The ^cofu\«ir5

1^# LEW •
THE FIVE SCiPELilRS

Raymond J. Miller, [Link].R.

Copyright 1960
LIGUORIAN PAMPHLETS
KEDEMPTOBIST FATHERS
Liguori, Missouri
 :

This is a summarized account of the five sea

ulars, usually worn as a unit, and of the pro:

ises made to those who wear these scapulai

Imprimi Potest:
John N. McCormick, [Link].R.
Provincial, St. Louis Province,
Redemptorist Fathers
July 5, 1960

Imprimatur
St. Louis, July 12, 1960
^ Joseph E. Ritter
Archbishop of St. Louis

^IVER^r
PROVO Tm
 THE ME SCAPELARS
Raymond J. Miller, [Link].R.

Red — white — blue — black —

)rown: these are the five scapulars, five
ittle pieces of wool, each about an inch
quare, worn by Catholics as an act of
levotion to the Mother of God.

With one exception, they are small-

cale copies of the religious garb worn
)y monks and nuns of various religious
orders. Wearing them signifies an inten-
ion on the part of the wearer to share,
IS far as he can, in the life of the monks
)r nuns of these orders: their prayers,
A^prks, merits; their influence with . God;
ind the benefits that God or Our Lady
lave promised from heaven to confer up-
m' those who would be faithful in wear-
ng that particular religious garb.
-3-
 The one exception is the red scapula
this one was revealed from heaven by Oi
Lord precisely as a small scapular; it
not derived from any larger religioi
garb.
And it is true that each of the fb
scapulars is traced back to a revelatic
from heaven; although the revealing co
ered an immense period of time. It wj
six and a half centuries, to be exact. T1
about the white scapula
first revelation,
occurred in the year 1190; and the la
one, about the red, was made in 184
Here are the stories of those revel;
tions.

St. John of Matha, a Spaniard, wj

saying his first holy Mass in 1190 whe
he saw over the altar the figure of c
angel wearing a white robe^, with a bli
and red cross on the breast and tl
shoulder. St. John was given to unde
stand that this was the kind of religioi
garb, or habit, that the Lord wished
be worn by the members of the new rel
gious order that John was about to foun(
It was to be called the Order of the Mo

-4-
 rtoly Trinity, and was to be dedicated to
!;he work of redeeming Christians who
lad been captured by the Turks of north-
ern Africa and reduced to slavery.
In 1198 St. John and his first compan-
ons had applied to Pope Innocent III
:or papal approval of their new order.
'
SVhile he was debating the matter, he too
Sad a vision of the angel in the white
*obe with the red and blue cross, and
hereupon did grant the approval. Such
j
s the story related in the Roman brevi-
ary of the origin of the Trinitarian Or-
and incidentally of its scapular, the
ler,
scapular. And beyond a doubt the
\^hite

)rder and its work turned out to be wor-

^
hy of the approval of heaven and the
^Church. During the three centuries from
M200 to 1500, there were some ninety
^ housand Christians rescued
by its means
'^Tom behind the iron curtain of those
lays.

|!
Next in order of time to be revealed
jrom heaven was the black scapular of
'^:he Sorrowful Mother, or of the Seven

Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

-5-
 In the year 1240 there were seve
men, prominent citizens of Florence i

central Italy, who had gathered togeth^

regularly and bound themselves by vo
to honor the Mother of God in her so
rows. One evening while they were
their prayers, she appeared to them hoh
ing some black garments in her hand
“Behold,” she said, “the manner of tl

garments with which I wish you to 1

clothed. These garments shall be to yc

a perpetual memory of the sufferings <

my heart.”

Following upon this vision, the seve

holy men founded the Order of the Se
vants of Mary, or the Servites. It is we
known in the United States as the ord(
which promotes the novena devotions i
honor of the Sorrov^ful Mother, held i

many churches every Friday night. Th

small black scapular of the Sorrowfi
Mother derives its origin from this visio
of the Mother of God. In fact, there :

evidence to show that historically th

black scapular was the first of all the fiv
-6-
 ;
small scapulars to be adopted and worn
I
by lay people.
c
Next came the brown scapular in 1251
\md 1322. The Roman breviary relates
I
that Our Lady appeared to St. Simon
r Stock, an Englishman who was superior-
^
general of the Carmelite Order, in Cam-
1,
bridge, England, in the year 1251. Hold-
ing in her hands the brown habit of the
Carmelites, she made promise: “Who-
this
ever dies in this habit shall not suffer
everlasting fire.”
In 1322 Pope John XXII issued a pa-
paldocument in which he declared that
e
Our Lady had appeared to him also and
made this promise in regard to those who
e
wear the brown Carmelite habit and ful-
lefill certain other conditions: “I, the Moth-

ijer of Grace, shall descend on the Satur-

iiday after their death, and whomsoever I

in purgatory I shall free, so tl*at I
ijmay lead them to the holy mountain of
Qjlife everlasting.”

i This extraordinary promise has come

lito be known as the Sabbatine Privilege
v((in Latin, Sabbatum means Saturday).
-7-
 '

We have more to say about it wh

shall
we come to speak of the benefits and t
obligations connected with the wearing
the scapulars. Here we mention only t
it is universally accepted in Catholic l;j

that this Sabbatine promise of Our La

applies not only to actual members of t
Carmelite Order, but it is connected al
with the wearing of the small brow
scapular, by any and all Christians.

Several centuries elapsed before hea

en spoke again to reveal one of the fi

scapulars. This time was in the ye

it

1605, in the city of Naples, to a holy ni

by the name of Sister Ursula Beninca
Our Lord Himself appeared to her ai
made great promises if she and her f<
low-nuns would adopt as their religio
habit one of a light blue color in hon
of the Immaculate Conception of t
Mother. Sister Ursula then asked Him
He would grant similar favors to those
the laity or of other religious orders wl
would wear in honor of the Immacuh
Conception a small blue scapular; ai
Our Lord did so promise.

-8-

I
 I

*
Several centuries passed again, and we
1
come to the year 1846, to the city of
Troyes in France, and to Sister Appoline
1
Andriveau, of the Sisters of Charity. In
i
that year Our Blessed Lord appeared to
her, showing her the red scapular of the
Passion, promising that whoever would
I
wear itwould receive a great increase of
''
faith, hope and charity on every Friday.
'This vision was several times repeated;

^
and the extraordinary thing about it is
it was approved
the rapidity with which
in Rome. The visions occurred in 1846;
g

and the very next year, 1847, Pope Pius

IX approved it and enriched it with many
indulgences. So prompt an action on the
Impart of Holy Mother Church in a mat-
ter of this kind hardly has a parallel.

Such was the origin of each of the five

H scapulars. According to the accounts,
^ each of them was revealed directly from
5' heaven. The custom of wearing the small
scapulars as a kind of small-scale copy
la of the original habit, it is true, did not
H come into practice until about the year
1600. By their connection with the orig-

-9-
inals, however, they too may be said i

have come at least indirectly from heave

But the heavenly visioi
stories of these
are not the only reasons, nor indeed eve
the main one, for their importance ar
power in Catholic life. It is the approv
of Church which gives them the
the
real value, and gives them the blessii
of heaven more certainly and dependab
than all the stories of revelations fro
on high.
Now the Church has approved eac
one of the independent!
five scapulars
by itself: the red, white, blue, black ar
brown. And we might mention here th
the Church has also approved many otl
er scapulars besides our five. There a:
also those of the third orders of St. Frai
cis and of St. Dominic; those of Our Lac
of Good Counsel, of St. Joseph, of S
Benedict, of the Precious Blood, of tl
Sacred Heart, and the black scapular <

the Passion; also the green scapular «

Our Lady and a number of others; aboi

twenty in all.

Our own five scapulars however, ha^

- 10 -
one very special distinction; they have
been approved not only each by itself,
but also all together. The five scapulars
are one single devotion, approved as such
by the Church.
In Europe about the beginning of the
present century they were often called
iThe Redemptorist Scapulars, for the Re-
demptorist Fathers on their missions al-
ways preached (as they still do) the de-
votion of the five and had
scapulars,
received power from Pope Leo XIII in
the year 1886 to enroll the faithful in
them. Even as far back as St. Alphonsus’
time, in the 1700’s, Redemptorists had
the faculties from the pope to enroll in
four of the five: the white, black, brown
and blue. And when the red scapular was
revealed to Sister Appoline in 1846, and
Pope Pius approved it in 1847, it was
not long before people began asking for
that scapular as well as the four from
Dlden times; and it was this popular de-
mand that gave rise, in the providence of
jrod, to the devotion of the five scapulars.
So much for the origin and approval
- 11 -
of the five scapulars; now for their be
efits.

The main one is that the wearer enjo

some special protection of the Blesst
Virgin Mary. Even though not all tl
five are scapulars of Our Lady, yet
Catholic tradition they have come to 1

taken as a special sign of devotion to he

As such, St. Alphonsus recommends tl

wearing of the scapular in a list of D

votions to Mary he gives in his class
Glories of Mary; and states that he hir
self was enrolled in the four: whit
black, brown and blue (in his time tl
red had not yet been revealed).
Another benefit is the company whic
the five scapulars bring us into. Tl
wearer is affiliated somehow with thr
religious orders, and four confraternitie
The three orders are: the Trinitarian
for the white scapular; the Servites, f(

the black; and the Carmelites for tl

brown. The four confraternities of whic

the wearer becomes a member by beii
enrolled in the five scapulars are: of tl

Most Holy Trinity, for the white; of tl

- 12 -
Sorrowful Mother, for the black; of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel, for the brown;
and of the Immaculate Conception, for
the blue. The last named
compar- is of
atively recent origin: Pope Leo XIII es-
tablished the confraternity of the Im-
maculate Conception on September 18,
1894.
Andnote again that the red scapular
is not derived from any religious garb,
and has no confraternity. It is a Catholic
devotion. It does not make a wearer a
member of any spiritual organization, but
it has its own benefits and obligations.
Indulgences are often spoken of as one
of the great benefits of the five scapulars,
but it must be said that at the present
time they are not so extremely numer-
ous. Perhaps there are three or four
plenary indulgences every month, to be
gained usually by receiving the sacra-
ments and saying an Our Father, Hail
Mary, and Glory be for the intentions of
the Holy Father. The red scapular car-
ries with it the privileges of gaining a
plenary indulgence every Friday if one

~ 13 -
meditates for at least a quarter of an hou
on the Passion of Our Lord. This shoul
not be too difficult for persons who mak
a daily meditation. They could make
for that day on the Passion.

- 14 -
THE SCAPULAR PROMISES
What are the promises that heaven has
made for wearing the five scapulars? Im-
plicitly, there is a very real promise with
each of them. When our Lord or His
mother appeared with the individual re-
ligious habits, they were as much as say-
ing: “Wear this for Me, and I will love
you.”

Explicitly, however, not every one of

the five has a specific promise. There is
none (at least as far as this writer has
found) in so many words for the white
or for the black. For the blue, our Lord
promised “great favors” for the wearers
“and others” no doubt for those near
and dear to the wearers; He also seems
to have promised special power to their
prayers for the conversion of sinners.
For the red, He promised “a great in-
crease of faith, hope and charity on every
Friday.”

The promises of the brown scapular

of Mount Carmel are the most famous.

- 15 -
To St. Simon Stock, the Blessed Virgii
promised that wearers would escape
its

hell; to Pope John XXII she promisee

that she would free them from purgator]
on the Saturday after their death. Thii
latter Sabbatine promise has been the
object of a vast amount of controversy
The main point of the controversy waj
settled by the Church many years ago
when Pope Paul V
issued a decree or
January 20, 1613:

‘Tt is lawful for the Carmelites tc

preach that the faithful may piously be-

lieve in the assistance promised to the
brethren themselves and also to the mem-
bers of the Confraternity of Mount Car-
mel, namely, that the Blessed Virgin wil
assist by her continual intercession, suf-
frages and merits, and also by her specia:
protection, particularly on the Saturday
after their death, the souls of those
brethren and members of the Confra-
ternity who depart this life in charity and
whilst living on earth have worn the
habit, observed chastity according to theii
state in life, etc.”

- 16 -
 We shall discuss the other conditions
/hen speaking of the obligations of the
irown scapular.
Besides getting things for wearing the
capular, however,we are also empower-
d to do things. The scapular is not a
pod luck charm. The wearer is not sup-
osed to be completely passive about it.

lather, it is to inspire him to do things

or God and for souls. This is one of the
•enefits.

Wearing the white scapular is a way

f sharing in the works, merits and pow-
r who saved
of the Trinitarian Fathers,
'0,000 Christian slaves from behind the
ron curtain of days gone by. The mod-
rn wearer of the white scapular and
lember of the Confraternity of the Most
loly Trinity, is sharing in those merits;
5 drawing upon them in his own prayers
nd good works in the work of bringing
elief and perhaps even deliverance to

lie thousands of slaves behind the iron

urtain of our own day.

Similarly, the wearing of the black
capular in honor of the Mother of Sor-
- 17 -
rows is a good work calculated to brii
down the favor of that Mother on all tl

mothers and all the loved ones bereave

by war or persecution or exile in our ov
day.
Our Lady of Fatima revealed to tl

children that devotion to her Immac^

late Heart is the way to world peace ai
the conversion of Russia. The blue sea;
ular of the Immaculate Conception c
fers a way of practicing that devotio
also the red, which, besides being tl
scapular of the Passion, is also that -

the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the In

maculate Heart of Mary. And in h<

finalgreat apparition at Fatima, Maj

took the appearance of Our Lady <

Mount Carmel, according to the accoun

of the children.
Now for the obligations of the fr
scapulars: what must the scapulars thee
selves be made of? what about the e:
rolling and the wearing (with somethii
about the scapular medal)! and the pra;
ers or devotions that have to be pe
formed?
- 18 -
 The scapulars must be of wool; there
must be two sets of the five, joined with
red strings. They must be worn around
the neck, one set on the breast, the other
on the back. It is not required that the
red cord be attached to each of the five
scapulars. They may be wrapped in cel-
lophane or other transparent material,
as long as the blue and red cross on the

(vhite scapular remains visible.

In particular, the requirements for the

white scapular are that it have a blue and
red cross sewed onto the front piece of
the two parts of the scapular. On the
back piece, there need be nothing; and
sometimes it is reduced to half size. For
the cross, the up and down beam must
be red, and the one across must be the
blue. The white scapular must be the
first or last among the five, for the reason
that the cross upon it must be visible.
There is no special legislation about
the make-up of the black, blue and brown
scapulars, except that they must be wool-
;n. They may have an image of the
Blessed Virgin upon them, but this is not

- 19 -
necessary. The scapular of Our Lady (

Mount Carmel may also be colored blac

instead of brown; though among the fi\
it always be brown to distinguish
will
from the black one of the Sorrowft
Mother.
The red, however, is very special. O
one of the two pieces it must have a
image of our Lord on the cross with tb
prayer: “Holy Passion of our Lord Jesi
Christ, save us!” On the other piece thei
must be an image of the hearts of Jesi
and Mary, with the prayer: “Sacre
Hearts of Jesus and Mary, protect us!”
In order to share in the benefits of th
five scapulars, two things are always a
sential: 1) one must be enrolled in eac
of them by a priest having the powe
and 2) one must wear the scapulars (c

the scapular medal).

About the enroUing: most priests nov
adays have the power to enroll, or ca
obtainit fairly easily. Many priests ha\

also the power to enroll in the scapulai

under a single formula. This means thj
instead of having to place the five scaj
- 20 -
ulars upon the person’s shoulders five
times, as they would otherwise have to
do, a single imposing of the five will suf-
fice, when accompanied of course with
the proper prayers.

This is the manner of the enrolling

when there is a large crowd to be en-
rolled: (There isno problem if it is only
one or two.)
The priest having the proper faculties
can use a single scapular to enroll them
all. And it need not be a scapular belong-

ing to anyone of the persons to be en-

rolled.

1) The priest blesses the scapular. If

it is blessed already, that is, if he
has used it before in an enrolling
ceremony, he may omit the bless-
ing.

2) Next, before imposing it upon any-

one (not after), he recites the en-
rolling words: “Receive the habit
of the Most Blessed Trinity .” . .

“Receive the scapular of the Pas-

sion of Our Lord . .
.” etc.

- 21 -
 3) Then he does the actual imposin
by laying it for a moment on tf
shoulder (it need not be arour
the neck) of each person; ar
leaves it lying on the shoulder i

the last one.

4) Finally he says the concludir

prayers.
Some priests have a special privilege
If there are more than tw^enty persons l

be enrolled, and each has his own scapi

lar, they can impose it upon themselvc
at the proper time in the ceremony. Bi
this will not usually be the case; mo;
persons nowadays have not the scapuh
but the scapular medal.
Afterwards the name of each perso
e^olled must be taken down and sent i
to some church where one of the foi
confraternities is established: of the Mo;
Holy Trinity, of the Sorrowful Mothe:
c3Ff^ Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and c

the Immaculate Conception. Redemptoi

ists, however, are privileged to enroll i
the scapulars without the obligation c

sending in the names.

- 22 -
 As to the actual wearing of the scap-
jlars, they must be worn around the
leck or carried on the person. If a scap-
ular is lost or worn out, all that is neces-
>ary is to procure another one and put it

Dn; no new blessing is required. If a per-

son once enrolled has completely given
Lip wearing it, but now
wishes to take
jp the practice again, all he needs to do
is to get a new one and put it on. No
new blessing or enrolling is required.
This is the case with the scapulars them-
selves. ^But if one procures a new med-
al, the medal must always be blessed.

And that brings us to the scapular

medal. In 1910 Pope Pius X granted the
privilege of wearing the scapular medal
instead of the scapulars, declaring that
thereby the wearer shared in all the bless-
ings and benefits of the scapulars for
which the medal had been blessed, “not
excluding,” he says with emphasis, “the
Sabbatine privilege.”
But note these things about the scap-
ular medal:
1) The first enrolling must be in the

- 23 -
scapular, not in the medal, except i

persons in the armed forces, who m

be enrolled directly with the medal.
2) The medal supplies for any a
all scapulars for which it is blessed; tl
is, if the priest had faculties to enroll
the five scapulars, and blessed the mec
properly, it carries all the privileges of t

five. If he blesses it for still others, it c:

ries their privileges too.

3) The priest in blessing the mec

need only make the sign of the cross o\
the medal for each scapular. He ne
say no words; but he must keep ea
scapular distinct in his mind as he ble!
es. He can do so by repeating with ea
sign of the cross: ‘‘Red White — -

Blue —
etc.”
How does a scapular medal loo
4)
It must have on one side an image
our Lady, any accepted representati*
of her whatever; and on the other, t
image of our Lord with His Heart sho
ing.

5) The scapular medal need not

worn around the neck, but may be ci

- 24 -
ried anywhere on the person, or sewed
in the clothes, (for example, in a bath-
ing suit).
We now come finally to the prayers
that have to be said or good works done
in order to gain the benefits of the scap-
ulars.

For four of them, namely all but the

brown, there is nothing imposed as of
obligation. It isbrown scapular that
the
has the Not as re-
special obligations.
gards our Lady’s promise to St. Simon
Stock, about saving the wearers from
hell; that requiresonly the faithful wear-
ing of the scapular. But to gain the Sab-
batine privilege; to make sure of being
freed from purgatory on the Saturday aft-
er our death (if not sooner); there we
do have something special to do.
The decree of Pope Paul V of Janu-
ary 20, 1613, which was partially quot-
ed above, goes on to list these obligations
of the Sabbatine privilege. It declares
that we may believe that the Blessed Vir-
gin will bring special help: especially on
the Saturday after their death to the souls
- 25 -
of those brethren and those members
the confraternity who depart this life
charity and who, whilst living, have wo
the habit, observed chastity according
their state, and who shall have recited t
Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mai
or, they cannot read, shall have o
if

served the fasts of the Church and sh;

have abstained from flesh meat on We
nesdays and Saturdays (unless the Fes
of the Nativity of our Lord falls on th
day).
Note that, besides wearing the brov
scapular, this decree imposes two obt
gations, with a substitute offered for t'
second.
The obligation is that of “cha
first
tityaccording to one’s state.” This do
not mean that the wearer of the brov
scapular may not get married, but th
married or single he must strive to avo
sins against chastity, and if he shou
fall into sin, must be prompt to reper
The second is “reciting the little c
fice of the Blessed Virgin.” This is
very ancient Catholic devotion, consis
- 26 -
ng of a collection of hymns and psalms
ind prayers in honor of our Lady, mod-
eled on the divine office which priests
ay every day; a kind of abbreviated
)reviary in honor of Mary. It must be
aid every day to gain the scapular prom-
se. Those bound to say the regular di-

dne office fulfill the obligation by that

^ery exercise. Sisters who recite the new
hort breviary in English (as many are
loing nowadays) would also seem to be
ulfilling this obligation; at least, any
who has faculties to enroll in the
)riest
)rown scapular can commute the obli-
gation of the little office into this Eng-
ish office for them.

The substitute for the second obliga-

ion in Paul V’s decree is to “observe the
asts of the Church and abstain on Wed-
nesdays and Saturdays.” But very often
n modern life even this substitute is
)ractically impossible. So the Church,
ike a solicitous mother, has gone on to
)ffer a substitute for the substitute. She

las granted to every priest who has facul-

ies to enroll in the brown scapular, the
- 27 -
power to change or commute this fa
ing and abstaining into the performar
of certain good works or the recitati
of certain prayers. Good works would t
periodic almsgiving; regular contributic
to the missions; hearing Mass on wee
days; kissing the brown scapular da
with the prayer: “Our Lady of Mov
Carmel, pray for us!” As to the prayc
to be recited, various suggestions e
made by writers on the subject. Soi
say should be seven Our Fathers a
it

Hail Marys every day; some would bri

it down low as one Our Father, o
as
Hail Mary, and one Glory be, every dc
The exact prayers will depend on t
judgment of the priest who does t
commuting.

This, then, is the devotion of the fi

scapulars. In one way it seems easy, cc

sidering the magnitude of the benefits
offers. But be faithful throughout li
to
in a conscious and deliberate way, to tl
easy exercise of wearing the little sea
ulars and fulfilling the other obligatic
is no little thing, and wiU surely bri

- 28 -
le rewards that heaven has promised
nd Holy Mother Church has made her
wn by her approval.
“Those enrolled in the five scapulars
re to be enrolled in the four confra-
jrnities pertaining to the white, black,
rown and blue scapulars. There is no
onfraternity and no inscribing necessary,
3r the red scapular.

- 29 -
WHITE
Rev. Director,
Confraternity of the Most Holy
Trinity,
St. Ann’s Church,
Bristol, Pennsylvania

BLACK
Rev. Director,
Confraternity of Our Lady of
Sorrows,
3121 Jackson Blvd.,
Chicago 12, Illinois

BROWN
Rev. Director,
Confraternity of Our Lady of M
Carmel,
Carmel of Holy Hill,
Hubertus, Wisconsin

BLUE
Rev. Director,
Confraternity of the Blue Scapula
1156 9th St.,
Denver 4, Colorado
- 30 -
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