a new piece of the Carmelite habit is an elaboration of the
fourteenth century narrative of the apparition. The fourteenth-century account,
which simply states that Mary appeared holding the Scapular, will be provided
below. As the Scapular devotion developed, it was natural that the details of
the apparition would be magnified.

5. For these details in fifteenth century Carmelite authors, cf. Xiberta, De
Visione, pp. 92-93; 107-111.

6. An analysis of Bostius' thought, based on his manuscript work, has been made
by Eamon R. Carroll, O.Carm., Arnold Bostius and the Scapular, in The Sword,
Vol. 14, 1950, pp. 342-355.

7. John Launoy wrote against the historicity of the Scapular tradition in
Dissertatio Duplex (Paris [?], 1642) and De Simonis Stockii Viso, De Sabbatinae
Bullae Privilegio (Paris, 1653). For a discussion of his position, cf. Xiberta,
De Visione, pp. 31-48.

8. Our knowledge of medieval Carmelite literature has improved since the studies
of Benedict Zimmerman, O.C.D., The Origin of the Scapular, in The Irish
Ecclesiastical Record, Series 4, Vol. 9; 1901, pp. 385-408; Vol. 15, 1904,
142-153; 206-234; 331-351; and Herbert Thurston, S.J., The Origin of the

Scapular: A Criticism, in the same periodical, Vol. 16, 1904, pp. 59-75, id.
Scapulars, in The Month, Vol. 150, 1927. Xiberta, De Visione, has collected and
analyzed the documents of the medieval Scapular tradition.

9. For a discussion of the Sanctoral and its origin, cf. Xiberta, De Visione,
pp. 198-211.

10. The Latin text of the Flos Carmeli is as follows: Flos Carmeli, vitis
florigera, splendor caeli, Virgo puerpera singularis, Mater mitis sed viri
nescia, Carmelitis da privilegia, stella maris. The English translation is that
of Joachim Smet, O.Carm. The poem incorporates traditional medieval allusions
from the Bible that were applied to Mary.

11. We have omitted the concluding paragraph of the hagiographical notice which
simply states the death of St. Simon Stock at the Bordeaux Carmel. For the
complete text, cf. Xiberta, De Visione, p. ''83.

12. In an appendix, Xiberta, De Visione, pp. 281-313, has published the
principal manuscript texts of the Sanctoral. There are noticeable in them
gradual additions and changes, the most evident being a notice on the wearing of
the Scapular by the laity in the later manuscript copies of the fifteenth
century.

13. Benedict Zimmerman, O.C.D., The Carmelite Scapular, in The Month, Vol. 150,
1927, pp. 323-237, dated the earliest written account soon after 1361. Xiberta,
De Vistone, p. 205, dates it about the middle of the fourteenth century perhaps
in the early decades of the fourteenth century.

14. Evidence has been discovered that the apparition to St. Simon Stock was
alluded to in the principal Marian feast of the English Province of Carmelites,
the Solemn Commemoration of Holy Mary. Margaret Rickert, reconstructing a
Carmelite Missal of 1390, found fragments of the Mass for the feast on which
were the words of the Flos Carmeli. Cf. Vinculum Ordinis Carmelitarum, Vol. 3
(1952-1953), pp. 205-206.

15. The earliest account of the apparition to St. Simon Stock contains no
allusion to the Scapular devotion among the laity. The fact that the devotion
did not arise until sometime after the acceptance of the apparition within the
Carmelite Order is one of the more important discoveries of recent research into
the tradition of the Scapular. Scholars in the past have sought historical
evidence in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries in the belief that the
devotion among the laity would have been in vogue. Thus Thurston was inclined to
reject the historicity of the apparition because of the absence of evidence in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries revealing the existence of the Scapular
devotion. Cf. Scapulars, in The Month, Vol. 150, 1927, p. 45. The belief that
the devotion was practiced by the laity in the thirteenth century came from the
Swanyngton fragments, published by John Cheron, O.Carm., in 1642. The fragments
are now recognized as unauthentic.

16. A clear illustration is the failure of the medieval Carmelites to use the
Scapular promise in connection with their title, "Order of the Brothers of the
Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel." John Horneby, who defended the title at
the University of Cambridge in 1374, made no appeal to the apparition to St.
Simon Stock, although by his time it was long in writing in the Carmelite
Sanctoral. Cf. Xiberta, De Visione, p. 150.

17. This point was pressed in the works of John Launoy. Cf. note 7.

18. This objection was urged by Benedict Zimmerman, O.C.D., Monumenta Historica
Carmelitana (Lirinae, 1907), pp. 343-344.

19. Ibid., p. 343.

20. P. Rudolf Hendriks, O.Carm., Le succession hereditaire, in Elie le prophete,
Vol. 2 (Bruges, 1956), pp. 34-75.

21. The fourteenth century account of the Scapular vision appears to be a
literary production. It is a stylized, partly poetic, narrative. The story is
not told as St. Simon Stock might have told it. It is related with a greater
insight, born only with the passage of time, into the Order's mendicant
difficulties in the thirteenth century. The Flos Carmeli was more probably not
composed by St. Simon Stock, but was induced by the tradition of the Marian
apparition. The narrative would have passed through an oral stage, and perhaps
an initial written stage, before being incorporated into the Sanctoral in its
fourteenth century form. Some indication of the initial written form may exist
in a fifteenth century Brussels manuscript, which describes the apparition in
these simple lines: "St. Simon . . . always besought the Virgin in his prayers
that she would endow her Order with a special privilege. The glorious Virgin
appeared to him, holding the Scapular and saying, 'This will be for you and
yours a privilege: he who dies in this will be saved."' For the Latin text, cf.
Xiberta, De Visione, p. 311.

22. The Constitutions of 1294, 1324, and 1357 call the Scapular the habit. For
the Acts of the Chapter of Montpellier, which made an explicit identification
between "habit" and "scapular," cf. Antoine Marie de la Presentation, O.C.D.
Constitutions des Freres de Notre Dame du Mont-Carmel faites l'annee 1357
(Marche, 1915), pp. 158-160. Xiberta, De Visione, p. 236, who interprets "habit"
to mean "tunic" in the Acts of the Chapter of Montpellier, should be corrected.
For the Constitutions of 1294 cf. Ludovicus Saggi, O.Carm., Constitutiones
Capituli Burdigalensis anni 1294, in Analecta Ord. Carm., Vol. 18, 1953,
152-153. For the Constitutions of 1324 cf. Zimmerman, Monumenta, pp. 49-52.

23. The explanation of Lancelot C. Sheppard, The English Carmelites (London,
1943), pp. 13ff., suggesting a legendary origin for the Scapular tradition, is
an oversimplification. The author's statement that the early lessons of the
breviary for the feast of St. Simon Stock are silent on the Scapular vision is
unfounded. Cf. Xiberta, De Visione, pp. 127-130.

24. Henry M. Esteve, O.Carm., De valore spirituali devotionis S. Scapularis
Romae, 1953), p. 61.

25. Ibid., pp. 59 ff.

26. Papenbroeck, S.J., wrote a firm case against the authenticity of the Bull in
his Responsio . . . ad Exhibitionem Errorum (Antwerpiae, 1696), p. 124 ff. The
question was renewed by Benedict Zimmerman, O.C.D., in The Irish Ecclesiastical
Record, Series 4, Vol. 15, 1904, pp. 331-351.

27. Elias Magennis, O.Carm., The Sabbatine Privilege of the Scapular (New York,
1923), p. 47.

28. Zimmerman, The Origin of the Scapular, in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record,
Series 4, Vol. 15, 1904, p. 347.

29. Esteve, op. cit., p. 309.

30. Cf. C. X. J. M. Friethoff, O.P., A Complete Mariology (London, 1958), pp.
277-278. The author derives Mary's power to intercede for the souls in purgatory
from her Queenship.

31. The Latin text may be found in Esteve, op. cit., p. 72. The word "piously"
in the opening statement of the decree does not mean "with a fond hope," but out
of proper interior dispositions, Cf. Esteve, op. cit., p. 74.

32. For a more extended discussion of the necessity of interior devotion, see
Esteve, op. cit., pp. 80-99, 276-315.

33. According to the well-known definition of the Council of Trent (D.B. 805),
absolute and infallible certainty of one's eternal salvation is not possible
without a personal divine revelation. Theologians, however, admit certain
"signs" that one will be saved, among which is special devotion to the Blessed
Virgin.

34. Cf. Benedict XV, Inter sodalicia, in A.A.S., Vol. 10, 1918, p. 120; Pius XI,
Explorata res est. in A.A.S., Vol. 15, 1923, p. 104.

35. This point was forcefully stated by Pius XII: ". . . How many souls even in
circumstances which, humanly speaking, were beyond hope, have owed their final
conversion and their eternal salvation to the scapular which they were wearing!
How many more, thanks to it, have experienced the motherly protection of Mary in
dangers to body and soul. . ." Discorsi e radiomessaggi di Sua Santita Pio XlI
Vol. 12 (1950- 1951), p. 165. The pope's allusion to the miraculous tradition of
the Scapular is based on fact, admitted by all authorities on the devotion.
Numerous books were written on this subject alone from the seventeenth to the
nineteenth centuries, e.g., Guardius, O.Carm., Thesaurus coelestis (Brixiae,
1611); Michael de la Fuente, O.Carm., Compendium historiale . . . gratiarum B.
V. Mariae de Monte Carmelo (Toleti, 1619); Hugust, S.M., Vertu miraculeuse du
Scapulaire (Paris, 1879).

36. The Scapular Medal entitles the wearer to all the benefits of the Scapular
devotion, including the promise of eternal salvation and the Sabbatine
Privilege. Objection on theological grounds that the Scapular Medal does not
entitle the wearer to the benefit of the promise of eternal salvation is
unfounded. Cf. The Decree on the Scapular Medal in The Sword, Vol. 16, 1953, pp.
343-360; and in popular form, The Great Debate: Scapular or Medal, in The
Scapular, Vol. 16, July-August, 1957, pp. 15-20; reprinted in Vol. 17,
July-August, 1958, pp. 15-20.

37 For more detailed information, cf. Magennis, The Scapular Devotion (Dublin,
1923), pp. 99-160. The Green "Scapular" of the Immaculate Conception, approved
by Pius IX in 1870, is a cloth badge rather than a Scapular, since it consists
of a single panel.

38 Apostolic Letter, Petis tu quidem, in A.A.S., Vol. 14, 1922, p. 274.

39 Apostolic Letter Neminen profecto latet, in A.A.S., Vol. 42, 1950, pp.
390-391. This letter marks a change in the manner of explaining the Sabbatine
Privilege. It does not refer to the release from purgatory in the older
terminology, "especially on Saturday," but in the words "as soon as possible."
The traditional description in terms of "Saturday" alluded to the liturgical
practice of dedicating this day to Mary.

40 Ibid. For a detailed discussion of the papal encouragement of the Scapular
devotion, cf. Eamon R. Carroll, O.Carm., The Pope Speaks on the Scapular, in Our
Lady's Digest, Vol. 11, 1956, pp. 63-71. Recent writings in English on the
Scapular include: Take This Scapular, by Carmelite Fathers and Tertiaries
(Chicago, 1949); Kilian Lynch, O.Carm., Your Brown Scapular (Westminster, Md.,
1950), William G. Most, Mary in Our Life (New York, 1954), pp. 233-240; Henry M.
Esteve, O.Carm., The Brown Scapular of Carmel (Marian reprint No. 32. University
of Dayton, 1955).