The story began to unfold about 860 B.C., in Palestine during the reign of the Jewish King Ahab. Elijah proclaimed that if the Jewish nation did not turn away from idolatry, God would exact punishment. For three years there was “neither dew or rain” in all of Palestine which finally prompted the king to heed the words of the prophet in choosing between the God of Israel and the god of Baal.

On a memorable day, Elijah addressed the vast throng assembled on Mount Carmel: “How long will you straddle the issue? If the Lord is God, follow Him; if Baal, follow him” (1 Kgs 18:21). Elijah proposed a contest. The God who sends down the consuming fire will be acknowledged by the nation to be the true God.

The fiendish rituals of the pagans produced no fire from Baal. But when Elijah prepared his offering, the miraculous fire came down from the heavens, and the whole nation fell to their knees with the cry, “The Lord is God!” With this acknowledgement, Elijah told the king that it would then rain.

Then Elijah retreated to the top of Carmel. There crouched on the ground with his head between his knees, he told his servant to go and “look towards the sea.” The seventh time, the servant hastened back and said that he had seen a small cloud the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea. Elijah rose up to beyond the cloud. Within a short time “there fell a great rain.”

What an awesome moment, this viewing of the rising cloud. The old prophet, through whose intercession God presented a material salvation to His people in the form of rain, beheld also a prophetic vision of the spiritual salvation of all mankind.

In later years, the Doctors of the Church reflected that this little cloud, rising out of a bitter sea and leaving all impurities behind, is a symbol of the Immaculate Virgin who will rise pure out of the sea of humanity, free of the impurity of original sin. The Virgin is to conquer the pride of Satan with her heel of humility, bearing out the divine malediction against the devil; “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will strike at your head while you strike at His heel.” (Gn 3:15)

Our Lady’s Hermits
The followers of the prophet Elijah were known as the “Hermits of Mount Carmel” and at other times, “Carmelites.” Historians of the Carmelites record that Jesus, Mary and Joseph, returning to Israel after their exile in Egypt, stopped to rest among the hermits on Mount Carmel, and here the hermits built the very first chapel on earth dedicated to the Mother of God.

Emigration to Europe
Some of the hermits emigrated to England about 1220 A.D. There they met a strange but holy man, Simon Stock, who also was uniquely devoted to the Virgin. Our Lady had previously told Simon that her devotees were coming from Palestine and that he should join their society.

More and more of the Mount Carmel hermits moved west as the persecutions in Palestine increased. Simon Stock was appointed Vicar General of the Carmelites in England and later, in 1245, General of the entire Order.

From the beginning the Order was in trouble, and it was apparent that a man of great faith was needed at the helm. From within his Order, Simon braved the ugly dissension caused by his new policy on sending the younger men to universities. The older men of the Order, who had led lives of utter solitude on Mount Carmel, wanted the Carmelites to remain purely contemplative. Outside the Order, the secular clergy raised furore over these “odious mendicant friars.” The clergy not only persecuted the Carmelites on every front, they demanded that Rome suppress them. Added to this were the objections raised to the garb of these former Palestinians. Simon gave thought to changing the habit because its unpopularity seemed to be hindering the growth of the order.

Our Lady Comes
Weighed down by his 90 years and problems that were beyond the endurance of even a younger man, Simon often retired to his cell in the Carmelite Monastery in Cambridge, England, to pray. On one such occasion, in the year 1251, Simon knelt in his tiny cell and poured out his soul in prayer. As he lifted his tear-dimmed eyes, the cell was suddenly flooded with light. Surrounded by a great concourse of angels, the Queen of Heaven descended toward him, holding the Brown Scapular of the friars and saying: “Receive my beloved son, this habit of thy Order; that this shall be to thee and to all Carmelites a privilege, that whosoever dies clothed in this shall never suffer eternal fire.”

With this apparition and the giving of Mary’s cloth to mankind, the tapestry of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is completed, and the purpose of the long-unfolding “Family of Carmel” is disclosed.

The Promise
When Our Lady presented the scapular to St Simon Stock for the world, she made one condition to her promise of salvation: we must become, and stay until death, a member of her Family of Carmel. Our Lady does not mean that anyone dying in mortal sin will be saved. Death in mortal sin and damnation are one and the same thing. To lead a sinful life while trusting in the Scapular Promise borders on sacrilege. One can be certain that if he continually sins, relying on the Scapular Promise to save him, he shall not die in the scapular. Many true stories vouch for this.

Catholic Theologians explain the “promise” to mean that anyone dying in the Family of Carmel will receive from the Virgin, at the hour of death, either the graces of perseverance in the state of grace or the grace of final contrition.

Conditions
To enjoy the great Scapular Promise, one has to be validly enrolled in the Scapular Confraternity. All priests have the faculty to enrol and no longer are required to send the names of the people to the Scapular Headquarters. The lay people, who had been delegated by the Scapular Confraternity and received the faculty to enrol others in the scapular, prior to March 25, 1986, may continue in that capacity. However, since this date, this privilege has been withheld until the Carmelite General Curia in Rome reviews the issue of laity enrolment.

Sign of Membership
Three signs of membership in the Scapular Confraternity are considered valid:

● The large scapular – the formal habit of the Carmelite Order.

● The smaller scapular – the Carmelite habit in miniature.

● The scapular medal, which may replace the cloth scapular but “only in case of necessity and for serious reasons.” (Pius X)

A picture on the cloth scapular is permissible but not necessary. “It can be made of any suitable material.” (Paul VI). The only stipulations are that it be brown in colour and of rectangular shape. The strings connect the two pieces of cloth may be of any type material, e.g. silver chain, etc.

The members enrolled must wear the scapular in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and wear it in the manner prescribed: over the shoulders, one piece in front and one in back. No special prayers are required.

Once we put the scapular on, we have Mary praying for us. The scapular is not only an assurance of salvation after death but at all times a powerful means of grace. It is a visible reminder of her intercession on our behalf.

Renewal
After a member is enrolled in the Confraternity he may replace his own worn scapular. These new scapulars need not be blessed because they derive their excellence from the fact that they are a sign of that membership in which Our Lady has promised an assurance of salvation.

If one who is enrolled in the scapular should put it aside for a time, even for years, a new enrolment is not necessary. The individual simply puts it on and begins again to share in Our Lady’s promise.

Whosoever dies clothed in this (scapular) shall not suffer the fires of hell… Savaria remarks that these words, so very extraordinary, encompass the full value of the Brown Scapular. “One cannot descend too far into their depths,” he said, adding, “It is only by penetrating beyond the sensible that one comes to know the spiritual treasures which this heavenly garment conceals. Especially today, with the power of Satan threatening to shake the very foundations of the world, we need a rational knowledge of our devotions and above all of her who crushes the head of the infernal serpent.”