Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

This feast was instituted by the Carmelites between 1376 and 1386

under the title "Commemoratio B. Marif Virg. duplex" to celebrate

the victory of their order over its enemies on obtaining the

approbation of its name and constitution from Honorius III on 30

Jan., 1226 (see Colvenerius, "Kal. Mar.", 30 Jan. "Summa Aurea",

III, 737). The feast was assigned to 16 July, because on that date in

1251, according to Carmelite traditions, the scapular was given by

the Blessed Virgin to St. Simon Stock; it was first approved by

Sixtus V in 1587. After Cardinal Bellarmine had examined the

Carmelite traditions in 1609, it was declared the patronal feast of

the order, and is now celebrated in the Carmelite calendar as a

major double of the first class with a vigil and a privileged octave

(like the octave of Epiphany, admitting only a double of the first

class) under the title "Commemoratio solemnis B.V.M. de Monte

Carmelo". By a privilege given by Clement X in 1672, some

Carmelite monasteries keep the feast on the Sunday after 16 July,

or on some other Sunday in July. In the seventeenth century the feast

was adopted by several dioceses in the south of Italy, although its

celebration, outside of Carmelite churches, was prohibited in 1628

by a decree contra abusus. On 21 Nov., 1674, however, it was first

granted by Clement X to Spain and its colonies, in 1675 to Austria,

in 1679 to Portugal and its colonies, and in 1725 to the Papal

States of the Church, on 24 Sept., 1726, it was extended to the

entire Latin Church by Benedict XIII. The lessons contain the legend

of the scapular; the promise of the Sabbatine privilege was inserted

into the lessons by Paul V about 1614. The Greeks of southern Italy

and the Catholic Chaldeans have adopted this feast of the

"Vestment of the Blessed Virgin Mary". The object of the feast is the

special predilection of Mary for those who profess themselves her

servants by wearing her scapular (see CARMELITES).

FREDERICK G. HOLWECK

Transcribed by Paul T. Crowley

In Dedication to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Mary's Catholic

Church and associated missions, Vaughn, New Mexico

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume X

Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org