Marie of Oignies
| Blessed Marie of Oignies | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1177 Nivelles, Belgium |
| Died |
June 23, 1213 Oignies, France |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Major shrine | church of Saint Nicholas at Nivelles, Belgium |
| Feast | June 23 |
| Attributes | protected from rain by the Virgin Mary sheltering her with her mantle |
| Patronage | against fever, women in labour |
Marie of Oignies (born Nivelles, now Belgium, 1177, died 1213) was a Beguine, known from the Life written by James of Vitry, for Fulk of Toulouse.[1]
Life
According to her Life Mary of Oignies was born to a wealthy family.
She was married at the age of fourteen to Jean de Nivelle,[2] but convinced her husband to take a vow of chastity. Together, they nursed lepers. She did not live a cloistered life following an approved rule, but rather adopted a free form of devout life marked by strenuous asceticism and manual labour, as well as mystical gifts of a new kind. Mary received many visions from God, experienced ecstasy and wept uncontrollably when meditating on the Passion of Christ. She did not eat meat, dressed in white clothes, and mortified her flesh in acts of penance.[3]
Mary became famous for her good works and her mystical tendencies. So many people came to visit her that she was forced to retire to live as a hermit in a cell near the Augustinian monastery at Oignies, where she died in 1213.
Her life was recorded as early as 1215 by her confessor, James (or Jacques) of Vitry, a theology student from Paris who met Mary about 1208. This account helped gain papal approval for the Beguines.[4]
She is beatified in the Catholic Church, with the feast day of June 23.
References
- Margot H. King and Hugh Feiss (translators), Two Lives of Marie d'Oignies, by Jacques de Vitry and Thomas de Cantimpré (4th edition, 1998).
- Vera von der Osten-Sacken, Jakob von Vitrys Vita Mariae Oigniacensis. Zu Herkunft und Eigenart der ersten Beginen, (=Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte 223), Göttingen 2010. English Summary: p. 233-235.
Notes
- ↑ Andre Vauchez, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (2001 translation), p. 907.
- ↑ Tolan, John Victor (15 May 2009). Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter. Oxford University Press. pp. 21–. ISBN 978-0-19-923972-6. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
- ↑ "Mapping Margery Kempe", College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
- ↑ William Westcott Kibler, Medieval France: An Encyclopedia (1995), p. 484.
External links
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