While he led this course of life, he was invited by a divine
revelation to embrace the rule of certain religious men who were
coming from Palestine into England. Albert, the holy patriarch of
Jerusalem, having given a written rule to the Carmelite friars
about the year 1205, some brothers of this order were soon after
brought over from mount Carmel by John lord Vescy and Richard lord
Gray of Codnor, when they returned from the Holy Land. These
noblemen some time after settled them, the latter in the wood of
Aylesford, near Rochester in Kent, the former in the forest of
Holme, near Alnewick in Northumberland; which houses continued the
two most famous convents of this order in England till their
dissolution in the thirty-third year of the reign of Henry VIII.
But we are assured by Bale, who before his apostacy was himself a
friar of the English province of this order, and by Lambert and
Weaver in their accurate descriptions of the Antiquities of Kent,
that the first or most ancient convent of these friars in England
was that at Newenden in Kent, which was founded for them by Sir
Thomas Archer or Fitz-Archer, whose family flourished for many
centuries upon that manor. The first arrival of these friars in
England is placed in the annals of the order, quoted by F. Cosmas
de Villiers, in 1212. Simon, who had then lived a recluse twenty
years, imitating the Macariuses and Arseniuses in the most heroic
practices of penance and contemplation, was much affected with the
devotion of these servants of God to the blessed Virgin, their
edifying deportment, and their eremitical austere institute, and
joined their holy company before the end of the year 1212. After
his admission he was sent to Oxford to finish his studies; and
having run through his academical course he returned to his
convent, where so bright was the example of his piety, that the
virtue of the rest seemed to suffer an eclipse by the
extraordinary lustre of his sanctity. Such was his reputation,
that in 1215 Brocard, prior of mount Carmel, and general of the
order, appointed him vicar-general, with full power over all the
western provinces. Many clamors being raised against this
institute, St. Simon repaired to Rome in 1226, and obtained from
pope Honorius III. a confirmation of the rule given to this order
by Albertus; and another from Gregory IX. in 1229. Some years
after, St. Simon paid a visit to his brethren on mount Carmel, and
remained six years in Palestine, where, in 1237, he assisted at
the general chapter of the order held by Alanus the fifth general.
In this assembly it was decreed, that the greatest part of the
brethren should pass into Europe, their settlements in the east
being continually disturbed by the persecutions, oppressions, or
threats of the Saracens. In 1240 many were sent to England, and in
1244, Alanus himself, with St. Simon, having nominated Hilarion
his vicar on mount Carmel, and in Palestine, followed them
thither, there being already five monasteries of the order erected
in this island.
In a general chapter held at Aylesford in 1245, Alanus
resigning his dignity, St. Simon was chosen the sixth general, and
in the same year procured a new confirmation of the rule by pope
Innocent IV., who at the saint's request received this order under
the special protection of the Holy See, in 1251. St. Simon
established houses in most parts of Europe; but this institute
flourished nowhere with so great splendor and edification as in
England, and continued so to do for several ages, as the annals of
the order take notice. St. Simon, soon after he was promoted to
the dignity of general, instituted the confraternity of the
Scapular, to unite the devout clients of the Blessed Virgin in
certain regular exercises of religion and piety. Several Carmelite
writers assure us that he was admonished by the Mother of God in a
vision, with which he was favored on the 16th of July, to
establish this devotion." This confraternity has been
approved, and favored with many privileges by several popes. The
rules prescribe, without any obligation or precept, that the
members wear a little scapular, at least secretly, as the symbol
of the order, and that they recite every day the office of our
Lady, or the office of the church; or, if they cannot read, seven
times the Pater, Ave, and Gloria Patri, in lieu of the seven
canonical hours; and lastly, that they abstain from flesh-meat on
Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays; or if this cannot be done,
that they double for each of these days the seven Paters, &c.
St. Simon cured several sick persons by giving them the scapular;
the reputation of which miracles moved Edward I., king of England,
St. Louis of France, and many others, to enroll their names in this
confraternity.
St. Simon governed the order with great sanctity and prudence
during twenty years, and propagated it exceedingly from England
over all Europe being himself famous for his eminent virtue, and a
great gift of miracles and prophecy. He wrote several hymns and
decrees for his order, and several other useful things for its
service, says Leland. At length, in the hundredth year of his age,
having a call to France, he sailed to Bordeaux, where God put an
end to his labors some months after his arrival, in 1265, on the
16th of July. He was buried in the cathedral of that city, and was
honored among the saints soon after his death. Pope Nicholas III.
granted an office to be celebrated in his honor at Bordeaux on the
16th of May, which Paul V. extended to the whole order. |
