Saint Mary of Oignies

Mystic and Model of Charity
(1177–1213)

Blessed Mary of Oignies was born in 1177 at Nivelles in Brabant, in what is now Belgium. She came from a prosperous family and was given in marriage at the age of fourteen to a young man named John. From the very beginning of their married life, she and her husband agreed to live in continence and devoted themselves to the service of the poor and sick. They gave away their wealth, nursed lepers with their own hands, and established a small hospital near Oignies where they cared for the most abandoned and afflicted of the poor.

Mary's interior life was of extraordinary richness. She was favoured with visions, ecstasies, and the gift of prophecy. She wept so copiously during Mass at the thought of Christ's Passion that her tears were a constant feature of her prayer, and those who witnessed her at prayer were moved to compunction and tears themselves. She had a burning love for the Blessed Sacrament at a time when frequent Communion was rare, and she longed with great intensity for union with her Eucharistic Lord. She is regarded by some scholars as one of the figures who helped inspire the Corpus Christi devotion that flourished in that region.

She later obtained her husband's agreement to separate, and she placed herself under the direction of the Augustinian canons at Oignies, living near their priory as a recluse and penitent. Among those who came to know her and were deeply influenced by her was James of Vitry, who later became a bishop and cardinal and who wrote her biography, one of the earliest and most important hagiographical texts of the Beguine movement.

Her influence on the spiritual life of the Low Countries was immense. She represented a new kind of holiness that was emerging in that region, an intense lay piety characterised by devotion to the humanity of Christ, love for the Eucharist, voluntary poverty, and service to the poor. Many of the Beguines who followed in the next generation looked to Mary of Oignies as their model and inspiration.

She died on June 23, 1213, worn out by her austerities and mystical experiences. Her holiness was recognised throughout the region during her lifetime, and she has been venerated as blessed from shortly after her death. Her memory has been kept alive especially among those who follow the spirituality of the Low Countries.