July 16 is the Solemn Commemoration of the Blessèd Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. First instituted in 1376, the feast memorializes July 16, 1251, when the Blessèd Virgin Mary bestowed the scapular to St. Simon Stock.

The Scapular (< L. scapula, shoulder) became the most important part of the monastic habit, traditionally brown. As such, it consisted of a piece of cloth or wool the width of the shoulders and hanging down approximately 3/4 length (to mid-calf) in front and behind. Presently, it may be worn by lay and religious Catholics, alike, in reduced form as the Brown Scapular.

The Carmelite Order, as a mystical monastic society, was founded in part by the prophet Elijah and his disciples in the desert of the Holy Land — although it was not until the 12th Century that the Rule was truly codified per se, and not until the reformation in the 16th Century (by St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and others) that the Order attained its full richness and glory.

See also:

• The Carmelite Order (Catholic Encyclopedia)
• Order of Carmel web site
• Cloud of Unknowing
• Interior Castle — St. Teresa of Ávila
• Dark Night of the Soul — St. John of the Cross
• Practice of the Presence of God — Brother Lawrence
• I Want to See God: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality and I Am a Daughter of the Church — P. Marie-Eugene
• Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life — Fr. Gabriel