# Scapular

**Scapolare**

**Known today as.** Two small pieces of wool joined by strings, worn over the shoulders, a miniature of the monastic scapular.

Kind: Sacramental

## What did Canale use it for?

Blessed “as a sign of innocence and humility” (Treatise Two).

## What does modern science say?

The brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the best known, was already widespread in Europe by the end of the sixteenth century.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia derives the scapular from the monk's apron, “a working garment or apron such as was then worn by agricultural labourers,” the scapulare propter opera of St. Benedict's Rule. Of the Brown Scapular it gives the pious tradition of the Virgin's words to St. Simon Stock at Cambridge in 1251, “whoever dies in this garment, will not suffer everlasting fire,” and adds that this tradition “appears in such a precise form for the first time in 1642” and “cannot be supported by historical documents.” The wearer is to trust in Mary “not presumptuously relying on the scapular as on a miraculous amulet,” and the badge should be “two segments of brown woollen cloth.”

## Sources

- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Scapular.” newadvent.org/cathen/13508b.htm

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*Scapular.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/scapular

Historical description, not medical advice.