Today, St Simon Stock (1165-1265), patron of our Discalced Carmelite province. An Englishman who lived originally as a hermit, he rose to become Prior General of the Order. He was instrumental in the Order’s movement from an eremitical way of life on Mt Carmel to mendicant communities in Europe. He served the Order with great wisdom & left a legacy of holiness which saw his being commemorated liturgically from the 15th century at the latest. A tradition tells us he received a vision of Our Lady in which she conferred the Scapular as the habit of the Order, prior to this it was the white mantle which was considered the distinctive sign of being a Carmelite. Simon died in Bordeaux in 1265, his skull is preserved at his shrine at Aylesford in Kent.