Bulletin Q&A Article; Published 4-28-24:
Can you give a little history regarding the brown scapular? And how do you become enrolled in the brown scapular confraternity?
The word scapular comes from scapula, the technical name for the shoulder blade. The scapular was originally worn by monks for practical reasons. It consisted of two long pieces of cloth that hung over their shoulders to serve much as an apron to protect their tunics. Many of the monastic orders have retained the scapular as part of their habits. But there are also small scapulars, which are sacramentals, worn by individuals as a form of devotion. They can come in many colors that designate the particular devotion. The brown scapular indicates a specific devotion to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
The story goes that, in the year 1251, Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Simon Stock, a superior in the Carmelite Order, and presented him with a brown scapular and told him: “Receive, my beloved son, this Scapular of thy Order; it is the special sign of my favor, which I have obtained for thee and for thy children of Mount Carmel. He who dies clothed with this habit shall be preserved from eternal fire. It is the badge of salvation, a shield in time of danger, and a pledge of special peace and protection.”
This awesome promise of protection from Our Lady to those who wear the scapular is considered by the Church as private revelation, that is, it is not official Church teaching. The faithful are allowed to believe it, but not required. Many Popes, however, have been very supportive and have written and spoken about the power of the brown scapular. For example, Pius XII wrote: “In the first rank of the most favored of those devotions, that of the Holy Carmelite Scapular must be placed — a devotion which, adapted to the minds of all by its very simplicity, has become so universally widespread among the faithful and has produced so many and such salutary fruits.”
The message to St. Simon indicates that the promise is made to the “children of Mt. Carmel”. Although devoutly wearing the brown scapular without any connection to the Carmelite order can be beneficial, it is best to participate in the Rite for the Blessing and Enrollment in the Scapular of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel which was approved by the Vatican in 1996. The faculty to enroll people in the scapular was originally limited to Carmelite priests, but this new document extends the faculty to all priests and deacons. (However, the Sisters of Carmel website still claims that deacons are not permitted to bless and enroll.) If the scapular is worn out or broken, it should be disposed of, as with other sacramentals, by burying or burning and then a new scapular obtained. There is no need to have the replacement scapular blessed since the original blessing is primarily on the person and not on the scapular itself.
Wearing the brown scapular is not a magical good-luck charm. You cannot simply wear the scapular and then do whatever you want without fear of going to Hell. The blessing and enrollment in the scapular is accompanied by obligations for the wearer to practice some form of Carmelite spirituality, such as frequent reception of the sacraments and praying the rosary and/or the Liturgy of the Hours daily. A Catechesis on the Brown Scapular states: “Consistent with the Catholic tradition, such favors associated with the wearing of the Brown Scapular would be meaningless without the wearers living and dying in the state of grace, observing chastity according to their state in life, and living a life of prayer and penitence.” And Pope St. John Paul II wrote: “Therefore two truths are evoked by the sign of the Scapular: on the one hand, the constant protection of the Blessed Virgin, not only on life’s journey, but also at the moment of passing into the fullness of eternal glory; on the other, the awareness that devotion to her cannot be limited to prayers and tributes in her honor on certain occasions, but must become a ‘habit’, that is, a permanent orientation of one’s own Christian conduct, woven of prayer and interior life, through frequent reception of the sacraments and the concrete practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.”
There is much information on the internet regarding the brown scapular, although some of it is contradictory. The website I found the most useful is: www.carmelitefriarsocd.org/blog/brown-scapular.