The prophet Elijah met on Mount Carmelo with some men to defend the purity of the faith of his people and won a challenge against the priests of the Baal idol, Vatican News notes and says that right there the sacred family also stopped when he returned from Egypt.
Subsequently groups of monks settled there. By 1154, the French noble Berthold, who had arrived in Palestine with his cousin Aimerius de Limoges, Patriarch of Antioch, retired to Mount Carmelo and brought together the hermits to form a religious community.
The religious built a small church in the middle of their cells and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary and took the name of brothers from Santa María del Monte Carmelo, Vatican News recounts.
Our Lady of Monte Carmelo or Del Carmen is honored on July 16 due to its appearance that day to the English Carmelite San Simón Stock in 1251.
What does the scapular of the Virgen del Carmen mean
The brown scapular that the Virgin gave to San Simón Stock in the thirteenth century The day of the appearance is a garment that the religious use on the neck and shoulders as apron, as a sign of protection, explains Ewtn.
“It receives my son this scapular from your order, which will be from now on a sign of my fellowship, privilege for you and for everyone who dressed him. Who would die with him, will not suffer the eternal fire. It is a sign of salvation, amparo in the dangers of the body and soul, alliance of peace and everlasting covenant,” says Opusdei.org and quotes the Ninth of Our Lady of Carmen, Santiago, Carmelitas Descalzos 1942, pag. 30; Matte and Domínguez.
The promise for those who carry the scapular of the Virgen del Carmen put when dying
Our Lady of Carmen assured San Simón Stock, who spread devotion to the Virgin and composed her anthem Flos Carmeli, That those who die carrying the scapular will be saved, notes Vatican News.
Usually, on the day of the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen, on July 16, scapulars are blessed in the Catholic churches.