Saturday, the day consecrated to Mary

Among the many spiritual privileges granted by the Church to those who wear the Brown Scapular, the most important is the Sabbatine privilege. Its origin is the "Sabbatine Bull" that Pope John XXII granted in 1317, after having been favored by a vision of the Blessed Queen of Carmel. The Virgin Mary promised the Holy Father to deliver from Purgatory, on the Saturday after their death, those who would wear her scapular. Two conditions were set to benefit from this promise: the observance of chastity according to one’s state in life (complete in celibacy, conjugal in marriage) and the recitation of the canonical hours (the Little Office of Our Blessed Mother).

Some modern historians of the Carmelite order have questioned the authenticity of the Sabbatine Bull. We do not wish to go into this controversy, which has little relevance, since the Church has many times authoritatively confirmed the content of this bull, namely the "sabbatical privilege."

Few indulgences have in fact received so many and solemn pontifical approvals. Suffice it to quote the acts and approvals of the popes: Clement VII (Bull Ex clementis of August 12, 1530), Paul III (in 1530 and 1549), Pius IV (in 1561), St Pius V (Bull Superna provisione from February 18, 1566), St Pius X in 1910, Benedict XV in 1916, and Pius XII in 1950.

St John of the Cross, while close to death, happily recalled "how the Mother of God of Carmel, on Saturday, came with her help and favor to Purgatory, and how she delivered the souls of religious or people who had worn her holy scapular."

Fatima 100