Simon Stock was a 13th-century English priest who served as the Prior General of the Carmelite Order. Born in Aylesford, he led the community during its transition from a group of Palestinian hermits to a mendicant order in Europe. He is most famously associated with the tradition that the Virgin Mary appeared to him to present the Brown Scapular, a religious object that became a central symbol of Carmelite devotion and a widespread practice within the Catholic Church.