Green Scapular

The Green Scapular is part of the “Seton Family.”

The Green Scapular was a gift given to the world by the Blessed Mother through a series of apparitions to a Daughter of Charity, Sister Justine Bisqueburu, in the early 1840s in Paris, France, just 19 years after St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s death. In the apparition, the Blessed Mother held in her right hand her heart, surrounded by flames, and in the other hand a kind of scapular. It was a single piece of green cloth rectangular in shape and hanging by a green string. On one side was a picture of the Blessed Virgin; on the other was “a heart all ablaze with rays more dazzling than the sun and as transparent as crystal.” That heart, pierced with a sword, was encircled by an oval inscription surmounted by a gold cross with the words, “IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, PRAY FOR US NOW AND AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH.”

This powerful tool of prayer in honor of Mary’s Immaculate Heart aids those whose religious faith is weak or negligible to bring them back to the Faith through deeper conversion. It can also be a very powerful prayer aid in healing. Pilgrims come to Mother Seton's Shrine from all over the world questioning God’s will for their lives and asking for St. Elizabeth Ann’s intercession. They walk along the Seton Way to learn about St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and her story of conversion to the Catholic Church.

The Green Scapular symbolizes the call to conversion that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton felt in her life and which Christ continues to extend to us all. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton founded what is today the Daughters of Charity in the United States right here in Emmitsburg, MD, in 1809. This was one of the very first places in the United States that served as a distribution point for the Green Scapular. Today in the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, inside the Chapel of the Holy Agony, a stained-glass window highlights the Scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, The Green Scapular. Visitors often pray for interior conversion for themselves, their families and friends. You can click here to learn more about how to plan your pilgrimage.

To foster devotion to the Green Scapular we have created a Green Scapular Guild and erected a Green Scapular Memorial on the grounds of the Shrine. For information on how to join the Green Scapular Guild, order your free Green Scapulars, or submit a prayer request, please call us at 301-447-7080 or visit our shoppe. Most of all, please pray for us and send us your prayer intentions, as well as any reports of conversion and cures attributed to the Green Scapular (including time, place and persons) to the address listed below.