SIMONE STOCK, saint. – Carmelite, born at Keanth (England) in 1165, died at Bordeaux on 16 May 1265.
He entered the Order in 1212 and was elected its superior general in 1245. In 1251, while residing at Cambridge, he had a vision in which the Blessed Virgin is said to have promised him the following: «Behold the privilege that I grant to you and to all the sons of your Order. Whoever dies clothed in the Carmelite habit will be saved» (B. Zimmermann, Monumenta historica carmelitana, Lérins 1907, p. 339). The privilege was soon extended to all who wore the scapular of Carmel. The promise did not accord very well with Catholic doctrine, according to which eternal salvation is linked to the practice of the Christian virtues and observance of the precepts of the Church. For this reason Launoi disputed the authenticity of that famous vision in 1642 (Opera, II, II, Lyon 1731, pp. 379-403). After the seventeenth century the question remained controversial. Among the principal opponents are A. Boudinon (Revue du clergé français, 36 [1903], pp. 634-37), and L. Sallet (Le prétendu Pierre Swanyngton, in Bulletin de littér. acclés. de Toulouse, 1911, pp. 24, 85, 120; Swanyngton, the Saint’s confessor, is said to have drawn up under his dictation a letter attesting to the reality of the vision). Fr. X. Xiberta has assembled numerous documents in favor of its authenticity (De visione Simonis S., Rome 1950). Nevertheless, it should be noted that the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, which on 4 June 1908 confirmed the favors granted by the Holy See to those who wore
the Carmelite scapular, remained completely silent on the question of the vision with which S. is said to have been favored.