Saint Simon Stock

Simon Stock, OCarm was an English Catholic priest and saint who lived in the 13th century and was an early prior of the Carmelite Order. The Blessed Virgin Mary is traditionally said to have appeared to him and given him the Brown Scapular. Popular devotion to Saint Simon Stock is usually associated with devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel had their origins as a hermit community in Palestine; with the fall of the Crusader Kingdoms and the resumption of Muslim rule, in the early 13th century the members moved to Europe where they became mendicant friars. Simon was born in England and was perhaps elected to be Prior General at a London chapter meeting in 1254. Historical evidence about Simon's life is very scarce; he is mentioned in two necrologies from the 14th century. They attest to his reputation for holiness and a trip made to Jerusalem. There is no evidence for him having lived for a time in a hollow tree. He is believed to have lived at Aylesford in Kent, a place that hosted in 1247 the first general chapter of the Carmelite Order held outside the Holy Land, and where there is still a monastery of Carmelite friars. The earliest extant liturgical office in Simon Stock's honour was composed in Bordeaux in France, and dates from 1435. Liturgies are first known to have been celebrated in Ireland and England in 1458, and throughout the Carmelite Order in 1564. His feast day, an optional memorial, is May 16. Simon Stock is the patron saint of the English province of Discalced Carmelites. The earliest surviving accounts of Simon's life do not mention him having a vision. The first known reference dates from the late 14th century, over 100 years after 16 July, 1251, the date when tradition says the vision occurred.