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You are here:Home / Family News / NEF 2015 / Family News - 2015 June 14th / Life of the Congregation (1)
Jun 12, 2015

Life of the Congregation (1)

A contemplative life but a full one

Galilea

The life of Mariam Baouardy is an unusual story : orphaned at 3, homeless at 13 because she refused to renounce her faith, she worked as a servant wherever Providence led her : Alexandria, Jerusalem, Beirut, before landing up in Marseilles. And that was only the start! But what emerged from her story was a woman whose character became strong and whose rare determination was put in the service of obedience and humility.

This Palestinian Carmelite Sister has just been canonised in Rome on Sunday 17th May. She had been beatified on 13th November 1983. Why is the diocese of Bayonne interested in Mariam Baouardy, born in Galilee 5th January 1846 at Abelin, not far from Nazareth and who died in the Carmelite monastery at Bethlehem on 26th August 1878, at the age of 33? Quite simply because she lived for 6 years of her short life in Pau, in the Carmelite monastery of the Sacred Heart and which, in 1969 became Maison Saint-Michel with the Betharram religious.

She was christened Mariam. Her parents had made a promise to give her this first name during a pilgrimage they had made to the Manger at Bethlehem; they had gone here distraught having lost their first 12 baby boys who had died in infancy. The following year another boy, called Boutros, was born. By the age of three Mariam had lost both parents and she was entrusted to an uncle, a trader in Alexandria, Egypt. It was at Pau that she was given the name “Marie of Jesus Crucified,” in religion. She entered this Carmelite monastery 15th June 1867. The name she was given was meant to signify the sufferings of Jesus which she would share, including the stigmata on her hands and feet, on her side and on her forehead. On 24th May 1868 in the hermitage “Our Lady of Mount Carmel” she had a most extraordinary mystical experience: the piercing of her heart similar to that of Therese of Avila, who had reformed Carmel. It was such a great communion of love with the Lord that she was wounded to the heart. After her death when the surgeon removed her heart the scar was visible; Mariam wished that her heart should be brought back to Pau, “her family home”.

In the midst of great trials and tribulations she was the soul of humility, obedience and charity even when her community was full of admiration at her ecstasies and predictions which were to the point. The cloistered existence in Pau was not a life cut off from the world. She quickly felt the missionary call to go and found a Carmelite monastery in India at Mangalore; she left Pau on 21st August 1870 together with five other Carmelites and three religious of the Third Order which had scarcely been founded in Bayonne by Mother Veronica who had been a great support for Mariam. Three of her companions died on the journey. On 21st November 1871 she celebrated the first religious profession. Soon her friends began to have doubts because of the diabolical possessions for which she was victim; she was sent back to Pau in September 1872. It was only a long time later that her superior in India rehabilitated her. “With all my heart I want it to be known that mistakes were made at Mangalore” God allowed this to happen so that Divine Providence could continue carrying out his projects through this young Carmelite incapable of reading the psalms in French or in Latin. Once back in Pau she began planning a foundation in Bethlehem. Father Estrate, a Betharramite who was her confessor would support her; he found her a benefactor who would finance the entire project, Berthe Dartigaux only daughter of the President of the Appeal Court at Pau. Mgr Lacroix (Bishop 1838 – 1878) had still to ask authorisation from Rome. The letter was composed in the same Hermitage “Notre Dame du Mont Carmel”.

Mariam insisted that the Bishop send Canon Bordachar, superior of the college in Mauleon and of the Dominicans, to Rome. As if by miracle Pope Pius IX granted the authorisation on 16th May 1875. On 20th September seven Carmelites set out for Bethlehem accompanied by Berthe Dartigaux, Canon Bordachar and Father Estrate. On their arrival a flock of doves showed the site of the Carmelite monastery as Mariam had been told in a vision.

She became the architect and foreman being the only person speaking Arab and consequently capable of talking to the workmen. Before the completion of the building she received a divine call for the foundation of a Carmel in Nazareth. In the course of a visit the site was bought but it would be 30 years before the monastery was built. During this trip she had a revelation that she would be able to show where Jesus had the meal with his two disciples at Amouas, near Latroun. Several years later a 3rd century basilica was discovered, one of the oldest in the Holy Land. Before leaving for Pau she had another revelation that she would not see the completion of the construction in Bethlehem. On 22nd August 1878 as she was carrying two buckets of drinking water to the workmen, she fell and fractured her left arm; gangrene set in and on 26th August she died exclaiming “My Jesus, pity!” She who described herself as “the last of all” is the perfect modal of humility and obedience. “In Heaven there are many vices, but no pride. In hell there are many virtues but no humility”.

We are very happy here in Pau to celebrate this canonisation; it reminds us of the great solidarity which we are invited to practice with the Christians of the Middle East who are now facing persecution. The chapel of the former Carmel – now Maison Saint Michel – and the hermitage are the only two places where we can receive the gospel message of the Beatitudes handed on to us by this Carmelite from Galilee. They are both open each day from 8h00 to 19h00. At her request a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit is celebrated on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 19h00. For the past 45 years the Betharramite religious are present in the former Carmel convent.

Laurent Bacho, scj

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