Simon Stock
English hermit
Feast: 16 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Simon Stock, born in Kent about 1165, is said to have lived as a boy hermit in a hollow oak before becoming a Carmelite. What is certain is that in 1247 he was elected sixth General of the Carmelites at Aylesford.
Despite his great age he spread the order through Europe, founding houses at Cambridge, Oxford, Paris and Bologna, and is counted its most celebrated general. He died at Bordeaux on 16 May 1265.
The miracles
His feast was first entered in the choir books at Bordeaux in 1435 and later introduced more widely; there was never a formal cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
The Carmelite general who spread his order across Europe.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Simon Stock
- Roman Martyrology, 16 May (Italian Bishops' Conference, Santo del giorno) - listed as Blessed
- Wikidata Q721003 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Simon Stock (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.