MARY OF OIGNIES, Blessed. - Brabantine mystic, b. at Nivelles in 1177, d. at Oignies on 23 June 1213; she is the most representative figure of the beginnings of the Beguine movement. Married at 14, she persuaded her husband to live in continence, to distribute their goods and to place themselves at the service of the sick in the leper-house of Willambroux, near Nivelles.

There the blessed woman's mystical life developed, founded on a deep devotion to the Passion and to the Eucharist. Her conversation and her miracles attracted too great a crowd, and M. moved, with her husband's consent, to the banks of the Sambre, at Aiseau, where the Canons of St. Augustine had recently founded the priory of Oignies. Living there with some pious women, under the direction of the religious, she gave rise to one of those associations, the second after Willambroux, which prefigured the Beguinages properly so called. At Oignies the blessed woman attracted pilgrims more than ever, coming even from France and Germany, among them Jacques de Vitry, who resolved to enter the monastery of Oignies, where he became director, and later biographer of the blessed woman.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Vita by Jacques de Vitry, in Acta SS. Iunii, IV, Paris 1867 p. 636 ff.; Supplementum to this Vita, by Nicolas de Cantimpré, ibid., p. 664 ff.

Leonzio Reypens

@incollection{ec8_maria_d_oignies_beata, author = {Reypens, Leonzio}, title = {Maria d'Oignies, beata}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {124--125}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/maria-d-oignies-beata} }

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Mary of Oignies, Blessed

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