Marian devotees celebrate Sunday, July 16, the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, marking the 771st anniversary of the widespread devotion to Our Lady’s brown scapular.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Catholic News Agency)
Commemorative masses will be celebrated at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Project 6, Quezon City and at the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in New Manila, Quezon City.
At the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in New Manila, Q.C., Cubao Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco will preside over the fiesta mass after the vespers at 5 p.m. The mass will be followed by a solemn procession.
Bishop Ongtioco will also lead the high mass at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Project 6, Q.C. at 9 a.m. A solemn procession will be held at 7 a.m. This year’s feast coincides with the 62nd year of the fiesta novena masses.
Novena masses were offered from July 7 to 15.
The image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in New Manila, Q.C. was canonically crowned on August 15, 2020, coinciding with the Feast of the Assumption.
In 2018, the observance of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel coincided with the 400th anniversary of the arrival of its revered image from Mexico in 1618 as a gift from the Discalced Carmelites Nuns of Acapulco.
Church leaders said, “The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel serves to remind the faithful of the Blessed Mother’s promise of special protection and heavenly graces to all those who wear the brown scapular, a sign of salvation and a safeguard in dangers. The Holy Mother promised that whoever dies wearing the brown scapular will not suffer everlasting fire.”
The Blessed Mother appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Lourdes, France in1858 and on her last apparition in Fatima, Portugal on Oct. 13, 1917.
Mount Carmel is a holy place in northern Israel that was mentioned about 30 times in the Old Testament. It was the first place dedicated to the Virgin Mary as early as the 12th century.