In honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

In honour of  today's Feast: Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Carmel and Saints, by Pietro Novelli

(1641). Diocesan Museum of Palermo (public domain).

The saint with the long beard is Simon Stock c 1165-1265), who is receiving the "brown scapular" from the Virgin and Child. 

In this image the scapular is represented as the kind that monks wear: with a hole for the head is in the middle, permitting it tol hang at the front and the back.

The other saints are:

Angelus of Jerusalem (1185-1220), 
Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi (1566-1607), and 
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).

Prayer

FLOS Carmeli,

vitis florigera,

splendor caeli,

virgo puerpera

singularis.

Mater mitis

sed viri nescia

Carmelitis

esto propitia

stella maris.

FLOWER of Carmel,

Vine blossom laden;

Splendour of heaven,

Childbearing maiden.

None equals thee.

O Mother most meek,

Who no man didst know,

On all Carmel's children

Thy favours bestow.

Star of the Sea.

"Flos Carmeli was used by the Carmelites as the sequence for the Feast of St. Simon Stock, and, since 1663, for the Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. It also appears in an ancient metrical office of Carmel as an antiphon and responsory. Its composition is ascribed to St. Simon Stock himself (ca 1165 - 1265)." 
See Treasury of Latin Prayers, copyright 2026 by Michael Martin.

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.30-31.