Marie of Oignies
Marie of Oignies (Maria Ogniacensis, born Nivelles, now Belgium, 1177, died 1213) was a Beguine saint, known from the Life written by James of Vitry for Bishop Fulk of Toulouse.
Marie "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." Marie is purported to have 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.
Her life was recorded as early as 1215 by her confessor, Jacques de Vitry. His account helped gain papal approval for the Beguines.
Patron saint of Against fever; women in labour
In the Martyrology
- June 23 Saint Marie d’Oignies