Our Lady of Mount Carmel

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This article is about a title given to Mary, mother of Jesus. For the church in Toxteth, Liverpool, see Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC Church.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel with angels and souls in Purgatory. Baroque sculpture from Beniaján (Spain)

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a title given to Mary, the mother of Jesus, in honor of her having given the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to Saint Simon Stock. Her feast is celebrated on July 16. As well as St. Simon Stock, there are other Carmelite saints such as St. Therese of the Child Jesus, St. John of the Cross, and St. Teresa of Ávila.

1 Pious tradition
2 Sabbatine privilege
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Pious tradition

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According to a pious tradition the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Simon Stock at Cambridge, England, on Sunday, 16 June, 1251. In answer to his appeal for help for his oppressed order, she appeared to him with a scapular in her hand and said: "Take, beloved son this scapular of thy order as a badge of my confraternity and for thee and all Carmelites a special sign of grace; whoever dies in this garment, will not suffer everlasting fire. It is the sign of salvation, a safeguard in dangers, a pledge of peace and of the covenant". This tradition appears in precise form for the first time in 1642, when the words of the Blessed Virgin were given in a circular of St. Simon Stock which he is said to have dictated to Peter Boyle, his secretary and confessor. It is widely believed that its general content remains a reliable pious tradition; in other words, that St. Simon Stock was given certain supernatural assurances:

The special protection of the Blessed Virgin for his whole order and for all those wearing the Carmelite habit
Special aid, especially in the hour of death, to those wearing the habit in her honour throughout life, so that they should be preserved from hell. Indirectly, this promise is extended to all who from devotion to the Mother of God should wear her habit or badge and be thus as if it were affiliated to the Carmelite Order.

[edit] Sabbatine privilege

Main article: Sabbatine Privilege

The Sabbatine Privilege, according to which people are liberated early from purgatory through the special intercession and petition of the Virgin Mary, which she exercises preferentially on the day consecrated to her, Saturday, derived its name from an apocryphal Papal Bull "Sacratissimo uti culmine" of Pope John XXII, dated 3 March 1322, which made the pope declare that the Mother of God appeared to him, and most urgently recommended to him the Carmelite Order and its confratres and consorores (i.e. the male and female members of the order).