16 May Optional Memorial (Obligatory Memorial the province of Great Britain)
In the short historical note for his liturgical celebration found in the current Propers of the Liturgy of the Word, we read, "Of English origin, he lived in the 13th century and died in Bordeaux. Venerated in the Carmelite Order for his exalted holiness and devotion to the Blessed Virgin." An attempt has thus been made to summarize the problematic life of the saint.
Indeed, it is not easy to say anything about him with any certainty. The information comes from three kinds of sources, and they have many contradictions between them. Also it is not always possible to know whether they refer to the same person. This is why we think of the existence of "two" persons with the same name as Simon: one a prior general (and in this case his term of office should be either before 1249 or between the years 1253-54 or in 1257-1266, the only spaces available in the list of priors general); and another man, a simple religious person esteemed for his holiness and devotion to Our Lady. These figures would then be merged into one, through a transfer of news from one type of source to another, and with other unreliable reports mixed in.
The Order's tradition links the famous tale of the "vision of the Scapular" to the saint of the Order. To understand the details of this "vision"—of which nothing is known regarding place and date (although traditionally put in 1251)—it is necessary to consider that the story is presented as a literary genre common in the medieval period. The content is similar to that developed by a number of other religious orders: Our Lady told the saint that whoever died piously wearing the scapular would not go to hell. It is a theological truth "dressed up" with the typical form of medieval exempla. (a short tale incorporated into a sermon to emphasize a moral or illustrate a point of doctrine). The story began to spread between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the following century, while the fact of the "vision" was placed about the middle of the 13th century.
Liturgical worship to St. Simon Stock appears in Bordeaux, France from 1435, in Ireland and England from 1458, while across the Order the feast was introduced later by decree of the general capitol of 1564. In the Carmelite calendar reform of 1584 the feast was dropped. In the 17th century, the celebration of St. Simon reentered but was delisted in 1972. It returned in 1978 with the due approval of the Holy See and with the note “as long as care is taken to eliminate any relation to the problematic view of the scapular.”
(Emanuele Boaga, Simone Stock, Dizionario Carmelitano, 2008)
