Adsum

November 2002

Scapular or Scapular Medal?

From the book, Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. 104, Jan.-June 1941

Question: The question about the scapular devotion most frequently asked, both by laymen and priests, is the “Medal Question”: “Will one who wears the scapular medal obtain the promise of salvation which Our Lady attached to the brown scapular?”

Answer: One of the best personal friends of Pope St. Pius X (the Pope who made the scapular medal decree, 16 December, 1910), asked the Pontiff wh ether the promise of salvation attached to the brown scapular accompanied the medal. The Pope made him this ambiguous answer: “I wear the cloth Scapular of Carmel always.” Then His Holiness opened his garments and drew forth the front side of the brown scapular and, showing it to his friend (Venerable Father Joseph Recorder) said: “You must never take it off. I granted the medal for the Negroes of Africa without thinking that it would spread through Europe and America.”

When a close friend of Benedict XV asked for a solution, St. Pius X’s successor said: “In order to show Our feeling in the matter, We concede an indulgence of five hundred days for each time one kisses the cloth scapular, and We exclude this indulgence from the medal!” And Pius Xl, when he was asked, repeated the words of St. Pius X, contained in the original decree: “I desire most vehemently that the cloth scapular be worn as heretofore,” and in 1928 he approved a “protected scapular,” to minimize reasons for using a medal.

When Our Lady made the scapular promise, she said to Saint Simon: “Receive, my beloved son, this habit; whosoever dies clothed in this shall not suffer eternal fire.” In the ensuing seven centuries, hundreds of miracles have been wrought through this “Habit,” miracles frequently peculiar to a garment. It has been thrown into fires and, after causing a miraculous cessation of the conflagration, has been taken from the burning embers completely intact; it has been wonderfully preserved in the tombs of holy men, as in the tombs of St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. John Bosco; it has halted the knife of a guillotine, a rifle bullet, the dagger of a would-be-suicide; it stopped a flood in Holland, causing the rising waters to recede visibly the moment it was lowered into them, and was drawn forth dry. Moreover, the saints, in sympathy with the Church which has often applied to the scapular such words of Scripture: Induit eos vestimentum salutis, have made much of the fact that the scapular is Mary’s garment. Many of the saints, upon receiving the scapular, proclaimed that they hoped to be worthy of “Our Lady’s Habit.” St. Theresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart fainted with joy when it was placed over her shoulders. St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, told of a case, revealed to him of a young girl prevented from serious temptation, utterly unbeknown to herself, simply because she wore this holy habit. “Blessed habit!” cried St. Alphonsus, “Livery of the Queen of Heaven!” And one might go on, and on, and on, narrating the story, through the voice of God manifested in His miracles and in His saints, that describes how the centuries have hallowed this garment of the Queen, the vehicle of her astounding promise.

In the light of these considerations and of the consensus of authoritative opinion, we must conclude that the medal should not be used without, as Cardinal Mercier put it, “grave reason.” For to make the substitution without grave reason would be (1) to weaken our devotion, (2) to go against the will of St. Pius X, expressed in the decree and against the will of his successors, (3) to spurn the hallowedness of Our Lady’s garb, accruing to it from seven centuries of miracles.

The only reason for the substitution which our facts show officially to be recognized as grave, is the inescapable presence of filth. That the cloth scapular frequently became a nest for vermin was the reason for which the missionaries petitioned St. Pius X for a medal, and it was the reason for the use of the medal in the World War. Of course, absolute inability to obtain cloth scapulars would obviously be a further valid reason.

The answer to the “Medal Question” is, therefore, (1) that the scapular medal carries the promise; (2) that the medal should not be substituted for the scapular of Carmel without grave reason, and (3) that the only possible grave reason for the substitution is the inescapable presence of filth, or the impossibility of obtaining the cloth.

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