CNA: 12 Keys to Using the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

By ACI Prensa, CNA, July 16, 2025

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

ACI Prensa is the Catholic News Agency’s sister agency, which was founded in Lima, Peru, in 1980 by Fr. Adalbert Marie Mohm (†1986). In 1997, ACI Prensa launched the website www.aciprensa.com, which is the largest and most visited online source of Catholic news in Spanish. In 2014, Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) acquired Catholic News Agency and ACI Prensa. Since the merger, CNA and ACI Prensa have expanded their distribution platform. Now it is a service of EWTN News Inc.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 16, 2025 / 04:00 am – When speaking of the brown scapular, Pope Pius XII once said: “The devotion to the Carmelite scapular has brought down on the world a copious rain of spiritual and temporal graces.”

On the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, here are 12 keys to explaining the brown scapular and its use:

1. It is not an amulet.

The scapular is not a charm or an automatic guarantee of salvation, nor is it a dispensation from living the demands of the Christian life. St. Claude de la Colombière once said: “You ask, what if I would want to die with my sins? I answer you, then you will die in sin, but you will not die with your scapular.”

2. It was an article of clothing.

The word “scapular” comes from the Latin “scapulae,” which means “shoulders” and was originally an overlapping article of clothing worn over the shoulders by monks at work. The Carmelites adopted it as a sign of special dedication to Our Lady, seeking to imitate her dedication to Christ and neighbor. …