‘the little nothing’
In her short life Mariam experienced much suffering, but also received many extraordinary graces: martyrdom, ecstasies, raptures, visions, apparitions of the Blessed Virgin and Jesus; she had supernatural visitations and encounters with angelic figures and the saints; she received divine healings, she had prophetic foresight; she was subjected to demonic vexation and demonic possession; she experienced the stigmata, the crown of thorns, the transverberation of the heart, and close to the end of her life she had a mystical wedding with Jesus.
Despite these favours, Mariam remained small, and she continued to express unfailing love for Jesus even at the height of the torment and darkness she experienced during her demonic possession. Humility and complete obedience to her Superiors and to the Church kept her grounded, as she accepted God’s plan for her life with faith and utmost trust in Jesus.
Mariam was born in 1846, in the Galilean village of Ibillin, between Haifa and Nazareth. After the death of her parents when she was still a very young child, Mariam went to live with an uncle who later moved the family to Alexandria in Egypt.
Mariam suffered much but all the while the child grew in simplicity and in faith and she made the decision to give her heart to Jesus at a very young age. When she was 13 years old, her uncle arranged a customary marriage for Mariam, but this went against her desire to keep the perpetual vow of chastity she had made a few years earlier. Met with opposition, Mariam sought the help of a Muslim family servant who subjected her to martyrdom because of her faith in Jesus. Miraculously Mariam was healed and cared for by a direct intervention of Our Lady.
Not being able to return to her relatives, Mariam worked as a servant but always managed to give her meagre earnings to those who needed it most.
Once again heavenly intervention brought Mariam to work for a well-to-do family who took Mariam with them when they moved to Marseille in France. Still committed to giving her life to Jesus, Mariam entered religious life with the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, but on account the strange phenomena she experienced, the Sisters did not think Mariam was suitable for their order.
In a most unexpected way Mariam ended up joining the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Pau. There her supernatural experiences intensified, her ecstasies became longer and during Lent she experienced the painful stigmata and the crown of thorns. Willing to suffer for the salvation of souls, Jesus permitted that Mariam should be vexed and later possessed by legions of demons and Lucifer himself.
Mariam who could neither read or write, managed to correspond with bishops, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Pope Pius IX. Together with other Carmelite nuns from Pau, Mariam established a Carmelite convent in Mangalore, India, and towards the end of her life, back in Palestine, she became the founder of the Carmelite Monasteries at Bethlehem where she lived, and at Nazareth.
Mariam died at Bethlehem at the age of 32, as it had been revealed to her in one of her prophecies. Immediately after her death, people referred to her as Al-Qiddisa, the Holy One.
St Mariam was canonised on 17 May 2015 by Pope Francis. The Carmelites celebrate her feast day on 25 August.
The Church celebrates Mariam’s feast day on 26 August, however the Carmelites celebrate it on 25 August as 26 August is the feast of the Transverberation of St Teresa of Jesus (Avila).
feast day
26 August