TRANSCRIPT
Our Blessed Lady gave Carmelite saint Simon Stock the scapular in 1251 in England. Now an 85-year-old layman in Delaware has made it his goal to give the scapular to everyone in the United States.
Church Militant’s Martina Moyski tells us more about this man’s holy mission — and how great things happen to those who say “yes” to the Mother of God.
Andy Maggio, Delaware layman: “I thought I was retired but I’ve been working 26 hours a day. … The Blessed Mother, I don’t know, … It seems every time I turn around she’s got me doing something else.”
According to Andy Maggio, it all began in the summer of 2019, when he felt a heavenly nudge to give brown scapulars to fellow parishioners at Saint Ann’s Parish in Bethany Beach, Delaware.
A few months later, as Andy’s brother-in-law lay dying in a Baltimore Veteran’s hospital, he felt another nudge — to give his brother-in-law a scapular so that, in his last moments, he could be wrapped in Our Lady’s garment.
Unfortunately, the hospital chaplain didn’t have any.
So Andy sent boxes of scapulars, as well as Rosaries and pamphlets explaining how to pray the Rosary, in “kits,” as he calls them, to the chaplain for all the vets.
As soon as the chaplain received his first shipment, a chaplain buddy of his at a Boston VA hospital requested the kits too, and so began the growth of Andy’s mission.
He says now that vets in over 150 VA hospitals across the country have received the scapulars, he wants school children wrapped in our Lady’s protection too.
Maggio: “We’re losing so many kids … they’re talking about whether they wanna be a girl or a guy or … So, uh, we’re trying to give back to the kids.”
He says, “I’d like to see scapulars in every school in the country, and I think we can do it.”
Maggio: “We started with the schools, and we want to make sure that the children understood the scapular, and it’s beautiful [to have it] when someone’s dying, but they didn’t understand the miracles of wearing the scapular.”
Andy calculates he’s sent out over 70,000 kits in the last three years — and the Delawarean believes he’s just getting started.
For the past three years, Andy has been funding his efforts singlehandedly. Now he has a website where you can donate to the mission. For more information, visit rosariesandscapulars.org.