SCAPULARS

A scapular is a part of some religious habits that consists in a length of cloth worn over the shoulders. It developed from a kind of apron worn by monks during manual labor, and the Rule of St. Benedict prescribed its use propter opera (ch. 15). It was a straight piece of cloth, generally from 14 to 18 inches in width, with a hole in the middle so that it could pass over the head and hang down from the shoulders before and behind.

Some earlier forms of the scapular appear to have been shorter, but later they came down to the knees or even to the ankles. Sometimes a hood was fitted to the opening for the head to protect the wearer from the cold or from rain or snow. The front and back portions of the scapular were often fastened together under the wearer's arms by straps or bands, and these transverse fastenings, joined with the vertical lengths of cloth made it possible to see the form of a cross in the scapular.

In the course of time a symbolic meaning was attached to the garment. It was considered a kind of cross carried on the shoulders, and it naturally suggested the yoke of Christ: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him … take up his cross daily and follow me" (Lk9.23). To become a monk meant to follow Christ, and that in turn meant taking up one's cross as the yoke of Christ. The scapular thus became the symbol of the working monk as well as of a life of penance and austerity.

The scapular was not at first a part of the monastic dress worn in choir, nor does investment with it appear to have been part of the ceremony of clothing or profession in earlier times. As early, perhaps, as the end of the 11th century the scapular was considered part of the habit of some orders. With the Benedictines it became a part of the complete habit. The Cistercians adopted it, as did also the Premonstratensians and other canons regular, the Dominicans, Carmelites, Servites, Mercedarians, Trinitarians, Camaldolese, Olivetans, and the religious of various later congregations.

The Third Order Scapulars. It was common in the 13th century for devout lay people, living in the world but desiring some corporate form of religious life, to associate themselves under the direction of the monks or friars of a nearby religious house, whose spirit they would imitate by various practices of prayer and austerity and even by the taking of such vows as were compatible with their state of life. St. Francis of Assisi introduced a confraternity or order of penance for the purpose of providing a regular way of life for people of this kind; and when those who followed this rule became too numerous, the Church ordered them to divide into groups according to the religious communities in whose churches they performed their devotions, and to refrain from intercommunication. Thus there arose third orders of penance for the different religious orders then existing, e.g., the Augustinian, Franciscan, Dominican, and Servite. It became customary for the religious of these orders to give such people a part of the religious habit, or something to signify the habit—a cord, a mantle, or very often a scapular of the same color as the habit—as a token of their affiliation with the order and their participation in its spirit, its activities, and its merit before God. When this symbol took the form of a scapular it generally consisted of two pieces of cloth, one of which was worn on the chest and the other on the back, and the two were connected by strings or tapes over the wearer's shoulders.

The Small Scapular. From the beginning of the 16th century a reduced form of the third order scapular came into use and was known as the small scapular. The pieces of cloth were generally smaller than two inches square. Sometimes the small scapular consisted of two pieces like the third order scapular and sometimes of a single piece that was hung around the neck by a string. While the third order scapular was generally plain, the small scapular was frequently embroidered and had upon it the picture of Our Lady, or of a saint in whose honor it was worn, or of the object of devotion it signified, for example, the Sacred Heart or the Passion. These small scapulars were given to lay people who wished to associate themselves with a religious order, but less closely than as tertiaries because they were not prepared to attempt the full observance of a third order rule, yet were willing to undertake certain prayers or other practices of piety.

Originally these scapulars belonged to religious orders, but other scapulars became emblematic of separate confraternities. Since Dec. 16, 1910, the Holy See has permitted the wearing of a medal instead of one or more small scapulars, provided the medal represents the Sacred Heart on one side and Our Lady on the other, and is blessed as the scapular [Acta Apostolicae Sedis 3 (1911) 22–23].

The Value of the Scapular. In addition to the symbolic value of the scapular as representative of Christ's cross and yoke, the scapular with the rest of the habit of which it is a part, keeps before the mind of the individual religious what his order represents—its ideals, traditions, and the holiness of life achieved by many, perhaps, who have been clothed in the same uniform. As part of a uniform it is also a sign of a special bond of charity that unites those who wear and have worn it. The smaller scapular given to tertiaries or oblates is the sign of their admission into a kind of fellowship with the religious of an order and is meant to encourage their participation in the prayer, activities, and spirit of the order. Moreover, it is a pledge of some measure of participation in the merits of the order. It rests upon the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, and the practice of wearing scapulars has been approved and indulgenced by the Church.

Certain claims regarding the spiritual benefits to be gained through the wearing of religious habits or scapulars have been the subject of controversy. In the 14th century John wyclif (c. 1328–84) reproached friars for claiming that those who wore their habit would never go to hell. Apparently there were friars who made such a claim, or at least claims that lent themselves to distortion into that form, and these were transferred to the small scapular when this began to be used in the 16th century. Although friars of other religious orders may have made similar claims, attention has focused more strongly upon the privileges claimed for the Carmelite scapular. According to Carmelite legend, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock in Cambridge in 1251 and, showing him a brown scapular, declared that whoever wore it until death would be preserved from hell and on the first Saturday after his death would be taken by her to heaven. It is beyond the scope of the present article to go into the disputed question of whether this vision (or even the scapular, for that matter) was known to Carmelite friars of the mid-13th century, or whether the legend was an invention of later times. Whatever the truth of the origin of the legend, the promises contained in it deserve attention.

With regard to either of the two promises, it should be noted that they cannot be reasonably represented as requiring merely the material fact of wearing the scapular without respect to the interior dispositions with which it is worn. To do so would be to attribute a magical efficacy to the scapular and make it out to be a more potent channel of grace than the Sacraments. Against the hypocrisy and formalism of the Pharisees, Our Lord taught that to be pleasing to God, worship must be an expression of the dispositions of the heart. External acts have no value in God's sight unless they are the expression of a right mind and a sincere will. The wearing of the scapular must therefore be understood to include the right and salutary interior dispositions with which it is worn; it is primarily through these, and only remotely and instrumentally through the actual carrying of the scapular, that salvation is secured.

With regard to the promise of preservation from hell—or, and this comes to the same thing, the grace of final perseverance, or the grace of a good death—this must always be understood in conformity with the teaching of the Church regarding the uncertainty of salvation. At most, the wearing of the scapular cannot be more than a fallible sign of pre-destination, of its nature no more certain than many others, and valid only in conjunction with the right interior dispositions.

With regard to the promise of deliverance from purgatory on the first Saturday after death, this was claimed on the basis of the supposed bull Sacratissimo uti culmine of John XXII. This bull, however, is now universally regarded by scholars as spurious [B. Zimmerman, Monumenta Hist. Carmelit. 1 (Lerins 1907) 356–63]. Christians are, however, permitted to hold as a matter of pious belief that the Blessed Virgin will extend her maternal help to the souls who were, while on earth, her faithful servants, and even that her beneficence in this respect may be exercised in a special way on Saturdays, for the seventh day of the week is dedicated to her cult.

Bibliography: f. bÉringer, Les Indulgences: Leur nature et leur usage, tr. p. mazayer, 2 v. (4th ed. Paris 1925), with good bibliography and list of small scapulars. c. p. ceroke, "The Credibility of the Scapular Promise," Carmelus 11 (1964) 81–123. b. m. xiberta y roqueta, De visione sancti Simonis Stock (Rome 1950). l. oosterlaan, "The Significance and Use of the Scapular," The Irish Ecclesiastical Record 10 (1901) 311–29. b. zimmerman, "The Origin of the Scapular," ibid. 15 (1904) 142–53, 206–234, 331–51. h. thurston, "Scapular Tradition and Its Defenders," ibid. 29 (1911) 492–506. d. de bruyne, "Note sur le costume bénédictin primitif," Revue Bénédictine 33 (1921) 58–61. r. copsey, "Simon Stock and the Scapular Vision," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 50 (1999) 652–83.

[p. n. zammit/eds.]