"Receive this scapular as the sign of a close covenant with me"

Saint Simon Stock was born into an illustrious English family in Kent, where his father was governor. When she was pregnant with him, his mother consecrated him to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was often seen trembling in his mother's arms when she pronounced the sweet name of Mary. All it took to soothe his cries was to present him with an image of the Virgin Mary. He was not yet a year old when he was heard to pronounce the angelic salutation (the Hail Mary) several times. This precocious devotion can only come from an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit.

At the age of twelve, Simon withdrew to the desert and lived in the hollow of a tree, from which came his nickname Stock, meaning "trunk" in English. Although the tree trunk where he made his home did not offer him the freedom to lie down and sleep, he took his brief rest in this precarious lodging. Saint Simon Stock spent twenty years in complete solitude, nourishing his soul with the heavenly delights of contemplation.

Having voluntarily deprived himself of the conversation of men, he enjoyed that of the Virgin Mary and the angels, who urged him to persevere in his life of renunciation and love. The Queen of Heaven told him that he would soon see hermits from Palestine arriving in England. She added that he should associate himself with these men whom she considered to be her servants.

Indeed, John Lord Vesoy and Richard Lord Gray of Codnor returned from the Holy Land, bringing with them a number of hermits from Mount Carmel. Docile to the directives of the Mother of God, Saint Simon Stock joined these Fathers in 1212.

Elected Vicar General of the Carmelite Order in 1215, the Saint worked hard to obtain confirmation of his Order for the West from Rome. Appearing in a dream to Pope Honorius III, the Mother of God made her wishes known to him, and in 1226, the Pope confirmed the Carmelite Rule.

One day, the Virgin appeared to her servant, all aglow with light and accompanied by a great number of blessed spirits. She gave him a scapular, saying: "Receive, my son, this scapular as the sign of a close covenant with me. I give it to you as the habit of your order; it will be an excellent privilege for you and for all Carmelites, and he who wears it will never suffer eternal fire. It is the mark of salvation when in danger and of the happy possession of life that will never end."

Devotion to the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel spread not only among the people, but also among kings and princes, who found themselves greatly honored to wear this mark of the Virgin's servants.

Saint Simon Stock died in the city of Bordeaux, France, while visiting his monasteries. The Church added his last words - "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death" - to the Hail Mary.

Adapted from: www.viechretienne.catholique.org