Proofs in favour of the Carmelite scapular

•  Miracles prove the authenticity and value of the Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
“Just as it is customary for men to express them-selves in words, so the power of God is manifested by wonderful works” says St. Augustine . The Carmelite Scapular itself is a “wonderful work” of God, a special gift He has given to mankind through His beloved Mother, Mary. But it is more. Since the day of the vision of St. Simon Stock, it has been a channel of innumerable, and not rarely miraculous, favours, granted to mankind through our Heavenly Mother.

Giving the Scapular to St. Simon stock, our Lady had said: “it will be a sign of salvation and a safeguard in danger”. For more than six centuries these words are being verified in many events of human life. At the sight of the holy Scapular, nature interrupts her laws, by means of it fires are extinguished, torrents are stooped in their course, tempests cease and bullets produce no deadly effect. Above all, it has been a sign of salvation to those in danger of eternal damnation. How often has not the demon been forced to abandon his victim, at this sign of the protection of Mary. No wonder then, that he furiously cried one day, by the mouth of a possessed person: “Oh, hated Scapular, how many souls thou hast snatched from me”.

The first miracle, worked through the medium of the holy scapular, happened the very day on which St. Simon stock got it from Our Lady. It is narrated by Fr. Swanyngton, the secretary of the Saint, through whom we have come to know also about the vision.

“On July 16, 1251, the same day on which St. Simon received the Scapular, he had to go to Wenchester on some business. No sooner had he entered the city, than the Dean of assist his brother who lay in a miserable state, dying in despair and obstinately refusing even so much as to hear of God, or the Sacraments. St. Simon hastened to the dying man and, making the sign of the Cross, placed the scapular round his neck, at the same time praying that one, for whom Jesus Christ died, might not become the prey of the devil. Immediately the sick man evinced signs of great repentance and devoutly received the Sacraments. That very night he died, and devoutly after his death, he appeared to his brother who, on account of the bad life he had led, was in doubt about his salvation, assuring him that through the most powerful Virgin mother of god and her scapular, with which he was invested by Bl. Simon, he had been enabled to escape the flames of hell”.

•  In many magazines of our own days we find similar miraculous events narrated. Some of them are given below.

On 4 th Sept., 1908, in the town of “ Cali ” in Columbia , a great fire broke out at about 3 a.m. in a house close to the convent of the Carmelite sisters. The fire was very violent and threatened the adjoining houses, in one of which there was a power-magazine. The fire-brigade worked hard, but in vain. Meanwhile the Carmelite sisters were praying in their choir. Then the Mother prioress sent a Scapular to the Captain of the fire-brigade, who with a prayer threw it into the flames. And behold, the flames diminished, the fire got under control; before 5 a.m. they were able to extinguish it, to the great astonishment of all. But still more wonderful was the fact that the holy Scapular was found intact and returned to the Prioress at about 6 a.m.

iii) A newspaper of Bogota ( Columbia ) narrated in 1913, an event which took place some years ago in the neighborhood of that town. There was a man who had been a pious catholic once, but had later turned bad and irreligious. He had several misfortunes and got involved in debts to such an extent that he was no more able to clear them off. Despair overtook him, and he decided to end his miserable life by suicide. So ho took a cord, attached it to a tree and tried to hang himself. But the cord broke. He tried a second and a third time, but with no better result. Then all of a sudden, as if by a devilish suggestion, the desperate man opened his cloths, took the Scapular from his neck and threw it away. He tried again to hang himself. This time he succeeded, to his utter misfortune, to end his miserable life by hanging himself. A man, witnessing the event from a distance, saw everything but was too much afraid to interfere.