Our Lady of Mount Carmel, She Who Gave Us the Scapular, She of the Saturday Privilege

It was July 16, 1251, and the superior of the Carmelites, Simon Stock, was asking the Virgin for help in resolving no small problems within his community. The saint’s trust not only obtained the Virgin’s attention, but she herself wished to cross the walls of heaven to appear to him and say:

“Most beloved son, receive the Scapular of your Order, the special sign of my fraternal friendship, a privilege for you and for all Carmelites. Those who die wearing this Scapular shall not suffer the fires of Hell. It is a sign of salvation, shelter and protection in dangers, and a covenant of peace forever.”

It was therefore a message for him, for the Carmelite Order, and for all who affiliate themselves with it by wearing the scapular. Wearing the scapular with devotion, making it a bond that unites us to Our Lady, is a ticket to heaven, even if we must first pass through the painful and purifying flames of purgatory. In fact, Saint Claude de La Colombière said that “it is not enough to say that the Scapular is a sign of salvation. I maintain that there is no other sign that makes our predestination so certain.”

Examples of the Virgin’s Favors Through the Scapular

How many times Our Lady of Mount Carmel has interceded for her devotees through the scapular is something that can no longer be counted.

Monsignor Marcos Barbosa relates in his work The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that an English gentleman, thoroughly impious, even in the throes of death showed every sign of damnation, shouting:

“I want hell and the devil!”

Complete madness.

Friar Simon Stock was then informed, and in an excess of charity he went to where that foolish scoundrel was and extended the scapular over his body. Then one of the greatest miracles that can occur took place: a conversion. In the end, he asked for the sacraments. It would seem that this was an event permitted and willed by God to demonstrate the power of this sacramental, then a mere shoot and today a flourishing tree.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Frees Souls From Purgatory

In these times of unbelief, if there are many who do not believe in hell, there are even more who do not believe in purgatory. Nevertheless, it does exist and is quite unconcerned whether people believe in it or not, or in its terrible purifying fire that prepares souls for heaven, yet is a torment very similar to that of hell. But for all those of this suffering Church as well, there is a gift from Our Lady of Mount Carmel, namely that according to a well-known tradition, the Mother of God herself appeared to Pope John XXII, saying that she would free from purgatory, on the first Saturday after their death, all those who devoutly wore the Scapular.

But let us continue with Monsignor Barbosa, recounting signs through which God has wished to emphasize before mankind the importance of the scapular:

In Santo André, Brazil, a five-year-old girl fell into a well 20 meters deep. One hour later, she was found floating on the water, wearing the Scapular around her neck. The family naturally attributed the event to the protection of the Mother of Carmel.

The following account is told by the Carmelite friar Juan Fernández Martín in his book Miracles and Prodigies of the Holy Scapular of Carmel:

A French girl one day saw her father die and moved with her mother to Paris. To support the household, since her mother was very elderly, the girl opened a workshop. But the mother fell ill with cancer, which consumed not only her life but also the little savings that remained in that home. The young woman became desperate and one day took a large amount of charcoal and filled the brazier with it, intending to die from suffocation.

Early that day a friend arrived at the house and found her apparently dead. She screamed and raised the alarm. By “chance,” a famous physician, Dr. Recamier, happened to be passing by. He examined her and said:

“No, ladies and gentlemen, no; this woman must not be dead. She is wearing the holy scapular, and no suicide succeeds in dying, however determined they may be, when carrying this object.”

However, despite Dr. Recamier’s medical insistence, the body was stiff and unresponsive, so he decided to use extreme measures that today might have earned him an appearance before an ethics committee. He asked for two sticks and began striking the girl’s body, particularly the abdominal area. After a few minutes, life began to return to her body. The young woman eventually became Superior of the Little Sisters of the Poor.

It Seems That Our Lady of Mount Carmel Does Not Like Her Scapular to Be Mocked

One day in Puerto Rico, around 1923, some young people staged a parody in which a girl surnamed Domínguez played the role of a young princess, while a young man named Pietri, acting as a priest, insulted the princess because she would not give him money.

“You are going to be damned, you are a bad Catholic,”

said the actor playing the priest.

To assure the “priest” of her Catholicity, the “princess” showed him the scapular she was wearing around her neck. But then “Father” Pietri tore it from her and threatened to throw it on the ground while saying:

“This is nonsense, a piece of cr…”

But he did not manage to finish the sentence.

His arm had become paralyzed. In the end, he had to be carried away from the place rigid, paralyzed, and half-witted. Several attendees testified to the event.

The truth is that there she is, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, almost pleading to receive our petitions, especially the prayer that she not abandon us, that she assist us with her grace and with her maternal affection.

The post “Our Lady of Mount Carmel, She Who Gave Us the Scapular, She of the Saturday Privilege” first appeared on Gaudium Press Español.