Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Carmel is Le Carmel Place of retreat for the hermits for whom the rule was written. a mountain situated in Palestine, in the portion of the tribe of Issachar, having the mountains of Nazareth to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Holy Scripture always speaks of it as a sovereignly fertile and pleasant place. Nabal, husband of Abigail, who later became the wife of David, was rich only because of the beautiful lands and excellent pastures he possessed there. When the Bridegroom of the Song of Songs wishes to highlight the graces of his Bride, he tells her that her head is flourishing like Carmel: Caput tuum ut Carmelos. And when the prophet Isaiah wishes to represent to us with vivid colors the splendor and majesty of the Messiah whom he saw in spirit, as if he had already been in the world, he assures us that "the glory of Lebanon has been given to him," and that he has been clothed with the beauties of Carmel and Sharon; Gloria Libani data est ei, decor Carmeli et Saron. On the contrary, when the Prophets wish to show us a great desolation and a universal ruin, they say that Carmel has been turned into a desert, that its trees, which were accustomed to being always green, have withered; that joy and amusements have been banished from it, and that, as firm and immobile as it may appear, it has been shaken and stirred.

On this mountain, th e prophet Elijah le prophète Élie Prophet who announced the punishment of Ahab. won, against the 850 priests of the idol of Baal, the illustrious victory so admirably described in the third book of Kings, chap. XVIII. On this mountain, one of his disciples, whom he sent seven times toward the sea, saw at the seventh time a mysterious cloud dissolve into rain and change into a happy fertility the sterility of the countryside, which had lasted three and a half years, to punish the crimes of Ahab and Jezebel. Later, this divine Prophet established his dwell ing there, with le grand Élisée Biblical prophet cited in comparison for the miracle of the water. the great Elisha, the first and most famous of all his spiritual children, and assembled there a company of holy personages, who were called the Children of the Prophets; he prescribed to them certain rules of abstinence, fasting, prayer, and other exercises of piety, which distinguished them from the common Jews.

Several authors have written that these religious of the Old Testament perpetuated themselves until the time of the coming of the Savior, as much as the long domination of the kings of Babylon, Persia, Syria, and Egypt, and the wars of the Ammonite princes could allow them; that Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist honored them with their visit there; that after the Passion and Resurrection of the Son of God, some of the new Christians also retired there and continued the solitary life of these illustrious disciples of Elijah and Elisha, and that finally, in all the time that has elapsed since the establishment of the Christian religion until Berthold, the first Latin general of the Carmelite Order, that is to say until the 12th century, this holy mountain has always been inhabited by some hermits who, dwelling in the caves which are there in great number, or in cells that they built of earth and tree branches, preserved there the spirit of religion that the ancient Prophets, and then these first Christians, had established there. They inferred from this that the institute of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has the great Elijah as its head and first founder, and that it embraces not only the eighteen centuries of the law of grace, which have elapsed until our days, but also nearly nine centuries of the written law, namely from Elijah to the birth of the Savior of the world.

This succession, without notable interruption, has been contested by other famous authors, mainly by Baro nius, in Baronius Cardinal and hagiographer who fixed the feast day on October 8. the year 444 of his *Annales*; but the proofs on which it is established, although they are not entirely convincing, are nevertheless very probable: a large number of popes, cardinals, and bishops have authorized it, by approving the ecclesiastical offices where it is reported; Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, Saint Teresa, Blessed John of the Cross, sainte Thérèse A mystic saint who prophesied the greatness of John the Baptist. and many other Saints of this Order, to whom God has revealed great secrets, have never doubted it: they have, on the contrary, based several of their devotions on this tradition; we also have no difficulty in subscribing to it; we are persuaded that God has given, in all ages of the world, an inclination for the retired and solitary life, which, by separating men from the commerce of the world, makes them interior and spiritual and makes them approach the purity of the angels; and that the deserts of Mount Carmel and its surroundings being places very suitable for this life, it is very likely that after the stay of the Prophets, they were hardly ever without some holy inhabitants who wished to be the heirs of their cells as well as of their zeal.

Many reasons have led to the Blessed Virgin being given the surname of this holy mountain: these reasons are marked on this day in the lessons of her office. The first is that she was prefigured, recognized, and honored there from the time of the ancient Prophets, nearly nine hundred years before her birth. Indeed, one cannot doubt that the cloud which the prophet Elijah perceived in this place after his disciple, and which he himself had drawn by the holy timeliness of his prayers, was the symbol and figure of this august Mother of God. Scripture says that it was like the footprint of a man; that, rising from the sea, it ascended into the midst of the air, and that, having then spread on all sides, it gave an abundant rain that delivered the earth from the drought and sterility with which it was afflicted. We have, in this description, an image of the virtues and prerogatives of Mary: she was like the footprint of a man through her humility, because, as Saint Bernard says, she humbled herself below all creatures. She rose above the sea through her purity, because she emerged from the bosom of our nature, corrupted by the way of ordinary generation, in such a way that she contracted nothing of its heaviness or its bitterness, and her original innocence and holiness distinguished her from all other children of Adam. Finally, she gave an abundant and salutary rain through her fruitfulness, because she brought into the world Him whom the Prophets and the entire Old Testament had so often promised us under the names of dew and rain.

This mystery was not hidden from the divine Elijah; God opened the eyes of his soul to recognize that this small cloud, which was so salutary to the people of Israel, was the figure of an incomparable Virgin, who was to be the source of the happiness of all nations; he informed Saint Elisha and his other disciples of it: which caused them to have from then on great respect and a singular affection for her. And, certainly, if the Druids, among the Gauls, pagan and idolatrous as they were, did not fail to dedicate an altar to her, long before her birth, with this inscription: Virgini parituræ, "to the Virgin who will give birth," why should we doubt that these holy solitaries, who lived on Carmel with such innocence and purity, and who, besides the light of faith, possessed excellently the gift of prophecy and had a perfect understanding of the Holy Scriptures, where the merits of the glorious Virgin had already been marked in various places, why should we doubt that they devoted themselves to her service, and did not in advance adore and bless her as the Mother of their Redeemer? Thus, we can say that she was, from that time on, the Lady and Sovereign of Mount Carmel, and that, this holy mountain belonging to her as her inheritance, she could legitimately bear its name.

The second reason for this appellation is that the first and principal church built on Carmel was blessed and consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin, just as those of Loreto, Montserrat, Liesse, Le Puy-en-Velay, Boulogne-sur-Mer, and many others which cause her to be given the names of places illustrated by her miracles, by her signal protection, and by the devotion of the faithful. We even read, in the lessons of the office of this day, that the Christians of the nascent Church were the authors of this edifice, and that, having retired to this holy mountain at the beginning of the persecutions of the Jews, they raised there, in memory of the Virgin, still on earth, a small chapel, at the very place from which the prophet Elijah had seen the salutary and mysterious cloud of which we have just spoken. Carmel therefore has this advantage of being the first place in the world to have been solemnly dedicated under her name, and where she was publicly invoked as the powerful Advocate of the Church before her Son. If every lord has the right to take the name of the lands, castles, and cities that are in his domain, it is undoubtedly with much justice that we give to the Blessed Virgin the name of this mountain, over which she has a right so ancient, so legitimate, and so glorious. The third reason is drawn from the fact that the Orde r of Mount Carmel is Ordre du Mont-Carmel Religious order to which Marguerite belonged. entirely devoted to her. We have already said that the disciples of Elijah and Elisha, who were the Carmelites of the old law, made a particular profession of honoring Mary, knowing, in their capacity as Prophets, her excellence and the inestimable goods she would bring to the world; but the Carmelites of the new law have even surpassed this devotion: they have taken her for their foundress, for their Mother and their perpetual Superior, and have never considered themselves as anything but persons entirely consecrated to honoring her. Thus, the Popes and the Congregations of Cardinals have always given them the name of the Virgin, calling them the brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Fratres Beata Maria de Monte Carmelo; thus the Virgin does not refuse to bear their name, being called of Mount Carmel, not only because of the church dedicated to her in this place, but also because of the rich inheritance she possesses there in the person of these excellent solitaries. For these reasons and several others, the Holy See has permitted this great Order to celebrate, every year, on July 16, a feast under the name of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, either to solemnize the dedication of the first oratory built on this Mount, or to recognize the graces that the Virgin has caused to flow there with such abundance from the time of the Prophets to our days; or finally to thank her for having spread this happy seed in almost all parts of the earth for the sanctification of souls. The Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, better known under the name of the Confraternity of the Holy Scapular, took its birth, like the Order itself, on this holy mountain. When, on the holy day of Pentecost, the Apostles, inspired from heaven, spoke various languages and performed a great number of wonders by the invocation of the adorable name of Jesus, several men, says tradition, who had taken the holy prophets Elijah and Elisha as models and had been prepared for the advent of Christ by the preaching of John the Baptist, instructed and convinced of the truth of the facts, immediately embraced the evangelical faith. Having had the happiness of enjoying the presence and the conversations of the most holy Virgin, they began, by a special affection, to honor her with a veneration so great, that they were the first of all to erect to this most pure Virgin a chapel in the very place of Mount Carmel where Elijah had formerly seen a cloud rise resembling a human foot. It was the image of Mary, say the commentators, which appeared announcing the abundant Dew of grace. They assembled several times a day in the new oratory and honored the most holy Virgin there, as their protectress, by pious ceremonies, prayers, and hymns. These assemblies or particular meetings formed between them close bonds of a holy confraternity, from which the Confraternity of Mount Carmel drew its origin.

The holy Scapular is a gift from the Mother of God; it is a holy habit that the children of Carmel received from Ma ry, a Marie Mother of Jesus, who appeared to Bertrand. s a sign of the covenant she was pleased to contract with them in the person of their fathers. Thus, the Confraternity of Carmel, the oldest of all Confraternities, as well as the most favored by God, the Blessed Virgin, and the Holy See, received a new luster and the most prodigious growth through the singular privilege of the Scapular, whose name it bears today. The holy Scapular is a gift from heaven and the fruit of the prayers of Saint Simon Stock.

In 1245, the religious of Carmel were subjected to the most violent persecutions; Saint Simon, full o f confidenc saint Simon General of the Carmelite Order who received the Scapular from the Virgin Mary in 1245. e in Mary, did not cease to implore her to support the interests of the family she had adopted and favored on so many occasions. His perseverance was crowned, his vows had the strength to open heaven and bring down the Queen of Angels.

After speaking to Simon Stock, the Blessed Virgin left the Scapular in the hands of the consoled old man, and disappeared.

It was not the intention of the Mother of God that her benefit should remain buried in the obscurity of the cloister; she wanted, on the contrary, for it to appear in broad daylight and for its fruits to spread throughout the Church, where this precious pledge of her benevolence was to be a proclamation of salvation for Christians, while at the same time being a title of honor and glory for Carmel. The habit of the Virgin was barely known before it excited among the faithful a sort of ambition and emulation all the more praiseworthy as this magnificent gift from heaven was more worthy of their desires, while the religious, as custodians of this rich treasure, seconding the views of their Benefactress, sought only to communicate and spread it. But to share in it, one had to associate with their Order, of which this holy habit is the distinctive mark, and belong to it, at least as confreres; one had to unite with it in spirit and heart. And this is, indeed, what zeal led a great number of pious persons of both sexes to do, who, to become children of Mary, made themselves children of Carmel and obtained the right to wear the glorious livery of the Queen of Heaven, as a sign of their devotion and consecration to her service.

Thus was formed the illustrious Confraternity of the Scapular, one of those that the Church has received with the greatest joy and that the piety of the faithful seeks with the greatest eagerness; a confraternity which, since its birth, has not only sustained itself but expanded with progress that has acquired for it the greatest luster, and which, victorious over the corruption of the century, still subsists in the Christian world without degenerating from its ancient splendor. It has had battles to sustain, and still does; but from whom? It is very glorious for it to have almost never had any enemies other than those of the Church, or men suspected by the Church.

Moreover, what religious practice, what observance of piety, however holy and approved it might be, has not had its own? The spirit of this Confraternity is to join the religious men and women of Carmel in the particular profession they make of honoring the Mother of God, that is to say, the purest of all Virgins, the most glorious of all Mothers; in a word, all that is greatest after God, according to this thought of Saint Bernard speaking to Mary: Supra te solus Deus, infra te quidquid non est Deus. The confreres, as a sign of their devotion to this glorious Virgin, clothe themselves in her habit, that is to say, the Scapular, with which she was pleased to clothe the Carmelites; what could be better suited to the profession of her cult? By this, as faithful servants, they display

See the life of Saint Simon Stock, May 16, Volume V.

the marks of their dependence, the livery of their Sovereign; they publicly announce that they are Mary's, that they belong to her, that they wish not only to honor and respect her, but to live and die with this heavenly habit, according to the expression of the Sacred Congregation.

The end that the confreres propose to themselves is to place themselves under the most powerful of all protections that one can hope for from Jesus Christ, that is to say, under the protection of Mary, and to participate, on one hand, in the countless benefits that the sovereign Pontiffs, in consideration of this holy Virgin, have lavished upon the Confraternity of the Scapular; and on the other, in those special, often miraculous graces, of which the Scapular is a fertile and abundant source, and which so often ensure salvation.

This pious association is not like several others, which form separate bodies within the Church, which have their own assemblies, their own statutes, and their own separate regulations. The confreres of the Scapular are linked together only by a tender devotion toward the most holy Virgin, whose habit they have the advantage of wearing.

The obligations of the Confraternity of the Holy Scapular are reduced to three main ones: 1st, to receive the Scapular, with the customary ceremonies, from the hand of a Carmelite religious or another duly authorized priest; 2nd, to wear it continually as a scapular, that is to say, one part hanging on the back and the other on the chest; 3rd, to give one's name to be inscribed on the register of the Confraternity.

Such are the obligations imposed by the Scapular, and consequently by the Confraternity that bears its name.

The holy Scapular is a gift from heaven and a present from the holy Virgin; similar to the angel of whom Saint John speaks in the Apocalypse, a confrere constantly spreads, before the throne of God, the sweet odor of the virtues of Carmel. He expresses in his person the zeal of the prophet Elijah, the charity of the great Elisha, the religion of a Saint Cyril, the patience of a Saint Anastasius, the intrepidity of a Saint Angelus, the justice of a Saint Albert, the fervor of a Peter Thomas, the vigilance of a Saint Andrew Corsini, the abnegations of a John of the Cross, the elevations of a Saint Teresa, the abandonments of a Magdalene de Pazzi.

We know that some writers have sought to cast doubt on the origin of the scapular; but as we find it reported in several Bulls of the Popes and in an infinity of very learned and very judicious authors, that the innumerable multitude of miracles that have been performed and are performed every day by the virtue of the Scapular seems to justify it sufficiently, and that it is even contained in the lessons of the office of this feast, which is approved by the Holy See and by the holy Congregation, and whose Pope Clement X, of happy memory, permitted the recitation to all ecclesiastics and to all secular and regular communities of both sexes, in the countries dependent on the King of Spain, by a Bull dated November 21 of the year 1674; we believe that we cannot err in proposing it, not as a truth of faith and of indubitable certainty, but as a thing that one must receive with respect and believe piously, following the doctrine of the learned and religious Jean Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, who, in a treatise on the truths that must be believed for the necessity of salvation, says that, for the lives and miracles of the Saints and the visions of devout persons, which are not contrary to the rules of the faith and are reported by grave authors, one must believe them piously: "For the Church," he adds, "receives them and permits them to be read, not as determining that they must be believed for the necessity of salvation, but because they are proper to instruct the faithful and to give birth in their hearts to holy affections and movements of true piety."

The sovereign Pontiffs John XXII, Alexander V, Clement VII, Paul III Jean XXII Pope who placed the diocese of Rieux under the protection of Saint Cizy. , Gregory XIII, Paul V, and Innocent XI, etc., have established, approved, or confirmed the Confraternity of the Holy Scapular, which is now a very famous devotion in the Church, and have granted it very considerable indulgences.

Here are the principal ones granted by various sovereign Pontiffs, and in particular by Paul V, Bull Cum certas, of Octo ber 30 Paul V Pope who approved the bull of erection of the Oratory. , 1606.

Plenary Indulgences: 1st The day of the reception of the holy habit. (Confession, communion, prayer for the intentions of our Holy Father the Pope.)

2nd The day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, or the Sunday that follows.

Benedict XIV extended the faculty of gaining this indulgence to all the days of the Octave. (Same conditions.)

The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel may be celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave, or even, if necessary, another Sunday in July, and with the procession.

3rd At the hour of death.

4th By two other Bulls of Paul V, one of August 3, 1609, and the other of July 19, 1614. Plenary indulgence for all those who attend the procession that the members of the Confraternity make, one Sunday of each month, with the permission of the bishop. (Confession, communion, customary prayers.) It is said: for those who attend the procession; presence in the church would not suffice.

Those who cannot attend the procession can gain the indulgence by communicating and visiting the chapel of the Confraternity on that day. (Clement X, Brief Commissar Nobis, of May 8, 1673.) — As for travelers, the infirm, prisoners, etc., they can have a share in the indulgence of this Sunday by reciting the Little Office of the Virgin, or else fifty times the Pater and the Ave, and making an act of contrition united with the firm purpose of confessing and communicating as soon as they can.

5th By virtue of the same constitution of Clement X, Plenary Indulgence on the days of the Conception, the Nativity, the Presentation, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Purification, and the Assumption of the most holy Virgin.

6th The days of Saint Joseph, Saint Simon Stock (May 16), Saint Anne, Saint Michael, Saint Teresa, etc.

7th Every Wednesday of the year. This indulgence is stated in the diploma issued in Rome by the General of the Calced Carmelites, a Santa Maria Transpontina, between Castel Sant'Angelo and Saint Peter's: Et tandem omnibus totius anni quartis feriis, sicut de novo eruitur ex Reg. Archivii Ordinis exhibits et approbato a visitatione apostolica, anno Jubilæi 1825. The Calced Carmelites of Rome therefore hold this indulgence to be certain, and we see no reason not to add faith to it. — The conditions for gaining the indulgences of the three preceding numbers are: confession, communion, the visit to a church of the Order of Carmel, and the customary prayers. When the visit to a church of the Order is impossible, confessors have the faculty to substitute other works of piety for it. A rescript of June 15, 1855, authorizes visiting the parish church where there is no church belonging to Carmel.

Partial Indulgences: 1st Seven years and seven quarantines, on the Sunday of the month intended for the procession, when the latter cannot take place, provided that one visits the church or chapel of the Confraternity;

2nd Five years and five quarantines to those who, clothed in the Scapular, communicate once a month, and pray for the sovereign Pontiff;

3rd Five years and five quarantines to those who accompany the Holy Viaticum when it is carried to the sick, and who pray for them;

4th Three hundred days to the associates who abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays;

5th One hundred days for each time the associates perform some work of piety or charity (accompanying the body of a deceased person to the cemetery, relieving the poor, reconciling enemies, instructing the ignorant in the truths of salvation, etc.);

6th Forty days to those who recite the Pater and the Ave seven times each day in honor of the holy Virgin.

All these indulgences are applicable to the souls in purgatory. (Clement X, Bull Cum sicut accepimus, of January 2, 1672.) The churches of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel enjoy the indulgences of the stations of Rome, on the days indicated by the Roman Missal. — (Clement X, Bull Commissæ Nobis, May 8, 1673.)

Conditions of admission, participation in privileges, etc. 1° To be part of the Scapular Confraternity, one must receive the small habit from the hands of a Carmelite Father, or a priest authorized to bless and bestow it, where the Reverend Carmelite Fathers do not have a convent. The priest blesses the Scapular and imposes it himself, or places it around the necks of the recipients: *Benedictio et impositio*; persons who would impose it upon themselves would not be received, according to a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences.

The priest may, however, bestow it upon himself. (Decree of March 7, 1840.) To share in the privileges and indulgences, one must also habitually wear the holy habit.

According to an Indult of the Sovereign Pontiff Gregory XVI, dated April 30, 1838, registration in the Confraternity's register, previously required by Paul V, is no longer necessary. By the mere fact of their reception, the faithful belong to the confraternity established in the locality, or at least to the nearest confraternity. It is nevertheless appropriate and consoling to be registered in the Association's book.

2° To share in the first privilege of a good death or preservation from hell, one must belong to the Confraternity, wear the scapular with piety, and have it at the moment of death: *in hoc moriens æternum non patietur incendium*.

3° To share in the second privilege of the Sabbatine Bull, th at is to say, t Bulle Sabbatine Privilege of deliverance from purgatory on the Saturday following death. he prompt deliverance from purgatory, one must, in addition to the preceding conditions, keep the chastity proper to one's state and recite every day the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, according to the Roman breviary. This is for those who know how to read. The canonical Office of the Church takes the place of the Little Office of the Virgin for priests, religious men, and religious women bound to recite it, as does the Office of the Virgin itself recited by obligation.

If one does not know how to read, one must not miss any of the fasts prescribed by the Church, and must abstain from meat every Wednesday, in addition to Fridays and Saturdays, except for Christmas Day, if it falls on one of these three days.

The obligation of the Little Office and the Wednesday abstinence may be commuted or changed into other pious works, or reduced or diminished, according to the needs of the persons and according to the will of the one who makes this commutation. To do so, a special power is required. (Decree of June 22, 1842.) — It would not be enough to be simply authorized to receive the Scapular; but it is sufficient that the faculties granted in Rome by the Generals of the Carmelites contain this power explicitly: *Nisi expresse enuntietur in Rescripto concessionis pro benedictione et impositione scapularium*, says the same declaration of June 22, 1842. This is the case; for it is said, in the faculties issued in Rome, that the priest who has obtained them may make this commutation. In the diploma given by the General of the Calced Carmelites, the power is absolute, without condition. In the diploma given by the General of the Discalced Carmelites, it is required that the priest be approved for confessions. However, it is not necessary to be the confessor of the person whose Scapular obligations one is commuting; one may commute them outside the holy Tribunal.

The Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, consulted several times in this regard, replied: "When there is a grave impediment, the confreres are not bound to the fasts nor to the recitation of the canonical Hours, or of the Office of the Blessed Virgin, nor to the abstinence from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays. One must, however, urge the faithful to submit, in this case, to the judgment of a learned and prudent confessor, in order to obtain some commutation." (Decrees of August 12, 1840, and June 22, 1842, etc.)

4° To gain the above indulgences, it is sufficient to be received into the Scapular and to wear it, while fulfilling the required conditions. It is not necessary to say special prayers, such as reciting seven *Pater* and *Ave* each day, and fourteen on Wednesday; no law obliges this. One would only be bound to it if the priest had, in place of the Office of the Blessed Virgin or the Wednesday abstinence, substituted these prayers for the privilege of the Sabbatine Bull.

A decree of Pope Paul V (1613) forbids representing in images the Blessed Virgin descending into purgatory to draw out the souls of the faithful who are satisfying the justice of God there, because it is through the ministry of angels, following her intercession, and not immediately by herself, that they are delivered; but it permits preaching and publishing that one may piously believe, regarding the relief of the souls of the Scapular confreres who have died in the grace of God and have observed the things we have marked, that the Blessed Virgin assists them with her intercessions, her suffrages, and her special protection, mainly on the day of Saturday, which the Church has consecrated to her veneration.

Thus, Christians who have received the small habit of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, called the Scapular, if they faithfully observe until death what is contained in the Bull of John XXII, may hope that after their death, they will receive on the following Saturday a special assistance from the glorious Mother of God, an assistance of inestimable price and value; for this august Mother, being so powerful with her Son, must procure great relief and a prompt deliverance to those whom she specially protects.

The Scapular therefore procures for us three great privileges: first, the help of the Blessed Virgin during life, to do penance and to be able to die in the grace of God; then several very signal indulgences; finally, the assistance of the Blessed Virgin after death and in purgatory, to be delivered more promptly. The first requires that one wear the small habit assiduously until the last breath, that one be zealous for the honor of this holy Mother, and that one defend it on all occasions, both against libertines and against heretics and infidels, and that one say some prayer or devotion every day, to show her respect and dependence. The second requires that one observe exactly what is contained in the Bulls of indulgences; for it is certain that one cannot obtain the effect if one does not fulfill all the conditions. The third requires that one keep oneself inviolably in the purity conformable to one's state and that one do the other things that have been explained according to the Bull of Pope John XXII.

The great number of miracles performed in favor of so many people clothed in this sacred habit makes it evident that this pious practice, today so widespread and famous throughout the Catholic world, is dear and pleasing to the Mother of God. Among these miracles, it is good to report the one that took place on the very day that Saint Simon Stock received the holy Scapular from the Blessed Virgin. Here is how Father Swanington, the Saint's secretary, recounts it:

"On the sixteenth of July, while the blessed Simon Stock was traveling to Winchester in my compan Winchester Royal city and site of the ordeal of Queen Emma. y, to obtain from the bishop of that city letters to the Sovereign Pontiff Innocent IV, we saw Dom Peter de Lington, dean of the church of Winchester, coming to meet us. He urgently begged the blessed Simon Stock to hasten to the aid of his own brother who was dying in despair. This man, named Walter, was petulant, haughty, quarrelsome, and given to the magical arts; he despised the Sacraments and constantly harassed all his neighbors. In a quarrel he had had with a noble personage, he had been mortally wounded, and seeing himself already near the tribunal of God, amidst the remorse for his crimes that the demon reminded him of, he would not hear of God or the Sacraments, but cried out while blaspheming: 'I am damned. It is to you, devil, that I leave the task of avenging me on my murderer.' We entered the house of the despairing sick man: he was foaming with rage, gnashing his teeth, and like a furious animal he was rolling his frightening eyes. Saint Simon Stock, seeing that this wretch was about to expire and had already lost the use of his senses, made the sign of the cross over him, put the holy habit of Carmel on him, and raising his eyes to heaven, he prayed to God to grant him time to recognize himself, so that he who was the price of the blood of Jesus Christ would not be the prey of the demon. Suddenly the sick man regained his strength, recovered the use of his senses and speech, and making the sign of the cross, he cried out against the demon and began to say, weeping: 'Alas! My iniquities exceed in number the sands of the sea. Oh! My God, your mercy surpasses your justice, have pity on me. And you, my Father, help me.' At these words I withdrew to the side, and Dom Peter then told me that, seeing his brother persist in his impenitence, he had begun to pray in a room of his house, where he had heard a voice that said to him: 'Rise, Peter, seek my servant Simon who is on a journey, and bring him here.' He looked immediately to know who had spoken these words, but seeing no one, he heard this voice three more times. That is why, judging with reason that it was a voice from heaven, he had mounted his horse to go to meet the venerable Simon Stock, giving thanks to the Lord for having found him so opportunely.

"Walter, after his confession, publicly renounced all the engagements he had made with the demon, received the Sacraments of the Church, and gave signs of true penance. He made his will and obliged his brother, under the seal of an oath, to restore to the respective owners everything he had taken unjustly, and to repair all the injuries he had done; then, at about eight o'clock at night, he expired. Some time later he appeared to his brother and told him that he was in the abode of peace, and that, by the help of the most holy Queen of Angels and by the habit of the blessed Simon Stock, he had escaped the snares of the demon.

As for the miracles performed in favor of the holy Scapular, as it would be too long to report them here, let it suffice for us to say in general that often fires have been extinguished, storms calmed, sword points blunted, bullets flattened without causing wounds, diseases cured, captives and prisoners drawn from irons, and even the dead resurrected by means of this powerful defense. We must therefore admire the goodness of the Blessed Virgin, who gives us such an easy secret to show her respect and to procure her help and protection, and we must draw from it a great motive to work to imitate her virtues and to make ourselves pleasing to her Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord.

We have used, to complete Father Giry, the Life of Saint Simon Stock, by Alfred Meulcun, and a book entitled: The Christian Enlightened on the Nature and Use of Indulgences, by Father A. Maurel, of the Society of Jesus.