St. Simon Stock

St. Simon Stock was an English Carmelite of the thirteenth century who served as prior general of the order at a critical moment in its history, when the Carmelites, originally hermits on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, had migrated to Europe and struggled to adapt their eremitical life to the needs of the Western Church. Under his leadership the order took root and flourished, founding houses at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, and Bologna.

He is remembered above all for a cherished tradition, first recorded some generations later, that on 16 July 1251 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him at Cambridge and gave him the brown scapular of Mount Carmel, promising her protection to those who wore it faithfully. From this arose the widespread devotion of the brown scapular. While historians note that the earliest account of the vision is later than his lifetime, the devotion it inspired has been embraced by the Church. He died about 1265, and his memory is kept on 16 May.