We make the Purple Scapular of Benediction and Protection. It carries our own item number, 99500, and it is sold on through Catholic bookstores and church-supply houses across the country. Because we are the source, we are asked about it constantly — what it is, where it came from, and how it is meant to be used. This is the full answer.
Where it comes from
The Purple Scapular was made known through Marie-Julie Jahenny, a Breton peasant woman born in 1850 at Blain, in the Loire-Atlantique. She lived almost her entire life in a cottage at La Fraudais, bore the stigmata from 1873, and reported a long series of communications until her death in 1941 at the age of ninety-one.
The scapular itself was described in 1878. Its design was not left to the maker: the images, the colour, and the arrangement of the two panels were all specified. That is why every authentic Purple Scapular looks the same, and why the details are not decorative.
What is on it, and why
One panel carries the Pietà — Our Lady holding the body of her Son after it was taken down from the cross. The other carries the crown of thorns and the nails.
Both images are of the Passion, and neither is triumphant. There is no risen Christ on this scapular and no glory. It shows the instruments of an execution and a mother holding a corpse, and it asks the wearer to keep those in view. The promises attached to it are promises of protection, and the logic is that protection comes through the Passion — not around it.
The promises
The promises reported for the Purple Scapular concern the protection of the household: against storm and natural disaster, against famine, and against violence entering a home. It is for this reason that the larger display size is traditionally hung near the entrance of a house rather than in a bedroom or an oratory. It is placed where trouble would come in.
A necessary word here. Private revelation — and this is private revelation — is never binding on Catholic faith. The Church has not pronounced on Marie-Julie Jahenny's communications, and no Catholic is required to accept them. What is more, a promise attached to a devotional object is never mechanical. A scapular is not a charm and does not work by being owned. It works, when it works, the way every sacramental works: as a sign that draws the person wearing it into prayer, and it is the prayer that is answered.
We say this plainly because we would rather sell to someone who understands what they are buying.
How it is actually used
In practice we see three patterns, and all three are traditional.
Hung by the door. The full display size, with panels of 4.25" x 3.5", is made for this. It is placed near the entrance of the home, often above the doorframe or beside it, and it stays there.
Worn. The wearable size, about 2" x 1.5", is made small enough to sit under clothing without being noticed. Both panels carry the same full detail as the large version.
Given. This is the most common of all. People rarely buy one. They buy four or six — for grown children, for a parish prayer group, for grandchildren, for a family member going through something. Because the price is low, it is one of the few devotional objects that can be given in quantity without awkwardness.
Choosing a size
If it is for a house, buy the display size. If it is for a person, buy the wearable size. If it is for a family, most people buy one display scapular for the door and a wearable one for each member of the household — which is how the devotion has spread, one household at a time, for nearly a hundred and fifty years.
Both sizes are made by us, are supplied with the explanation and the prayers, and are available in English or Spanish. Both are in stock and ship within 48 hours.
Purple Scapular — display size · Purple Scapular — wearable size
Related devotions from the same source
Marie-Julie Jahenny is also the source of the Cross of Pardon, described in 1873, which carries its own invocations and its own promises for the hour of death. The two are frequently kept together in the same household.
