MARIA d'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 the age of 14, she persuaded her husband to live in continence, distribute their possessions, and devote themselves to the care of the sick in the leper hospital of Willambroux, near Nivelles.
There the mystical life of the blessed woman developed, founded upon a profound devotion to the Passion and the Eucharist. Her conversations and miracles attracted
too great a crowd, and M., with her husband's consent, moved to the banks of the Sambre, to 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 foreshadowed beguinages properly so called. At Oignies the blessed woman attracted pilgrims more than ever, who came even from France and Germany, among them Jacques de Vitry, who decided to enter the monastery of Oignies, where he became the blessed woman's director and then her biographer.