The brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the most popular devotion involving wearing of a scapular in the Catholic Church today. In the Middle Ages, a scapular was a full-length garment (apron) worn over other clothing by monks and nuns, the color signifying the particular religious order. The brown scapular was revealed to St. Simon Stock, the Prior General of the Carmelite order in 1247. The Virgin Mary appeared to him and gave him the scapular and associated promises as a result of his pledge of complete loyalty to her (known as a privilegium). The smaller version of the scapular is worn by lay associates.

Saints and popes throughout the ages have worn and encouraged wearing of the brown scapular, and many miraculous events have attested to the value of the sacramental (the scapular worn by Blessed Pope Gregory X, who died in 1276, was found intact in 1830).

Our Lady of Fatima and the Brown Scapular

On September 13, 1917, the Virgin of Fatima had announced to the three children the coming of Our Lady of Mount Carmel the next month. On October 13, during the closing of the cycle of apparitions, when the conversation of Lucy with Our Lady of the Rosary was finished, while the crowd contemplated the grandiose cosmic miracle, the three shepherds enjoyed several visions. They were given to admire in the sky three successive pictures, the last of which was Our Lady of Mount Carmel calling to mind the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. That same evening, Lucy would relate her vision to Canon Formigao: At the end, the Virgin Who appeared to me "seemed to me to be Our Lady of Mount Carmel."

At the end of the 1940's, while conversing with three Carmelite priests, Father Donald O'Callagham, Father Albert Ward and Father Luis Gonzaga de Oliveira, Sister Maria-Lucia of the Immaculate Heart (known as Sister Lucy) recalled that the Blessed Virgin Mary wished that the devotion of the holy Scapular be propagated. If Our Lady, during Her last public apparition, had held it in Her hands, it was to urge us to wear it, quite like in the preceding apparitions, the presence of Her Rosary had clearly manifested the wishes of Her Heart.

The messenger of Heaven also explained it to Father Howard Rafferty when the priest questioned her in the name of the Father General of the Carmelites, on October 15, 1950: "Our Lady, Lucy told him, held the Scapular in Her hands because She wants us all to wear it."

Practices

1. Wear the Brown Scapular (or scapular medal) after enrollment*
   
2. Observe chastity according to your state in life
   
3. Recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary or five decades of the Rosary daily (usual requirements)
   
   
   

Promises / Benefits

1. "...whosoever dies wearing this (the brown scapular) shall not suffer eternal fire" (Virgin Mary's promise to St. Simon)
   
2. Partial indulgence granted by Pope Benedict XV to those who devoutly kiss the scapular
   
3. Sabbatine Priviledge: release from purgatory on the first Saturday after death (revelation by the Virgin to Pope John XXII in 1322). Please note that much controversy has surrounded this 'promise' since it promotion by some early Carmelites. The modern Order does not recognize this as legitimate. It is mentioned here for informational purposes.

Enrollment in the Brown Scapular

* Enrollment involves a priest blessing the first brown scapular with this prayer:
Receive this blessed habit; praying the most holy Virgin, than by Her merits thou may wear it without stain; and that She may guard thee from all evil and bring thee to life everlasting. R. Amen. By the power granted me, I admit thee to the participation of all the spiritual good works, which through the gracious help of Jesus Christ are performed by the religious of Mount Carmel. In the name of the Father, and the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. R. Amen.

May the Creator of Heaven and earth, Almighty God, bless + thee; Who has deigned to unite thee to the confraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. We beseech Her, in the hour of thy death, to crush the head of the old serpent; so that thou may in the end win the everlasting palm and crown of the heavenly inheritance. Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

After enrollment in the Confraternity of the Scapular, the scapular may be replaced by a Carmelite scapular medal worn around the neck. The enrollment is for a lifetime and need not be repeated, and new scapulars do not need to be blessed again but scapular medals do.