This feast was first celebrated in the late fourteenth century, and commemorates the giving of the ‘Brown Scapular’ to St Simon Stock, an Englishman, on this day in 1251. Our Lady said to him, ‘Receive, my beloved son, this habit of thy order: this shall be to thee and to all Carmelites a privilege, that whosoever dies clothed in this shall never suffer eternal fire …. It shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger, and a pledge of peace’. A further promise was made to Pope John XXII concerning those who wear it: ‘I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting’.

May Our Lady, Flower of Mt Carmel, pray for us and protect us in all dangers, and may God bless you this day.