Feast Day: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16th July

This name is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as the patron of the Carmelite Order. This feast is also known as the 'Scapular feast' because the Carmelite Order is using the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. A tradition says that the Holy Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Prior General of the Carmelite Order on July 16, 1251 and gave the brown scapular to him and that became part of the Carmelite Order. Carmelites believe the Holy Virgin Mary is a model of virtue and is also a perfect model of interior life of prayer. This feast was instituted by the Carmelite Order between the years 1376-1386, to celebrate their victory over their enemies, on obtaining the approbation of its name and constitution from Pope Honorius-III on January 30, 1226. The scapular is a modified version of Holy Mary’s own garment and it gives special protection to those who wear it. St. John of the Cross credited Holy Mary with saving him from drowning as a child, leading him to Carmel and helping him from prison. The Carmelites say that this Order was first founded by prophets Elijah and Elisha on the Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is in Israel (District Haifa). During the apparition of Holy Mary at Fatima on October 13, 1917, when the Miracle of the Sun happened (Sun became red and rotated like a wheel) the children saw the visions of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel. The feast was extended to the entire Latin Church by Pope Benedict-XIII on September 24, 1726.