In history St. Simon Stock is known primarily as a vigorous and effective general of the Carmelite order. In legend and art, however, he is known primarily for the story that the Virgin Mary appeared to him and gave him the brown Carmelite habit with the promise that those who died wearing it would be saved. Before long the story came to involve not the full habit but just a patch of brown cloth that lay people could wear beneath their clothing. In the image at left we see the Virgin giving this "brown scapular" to St. Simon Stock.
For an interesting local variant of the story, see the page on a statue of St. Simon Stock in Teitipac, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Feast day: May 16
At left, 17th century painting of St. Simon Stock and the Virgin and Child
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