Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified Baouardy

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified, known as Mariam Baouardy, was an Arab Discalced Carmelite nun from Galilee and a mystic. In the apostolic letter of her beatification John Paul II called her the first blessed from the Holy Land since the time of the early Church, the first from the Melkite rite, and the first from the Arab people. The Church commemorates her on August 26, the day of her death.

She was born on January 5, 1846, in Abellin, today Ibillin, into a poor Greek Catholic family. Her parents, who had already lost twelve sons, named her Mary in fulfillment of a vow made to the Mother of God in Bethlehem. In 1849 she lost both her parents. She was taken in by her paternal uncle, with whom she moved in 1854 to Alexandria in Egypt.

As she grew up, her uncle wanted to give her in marriage, but she refused because she wished to belong to God alone. In September 1858 her throat was cut and she was left in the street. The letter of beatification says that she sealed her profession of faith with her blood. As she herself recounted, she survived thanks to the care of a woman in a blue garment, in whom she recognized Mary.

She then worked as a servant in Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Beirut, and in 1863 she came to Marseille with a Lebanese family. There she was received by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition, but the sisters, troubled by her ecstasies and stigmata, did not admit her to vows. In 1867 she entered the Carmel of Pau and received the name Mary of Jesus Crucified. Since she could not read the Office, she became a lay sister.

In 1870, while still a novice, she left with a group of sisters for India to found the first Carmel in Mangalore. There she made her vows on November 21, 1871, and in 1872 she returned to Pau. Throughout her life she experienced extraordinary phenomena: ecstasies, the stigmata, and also torments attributed to the evil spirit. Some exalted her, others rejected her. She herself tried to hide these things, asked for the humblest tasks, and called herself “little nothing.”

In 1875 she went with her sisters to the Holy Land to found the Carmel of Bethlehem. As the only one who spoke Arabic, she oversaw the building of the monastery. In the summer of 1878, while carrying something to drink to the workers, she fell and broke her arm. Gangrene set in, and on August 26, 1878, she died in Bethlehem.

Pope Francis said that this poor and uneducated woman was able to give counsel and explain the truths of the faith with great clarity, because she was in constant converse with the Holy Spirit. The Carmelite nuns handed down her prayer that begins with the words: “Esprit Saint, inspirez-moi. Amour de Dieu, consumez-moi” (“Holy Spirit, inspire me. Love of God, consume me”). John Paul II beatified her on November 13, 1983, and Francis canonized her on May 17, 2015.