When Pope Innocent III approved the Order of the Most Holy Trinity on 28 January 1198, an angel is recorded as having appeared to him wearing a white garment marked with a cross formed of a blue horizontal bar and a red vertical bar; that cross became the badge of the Trinitarians and the model of the small scapular worn by the lay confraternity attached to them. It is one of the five best-known small scapulars. Wearing it is a private devotion, and its meaning is bound to the Trinitarian charism of freeing those held captive.

Be enrolled by a priest who has the faculty to invest in this scapular, and afterwards wear it constantly over the shoulders, under your clothing. Honour the Blessed Trinity each day in the words the scapular's cross recalls — Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit — and take up some share, by prayer, almsgiving or work, in the Trinitarian care for the imprisoned, the trafficked and the persecuted.

Citation

Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th ed. (Apostolic Penitentiary, 1999), grant on the use of articles of devotion: a partial indulgence for the devout use of a crucifix, rosary, scapular or medal properly blessed by a priest. The governing norms are those of Paul VI, Indulgentiarum Doctrina (1967).

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