Life
The Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel had their origins as a Christian hermit community in Palestine; in the early 13th century the members moved to Europe where they became mendicant friars. Saint Simon was born in England and became an early leader of the Order as it established itself in Europe.
Historical evidence about Saint Simon's life comes primarily from medieval catalogues of saints and of Carmelite priors general, which unfortunately are not consistent with one another in their details. The earliest of these describe Saint Simon as someone known for holiness during his life, and miracles attested to this after his death. He is said to have died on May 16, though the year is not documented. The surname "Stock" appears in some documents but not in others, and is related to a story that the Saint lived for a time in a hollow tree ("stock" meant tree trunk) before the arrival of the Carmelites in England. He is believed to have lived at Aylesford in Kent, a place that hosted in 1247 the first general chapter of the Carmelite Order held outside the Holy Land, and where there is still a monastery of Carmelite friars. Saint Simon was probably the fifth or sixth prior general of the Carmelites (historical evidence suggests perhaps from about 1256-1266), and died in Bordeaux, France, where he was buried.
The earliest extant liturgical office in Saint Simon Stock's honour was composed in Bordeaux in France, and dates from 1435. Liturgies are first known to have been celebrated in Ireland and England in 1458, and throughout the Carmelite Order in 1564. His feast day, an optional memorial, is May 16. The Saint's bones are still preserved in a cathedral in Bordeaux; a tibia was brought to England in the 1860s for the Carmelite church in Kensington, a part of the skull was enshrined at Aylesford in 1950. Saint Simon Stock is the patron saint of the English province of Discalced Carmelites.
Read more about this topic: Simon Stock
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience ... not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
“What had really caused the women’s movement was the additional years of human life. At the turn of the century women’s life expectancy was forty-six; now it was nearly eighty. Our groping sense that we couldn’t live all those years in terms of motherhood alone was “the problem that had no name.” Realizing that it was not some freakish personal fault but our common problem as women had enabled us to take the first steps to change our lives.”
—Betty Friedan (20th century)
“One of the important things to learn about parenting is that the more you worry about a child, the less the child will worry about him- or herself....instead of worrying, watch with fascination and wonder as your child’s life unfolds, and help the child take responsibility for his or her own life.”
—Charlotte Davis Kasl (20th century)