Flos Carmeli (Flower of Carmel)

Introduction

A significant part of the history of Marian devotion in England relates to the Order of Carmelites. The following paragraphs will explore their identity and history.

A good place to start is a traditional prayer to invoke Our Lady of Mount Carmel's blessing:

Flower of Carmel,
Vine blossom laden;
Splendour of heaven,
Childbearing maiden.
None equals thee.

Flos Carmeli,
vitis florigera,
splendor caeli,
virgo puerpera
singularis.    

O Mother benign
Who no man didst know,
On all Carmel's children
Thy favours bestow.
Star of the Sea.

Mater mitis
sed viri nescia
Carmelitis
da privilegia.
Stella maris.

These are the first two verses of eight, believed to have been composed by St Simon Stock after he received the Scapular from Mary.

The unique English connection

The English connection with the Carmelites is unique. Consider the following:

1. Of all the kingdoms of Europe, England was the first that admitted the religious men of the Order of the blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, when the the persecutions of the Saracens obliged them to fly from Palestine, their native soil.
2. It was to an Englishman that the sacred Virgin gave the Scapular with her own hand.
3. The apparition of the Virgin took place in England in the Carmelite Convent at Cambridge.
4. It was in England that the Scapular wrought its miraculous effect.
5. It was in England that the devotion of the Scapular had its beginning, the Confraternity of the most blessed Virgin being erected there before any other place in the world. King Edward I procured himself to be enrolled in it.

[Source: A Short Treatise on the Scapular. Thomas P Colgan, Philadelphia. 1847]