Also known as
- Marie d’Oignies
Profile
Born wealthy. From her early youth Mary felt called to the religious life, but she entered into an arranged marriage at age 14. She convinced her husband to live chastely, and to turn their home into a leper hospice. Mary gave away as much of her fortune to the poor as she could, and spent her days caring for lepers. She had a great devotion to Saint John the Evangelist, and a high regard for her contemporary, Christina the Astonishing. Later in life, she moved into a hermit‘s cell near the Augustinian house at Oignies, France and spent the rest of her life there, praying for souls in Purgatory, and giving advice to would-be spiritual students. Noted for visions, especially of Saint John and her guardian angel, ecstacies, prophecies, and psychic gifts; she ate no meat, dressed exclusively in white, may have been a stigmatist, and reported cut off pieces of her flesh to rid herself of desire for the world.
Born
- 23 June 1213 of natural causes
- buried at Oignies, France
- relics transferred to a silver reliquary in the church of Our Lady in Oignies in 1609
- relics transferred to the church of Saint Nicholas at Nivelle, Belgium in 1817
- praying for souls in Purgatory
- protected from rain by the Virgin Mary sheltering her with her mantle
- recluse visited by an angel
- woman in white in a hermit‘s cell praying
- woman in white in a hermit‘s cell spinning
- woman in white with an angel by her side
MLA Citation
- “Blessed Mary of Oignies“. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 June 2015. Web. 20 March 2016. <>