Simon Stock - Life

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.