Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: July 16
On July 16th 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Simon Stock, Superior General of the Carmelite Order. Holding on her hands the Brown Scapular, she said: “Received, my beloved son, this Scapular of your Order; whoever dies wearing it shall not suffer eternal fire. It is a sign of salvation, a safeguard in danger… and a pledge of my special protection till the end of time... Wear the Scapular devoutly and perseveringly. It is my garment. To be clothed in it means you are continually thinking of me, and I in turn, am always thinking of you and helping you to secure eternal life.”
The
Sabbatine Privilege: The Promise Extended into Purgatory
During another apparition, this one to Pope John XXII (1316-1334), the
Blessed Mother generously granted what is known as the Sabbatine Privilege: that those who wear the Brown Scapular and
fulfill certain conditions will be freed from Purgatory on the first Saturday
after death: “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”
This promise was also mentioned in a Bull issued on March 3, 1322 by Pope John XXII. Pope St. Pius V stated in his Bull “Superna dispositione” (18 February 1566): “With apostolic authority and by tenor of the present, we approve each of the privileges [of the Carmelite Order] and also the Sabbatine.” It was Pope Paul V (1605-1621) who settled a controversy concerning the Privilege when he issued a Decree on January 20, 1613 in which he gave priests permission to preach that the Blessed Virgin of Mt. Carmel “… will aid the souls of the Brothers and Sisters of the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel after their death by Her continual intercession, by Her suffrages and merits and by Her special protection, especially on the day of Saturday which is the day especially dedicated by the Church to the same Blessed Virgin Mary…”
This promise was also mentioned in a Bull issued on March 3, 1322 by Pope John XXII. Pope St. Pius V stated in his Bull “Superna dispositione” (18 February 1566): “With apostolic authority and by tenor of the present, we approve each of the privileges [of the Carmelite Order] and also the Sabbatine.” It was Pope Paul V (1605-1621) who settled a controversy concerning the Privilege when he issued a Decree on January 20, 1613 in which he gave priests permission to preach that the Blessed Virgin of Mt. Carmel “… will aid the souls of the Brothers and Sisters of the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel after their death by Her continual intercession, by Her suffrages and merits and by Her special protection, especially on the day of Saturday which is the day especially dedicated by the Church to the same Blessed Virgin Mary…”
Recently, Our Lady confirmed the Sabbatine Privilege to Pere Lamy (1855-1931), Founder
of the Religious Congregation of the
Servants of Jesus and Mary, read at:
To receive the Scapular privileges one must be enrolled in the Brown
Scapular. One should ask a priest to make this enrollment.
The conditions for obtaining the Sabbatine Privilege are:
- Wear the Brown Scapular faithfully.
- Observe chastity according to one’s state
of life.
- Recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin daily, or, with permission, substitute for this another pious work, e.g., the daily recitation of five decades of the Rosary. Any priest with faculties to hear confessions (this includes most priests) has the faculty to commute (change) this third requirement. Those who are bound to recitation of the full Divine Office fulfill this condition by praying the full Office instead. Those who cannot read may instead abstain from eating meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays, unless Christmas Day falls on one of those days.
“In 1947 the General Chapter of our Order [Carmelite], held at Rome, decreed that the recitation of the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the Father, [each] said seven times daily should be the minimum requirement when authorized priests substitute for the obligation of the Little Office or the abstinence. But this Chapter added that the devout client of Our Lady should not be satisfied by so little and should remember the greatness of the Promise and try to say the Rosary daily since Our Lady requested the daily Rosary.”
~ Fr. Howard Rafferty, O.Carm.
~ Fr. Howard Rafferty, O.Carm.
Until it is explained, the Scapular Promise seems unbelievable. Ever
since Our Lady appeared to Saint Simon Stock on July 16, 1251, many—yes, thousands—have
found it almost impossible to believe
that for so little a practice as belonging to Her Confraternity, one could be
rewarded with salvation.
It seems that Our Lady returned to Heaven and considered, as it were,
the great favor She had conferred. She saw the amazement of thousands at so
small an action as wearing two pieces of cloth being favored by Her with so
tremendous a Promise. So She returned again to earth, and this time to make a
Promise still more astounding!
In the year after Saint Peter Thomas was informed by Her that “the
Order of Carmel is destined to exist until the end of the world,” the Queen of
Heaven conferred a favor through the habit of Her family which has caused the
great Pope Benedict XV to exclaim: “Let all of you have a common language and a
common armor: the language, the sentences of the Gospel; the armor, the
Scapular of Mary which all ought to wear and which enjoys the singular
privilege of protection even after death.”
For, on March 3rd, 1322, Pope John XXII had issued the following Bull:
[See P. E. Magennis: The Sabbatine Privilege [New York 1923]
for a demonstration of the authenticity of this script.]
“John, Bishop and servant of the servants of God, to the faithful of Christ, collectively and individually: As though in the most sacred heights of paradise, the so sweet and charming harmony of the Angels is heard while the sense of sight is also delighted and Jesus is seen adorned with the glory of His Father. For He saith: I and the Father are one... He who seeth Me, seeth also the Father... and the choir of the Angels ceaseth not to say: Holy, Holy, Holy. Even so, the Assembly ceaseth not to pour forth praise to the Virgin on high, O Virgin, Virgin, Virgin, be thou our mirror alike and example... For she is adorned with the gift of Grace, as holy Church singeth... Mary, full of Grace and Mother of Mercy... So that hill which is reputed of the Order of Carmel, praising with song and extolling and telling of this Mother of Grace... Hail, Queen of Mercy and our hope... So, as I prayed with bended knees, the Virgin of Carmel seemed to speak to me these words: O John, Vicar of my well-beloved Son, I shall snatch thee, as it were, from thy foe. Thee who art Pope, I make my Vicar for the solemn gift which I sought from My Son and have obtained by my prayers. So, it behooveth thee to grant a favor and confirmation to my holy and devout Order of Carmel, which took its rise with Elias and Eliseus on the mountain of that name. Whoso maketh profession, whoso observeth the Rule drawn up by my servant Albert the Patriarch, whoso unfailingly sheweth obedience thereunto and to that which has been approved by my dear son Innocent, so that thou mayest accept through the Vicar of my Son on earth what my Son hath ordained in Heaven: that he who shall have persevered in holy obedience, poverty and chastity, or shall enter the Holy Order, shall be saved. And if others for the sake of devotion shall enter holy religion, hearing the sign of the Sacred Habit and calling themselves associates of either sex of my aforesaid Order, they shall be freed and absolved from a third part of their sins on what day they enter. . . So let the professed members of the said Order be freed from punishment and from guilt on what day they go from this world,” so that with hastened step they shall pass over Purgatory, I, THE MOTHER OF GRACE, SHALL DESCEND INTO PURGATORY ON THE SATURDAY AFTER THEIR DEATH AND WHOMSOEVER I SHALL FIND IN PURGATORY I SHALL FREE, so that I may lead them unto the holy mountain of life everlasting. ‘Tis true that you brothers and sisters are bound to recite the Canonical Hours, as it behooveth according to the Rule given by Albert. Those who are ignorant must lead a life of fasting on those days on which Holy Church doth so ordain. Moreover, unless through some necessity they be involved in some difficulty, they must abstain from flesh meat on Wednesday and Saturday, except on the Birthday of my Son. Now, when these words had been uttered, the sacred vision departed...”
Purgatory! Eye has not seen nor ear heard the tremendous suffering that word
implies. Some theologians are of the opinion that the worst pain we could
possibly suffer on earth-----utter moral abandonment while the body be tortured
by the most diabolical cruelties-----cannot be compared to the least of the
Purgatorial pains. Saint Mary Magdalen de Pazzi tells us that “the pains
suffered by all the Martyrs are as a pleasant garden in comparison with the
sufferings of the Souls in Purgatory.” [ Cf. Savaria, pg. 222.] Saint Cyril
said: that, as for himself, he would rather suffer all the pains that have
beset man from the time of Adam together with all that will beset him until the
end of the world, rather than spend one day in Purgatory. For since nothing
impure can enter Heaven, one must go to Purgatory and, there, only tremendous
suffering can satisfy the temporal punishment due offenses against an Infinite
Goodness. Saint Bridget beheld a Soul in Purgatory tortured inexplicably for
having been vain and having thought more of frivolous diversion than of things
spiritual. [Revelations (Rome, 1628) , Bk. V, ch. liii.] Saint Mary
Magdalen de Pazzi, reports that a Saintly religious was detained sixteen days
in Purgatory for three trifling faults and that she would have been there
longer had it not been that she had been very faithful to her rule. A certain
layman, although he was a good Christian, was fifty-nine years in Purgatory
because of his love of comfort; another, thirty-five years for the same reason;
a third, who was too fond of gambling, was in Purgatory for sixty-four years.
And Saint Augustine says that the torments of Purgatory surpass all that a man
can suffer on earth. [Treatise on Psalm xxxvii; cf Savaria, op. cit.
231.] But Mary, who through Her intercession has complete dominion over
Purgatory, [St. Bernardine: Serm. 3, de Nom. Mar. a. 2, c. 3.] has come to Her
special children to assure them that She will not suffer them to remain in its
fires more than a week-----in fact, not beyond the day consecrated to Her Honor
by the Church. With Saint Bonaventure, we hear Her saying in the words of
Scripture: “I have penetrated the depths of the abyss, that is, the depths of
Purgatory, to help those holy Souls.” [Glorie, viii, pg. 305. N. B.:
Novarinus says, in Cit, Exs. 86, “Crediderim omnibus qui in flammis purgantur,
Mariae meritis non solum leviores fuisse redditas illas poenas, sed et
breviores, adeo ut cruciatum tempus contractum Virginis ope illius sit.”
Such is the meaning of the Sabbatine Privilege.] Saint Bernardine said that the
Blessed Virgin always liberates Her special devotees from the torments of
Purgatory and Saint Denis the Carthusian and Saint Peter Damian had written
that on the feasts of the Assumption, Christmas and Easter: “Our Lady descends
into Purgatory and takes many souls from it.” [St. Dionysius, Cart.
Serm. 2, de Ass. N. B. : Note that the Saint says that Mary descends and
that on a certain day: Beatissima Virgo singulis annis in festivitate
nativitatis Christi ad purgatorii loca cum multitudine angelorum descendit.”]
But Our Lady has declared that She will not wait for the great Feasts to
liberate Her devotees of the Scapular. Regardless of the punishment merited,
provided they have observed chastity and practiced an act of piety regulated by
their confessors, She will obtain for them the complete remission of their debt
and their complete purification by the very first Saturday after their death
and, on that day, escort them to eternal bliss.
When Saint Teresa was astonished at seeing a certain Carmelite carried
straight to Heaven without even going to Purgatory, she was given to understand
that he had been faithful to his rule and avoided Purgatory because of Bulls
granted to the Carmelite order. [Autobiography, ch. xxxviii [near the
end]: “I was amazed that he had not gone to Purgatory. I understood that,
having become a friar and carefully kept the rule, the Bulls of the Order had been
of use to him, so that he did not pass into Purgatory.”
(N. B.: Fr. Zimmerman opines that this does not refer to the Sabbatine
Bull and to the Bulls that confirm it; but since he gives no grounds for his
opinion and since he had very “queer” ideas about the Sabbatine Privilege
itself, readers of his edition of St. Teresa’s autobiography might discredit
his opinion. Saint John of the Cross rejoiced to die on Saturday because of
this “Sabbatine” Privilege. “Everyone should strive for it,” said Pope Pius XI.
But there are many who miss this great Privilege. “Although many wear my
Scapular,” Our Lady complained to the Ven. Dominic of Jesus and Mary, “only a
few fulfill the conditions for the Sabbatine Privilege.” [R. P. Bauss, Das
Fegfeuer (Mainz, 1883) ; cf. Scapulier-Biichlein (Graz,
1892), pg. 34.] Similarly, at her death the saintly Carmelite, Frances of the
Blessed Sacrament, exclaimed:
“There are only a few who receive the Privilege because only a few
fulfill the conditions.” “Is it true that wearers of the Scapular are actually
freed from Purgatory on the Saturday after their deaths?” was one of the
questions put to her father by Sister Seraphina in the celebrated
communications with his suffering soul which caused international comment. “Yes,”
was the answer, “‘when they have truly fulfilled all the obligations.”
And yet the privilege is very easily obtained. One must observe
chastity according to his state in life. But this must be done, privilege or no
privilege, and if one should have the misfortune of falling into grievous sin,
it is the opinion of authorities that as soon as he repents and resolves never
to sin again, his right to the privilege begins anew. The other condition for
obtaining the Sabbatine Indulgence often varies. Our Lady required the daily
recitation of the Office, or, if recitation of it should be impossible, the
keeping of the fasts of the Church together with abstinence from meat on
Wednesdays and Saturdays. However, if one cannot observe even this condition,
then any other work may be substituted by a confessor, either inside or outside
the confessional. (It is to be noted, however, that only a confessor with the
special faculty... which faculty is often obtained together with the faculty of
enrolling in the Scapular but which does not follow from the latter... can
commute the saying of the Little Office to Abstinence from meat on Wednesdays
and Saturdays. It is only this latter condition which can be commuted by all
confessors...
It is a semi-triumph for Satan to cause Souls to suffer in Purgatory
as the result of unrequited sin. Mary sees them, Her children, in unspeakable
suffering in the Heart of Her Son, which longs to give bliss to these
predestined ones whom He has ransomed at the price of His Blood, is deterred
for a time from being finally united to them. Hence Satan celebrates a victory.
How crushing it must be to him, an incarnation of pride, to be vanquished by so
simple a Marian devotion as the Scapular! And where the promise of Salvation
rendered him powerless against Souls who died in the Scapular, now a further
promise almost completely curtails his power. To keep Souls in Purgatory which
do not enjoy the Sabbatine Privilege he can use his wiles to prevent suffrages from
being offered for them, but, before Mary’s new Scapular Promise, he is
impotent. How true it is that the Immaculate crushes his head, the seat of
pride, with her heel! We are again forcibly reminded of the cloud that appeared
to Elias over Mount Carmel, the prophetic vision that gave rise to the title of
the Scapular Queen, “Our Lady of Mount Carmel.”
For even as that little foot-shaped cloud brought material salvation
and cooled the burning earth, so does Mary, through Her humble garment of
Carmel, bring spiritual salvation and cool the fires of Purgatory.
Naturally Satan did not allow the Sabbatine Privilege to spread in the
Church without a great struggle. In the opposition that has met it from every
quarter it is not difficult to discern his forces at work. A privilege that is
authoritatively confirmed by the Holy See, for which Popes have almost begged
us to enter the Scapular Confraternity, should be utterly beyond question. A
Pope granted it and Popes have ratified it: John XXII, Alexander V, Nicholas V,
Sixtus, IV, Clement VII, Paul Ill, Saint Pius V, Clement VIII, Leo XI, Paul V,
Urban VIII, Alexander VII, Benedict XIV, Pius VI, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI.
[Of the nine Popes who have sanctioned the Sabbatine Privilege, note these
words of St. Pius V (Superna dispositione... Feb. 18, 1566): “With
apostolic authority and by tenor of the present, we approve each of the
privileges [of the Carmelite Order] and also the Sabbatine.”] But even though
everyone knows that the indulgence comes through the Church, it has been
mysteriously clouded by a discussion as to the authenticity of our present copy
of the original bull! As in the case of the Scapular Vision we see a document
being attacked and defended again and again, as though with the fall of that document
the Sabbatine Privilege would cease to exist. The easiest way to dispel such a
cloud is to point out to the querulous that if the Blessed Virgin did not grant
the indulgence, what they refuse to attribute to Her they cannot refuse to
attribute to the Popes.
Now, it seems that there is more in the Sabbatine Privilege than first
appears. In what is probably the greatest of all Marian books, the author of
which has been declared a Doctor of the Universal Church, the unusual opinion
is voiced that if a Scapular wearer does a little more than Mary requires as
conditional for obtaining the Sabbatine Privilege, he will never go to
Purgatory at all.
The book is The Glories of Mary by Saint Alphonsus
Ligouri.
After the death of St. Alphonsus, there was a clamor for his
canonization. When his body was solemnly exhumed, upon removal of the inner
coffin covering his remains, a most remarkable sight met the eyes of the
examiners: there, in the coffin, where the body and episcopal robes had
decomposed, the Scapular lay incorrupt. Was it Mary’s testimony to that most
unusual statement, in Saint Alphonsus’ famous book, concerning the Sabbatine
Privilege of Her Scapular?
It is noteworthy that many devotees of the Scapular Queen hope and
pray for the grace of dying on Saturday, and receive their request. An edifying
incident occurred some “years ago when, despite the opinion of her doctor that
she should die on Wednesday, a certain lady earnestly protested that ever since
she had sought the Sabbatine Privilege she had begged Mary not to let her die
until Saturday, and she felt certain that she would not die until that day. To
the doctor’s surprise, she did not. Saint John of the Cross died in 1591
saying: “The Mother of God and of Carmel hastens to Purgatory with grace, on
Saturday, and delivers those Souls who have worn Her Scapular. Blessed be such
a Lady who wills that, on this day of Saturday, I shall depart from this life!”
Saint Alphonsus asks: “Can we not hope for the same grace if we also do a
little more than Mary asked?” Saint Alphonsus himself did more, and with the
result that the Mother of God came to his death bed personally to bear his
beloved Soul straight to Her Divine Son.
As was said, although all else perished in his tomb, Mary’s Scapular
remained incorrupt. The Virgin of the Scapular is so full of love for Her
children, so unspeakably good and completely condescending, that She is not
content with being at their side in death, but She aids them after death. It is
little wonder that Pope Leo XIII, as he saw death approaching, called his
familiars to his bed and said: “Let us make a novena to Our Lady of the
Scapular and I shall be ready to die!”
“Mary’s love is limitless and Her mercy extends to all. Nevertheless,
She has Her favorites. There is no one in the world for whom She prays more
readily than the religious of Mount Carmel and all who are affiliated to them,
because She has a particular tenderness for them. The reason is that the
religious of Carmel were the first to consecrate themselves to Her. They are
Her eldest. And the protection which Mary accords to them does not stop at the
end of this life but follows on into the next life. She causes them to avoid
the torments of Hell and, if they are in Purgatory, She obtains speedy
deliverance for them!”
~ R. P. LEJEUNE
“For the gate of the inner court which looks to the east shall be shut
for six days, but on the Sabbath it shall be opened.” ~ Offertory of the Mass
on the Scapular Feast.
Original Article is at:
