The Brown Scapular and Our Lady of Fatima

JULY 22, 2016

(reprint with permission from The Angelus Magazine)

Hand made scapular by Francis Koerber

The Brown Scapular was given to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite, in 1253. What does this have to do with Our Lady of Fatima?

[Approaching the 100th Anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, we reprint this article from The Angelus Magazine on the interesting message that Our Lady gave to the three shepherd children]

The Brown Scapular

Angelus Press: July, 1990

HISTORY AND PROMISES: During the last Fatima apparition (October 13, 1917), the Blessed Mother held in her hand a Brown Scapular while she presented herself as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. When asked why Our Lady held it, Sr. Lucia answered… “because she wants everyone to wear the scapular… because it is our sign of consecration to her Immaculate Heart.”

The Brown Scapular worn by people today is a miniature form of the large scapular which is part of the Carmelite habit; a large Carmelite scapular was presented by Our Lady to St. Simon Stock, General of the Carmelite Order, about the year 1253. During this apparition, the Blessed Mother told him:

PROMISE: “This shall be to you and all Carmelites a privilege, that anyone who dies clothed in this shall not suffer eternal fire; and if wearing it they die, they shall be saved.”

THE SABBATINE PRIVILEGE: During another apparition, this one to Pope John XXII (1316-1334), the Blessed Mother generously granted what is known as the Sabbatine Privilege: that those who fulfill certain conditions will be freed from Purgatory on the first Saturday after death. This promise was also mentioned in a bull issued on March 3,1322, by Pope John XXII. It was Pope Paul V (1605-1621) who settled a controversy concerning the Privilege when he issued an official statement in which he gave priests permission to preach that the Blessed Virgin of Mt. Carmel
…will aid the souls of the Brothers and Sisters of the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel after their death by her continual intercession, by her suffrages and merits and by her special protection, especially on the day of Saturday which is the day especially dedicated by the Church to the same Blessed Virgin Mary…”

To receive the Scapular privileges one must be enrolled in the Brown Scapular. One should ask a priest to make this enrollment.

The conditions for obtaining the Sabbatine Privilege are:

Wear the Brown Scapular faithfully.
Observe chastity according to one’s state in life.
Recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin daily, or, with permission, substitute for this another pious work, e.g., the daily recitation of five decades of the Rosary. (Any priest with faculties to hear confessions (this includes most priests) has the faculty to commute (change) this third requirement.)