Info about Mariam Baouardy from various sites.
Here’s where I got most of it. She’s interesting as a bi-ritual saint, both Greek and Latin Catholic!
Mariam Baouardy was born on January 5th, 1846 at Ibillin, a village in the Holy Land near Nazareth. Her parents were George Baouardy and Mariam Shashyn; they were Greek Catholics in a predominantly Muslim area.
They were both persecuted for their faith and George spent some time in prison. Their first 12 children, all boys, died in infancy; so they decided to go on pilgrimage to Bethlehem to beg Our Lady for a daughter and they promised to call her Mariam. Their prayers were answered when little Mariam was born, followed two years later by her only surviving brother, Paul. Mariam was baptised and confirmed when she was ten days old according to the Greek Catholic Rite. Sadly before she was three years old both her parents died from an infectious illness, within a few days of each other.
Mariam was taken to the home of a wealthy paternal uncle and Paul went to live with a maternal aunt… the family moved to Alexandria and when she was nearly thirteen Mariam’s uncle told her that he had arranged a marriage for her, according to the customs of the time. Mariam, who had already made up her mind that Jesus would be her only bridegroom, informed the family of her decision. Her uncle was so infuriated that he sent her out to work as a servant in other people’s kitchens.
After a few months she decided to try to contact her brother and attempted to send him a message through a Muslim servant who was going to Galilee. After she told the Muslim her story,
he tried to make her deny her faith; and because she refused,** he slashed her throat and dumped her body on the roadside**, convinced that she was dead.
Later doctors agreed that the wound inflicted on her should have caused her death, but Mariam telling of this event said that a nun in blue brought her to a cave, stitched her wound and gave her some delicious soup. Then she told her, ‘You will never see your family again you will go to France where you will become a religious. You will be a child of St. Joseph before becoming a daughter of St. Teresa. You will receive the habit of Carmel in one house, you will make your profession in a second and you will die in a third, at Bethlehem’. Mariam did not know who the ‘nun’ was at the time but she later believed that she was miraculously cured by Our Lady and all she said was fulfilled in Mariam’s life.
Mariam never saw her uncle again and her search for her brother was unsuccessful, but she spent an eventful few years working as a servant in various places and going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she made a vow of chastity at the age of 15.When she was 18, Mariam was offered work with a Syrian family who lived in Marseilles. It was there that she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, but after a two year postulancy she was asked to leave because she did not get enough votes to be accepted as a novice. This was because some of the sisters were disturbed by her mystical graces, which included ecstasies and the stigmata; some doubted her authenticity, although her prioress and novice mistress would have accepted her. In fact, Sr. Veronica, her novice mistress, was waiting for permission to transfer to the Carmel in Pau and she suggested to Mariam that she go with her. Mariam agreed and was accepted by the Carmel. They both entered there in June 1867. Mariam was given the religious name, Sr. Mary of Jesus Crucified.
Very soon Mariam’s mystical experiences became obvious as the stigmata manifested itself again that same year and later she was seen to levitate. Throughout her life she frequently fell into ecstasies. The Carmelites in Pau were able to accept this unusual phenomena, as they could see her genuine devotion and willing obedience.
In 1870 Mariam was one of a group of nuns from the Carmel of Pau who set out to found a Carmel in Mangalore, India. It was there that she made her Profession on November 21st 1871. Mariam had entered as a lay sister but when she received the habit she did so as a choir sister, although she had not wanted this herself and she asked to become a lay sister again while she was in India. Her mystical experiences continued to be a trial to her and some of the sisters in Mangalore thought that they were a sign of demonic possession; so Mariam was ordered to return to France. Later the sisters realised their mistake and apologised profusely. Mariam replied, ‘All that has taken place was willed by Jesus. May His name be praised! It is God who has permitted everything’.
Mariam had returned to the Carmel of Pau in November 1872. Three years later she went to the Holy Land where she was instrumental in founding the Carmel at Bethlehem. Berthe Dartigaux, a young aristocrat from Pau made this possible by investing her entire fortune in the foundation. She went to Bethlehem herself, with seven nuns from Pau who set out to make the foundation.
Mariam was already planning to found another Carmel in Nazareth when she became ill. As the only sister who spoke Arabic, Mariam oversaw the workmen who were building the Carmel at Bethlehem, and it was when she was carrying water to them that she fell and badly injured her arm. Very soon the wound became gangrenous and the infection affected her lungs and respiratory tract. Mariam knew she was dying.
Early on August 26th 1878, she felt as if she was suffocating and she died at 10 past 5 in the morning, having uttered the words ‘My, Jesus, mercy.’
