Our Lady of Carmen

Biography

In the 12th century some hermits retired to that mountain, later building an Order dedicated to the contemplative life, under the patronage of the Virgin Mary." With these words the official book of the Church presents the Liturgy of this day. The Order of Carmel was born at the end of the 12th century on Mount Carmel, especially to worship and try to imitate the Virgin Mary. For this reason, from the beginning, the Carmelite religious were known as the "Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel." Even today this official title of the Order was enriched with many graces and indulgences to all those who called the Carmelites that way. Around the year 1251, the Prior General of the Order, Saint Simon Stock, went to the Virgin Mary, as Patroness of the Order, to free him from the enemies that threatened its existence. And for this he came to compose some prayers for her. One night, tradition has it, that on July 16, 1251, the Virgin Mary appeared to him carrying the scapular of Carmel in her hands and said to him: "THIS WILL BE THE PRIVILEGE FOR YOU AND ALL THE CARMELITES; WHOEVER DIES WITH IT WILL NOT SUFFER ETERNAL FIRE, THAT IS, HE WHO DIES WITH IT WILL BE SAVED." Since then, this devotion began to spread to all. parts, especially in the Latin countries, until it became a "Catholic or universal devotion like the Church itself", in the expression of Cardinal Comá, who died in 1940. Today the Order of Carmel in all its multiple male and female branches and the thousands and even millions of lay people who wear the scapular of Carmel - the most popular of all the scapulars venerated by the Church - is spread everywhere and they make the Virgin Mary known under this popular invocation of the CARMELO. She is the Patroness, the Virgin of Carmen, of several Nations and Guilds, and the people of the sea especially venerate her as Mother and Queen.