16 July: Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (the Scapular)
The origin of this feast goes back to England at the end of the fourteenth century; it is the feast of the Carmelite Order. At the time of the Crusades, the Carmelite hermits took refuge in the caves of Mount Carmel, and when the Crusaders were driven out of the Holy Land, the hermits moved to Europe, keeping the same name. But why was the Virgin’s name linked with Mount Carmel? The Carmelite hermits lived on Mount Carmel only for contemplation and prayer, and Mary was their model of prayer and contemplation, she who “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart”.
According to tradition, Saint Simon Stock received the Carmelite scapular from the Virgin Mary on 16 July. It is a piece of cloth that monks and nuns wear over their habits, while lay people wear two small blessed pieces of cloth joined by strings, one on the chest and the other on the back, like the habit of the Carmelites. According to tradition, the Virgin promised that whoever dies wearing this scapular will not suffer eternal fire.
So consecration to Our Lady of Mount Carmel spread throughout the West. The parish church of Lourdes was dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Saint Bernadette received the scapular on the day of her First Communion. Six weeks later, on 16 July 1858, the Virgin appeared to her for the last time at the grotto, in all her beauty. Saint Bernadette lived “a Christian life woven of prayer and contemplation”, as Pope John Paul II put it.
