Feast Day – May 16th

St. Simon Stock (c1165-1265)
Sixth General of the Carmelite Order

Born in approximately 1165 in Aylesford, Kent, England. Little is known of his early life. All that is certain is that he was elected the sixth general of the Carmelites in 1247. He was approximately 82 years old. In the same year, he obtained a new confirmation of the rule by Pope Innocent IV, who at Simon’s request placed the order under the special protection of the Holy See in 1251 because of hostilities.

Soon after he became General he instituted the confraternity of the Scapular which tradition says that he received from the Mother of God in a vision. During his time as general, he helps the Order spread through England, Southern and Western Europe. He founded houses in Cambridge, England in 1248, Oxford in 1253, Paris and Bologna in 1260. He wrote the “Flos Carmeli” and “Ave Stella Matutina”

In 1265, at approximately 100 years old, he sailed to Bordeaux where he died several months later, on July 16, 1265. He was buried in the cathedral of Bordeaux. In 1951 his skull was given to Aylesford Priory and has been preserved in a reliquary.