Mariam Baouardy

At the Carmel of Pau, Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified distinguished herself by her humility and sense of service, readily presenting herself as a simple lay sister at work. In 1870, she left with the first group of Carmelites to found a monastery in Mangalore, in southern India, where she stayed for about two years and made her profession of vows; she then returned to Pau. In September 1875, she took a decisive part in the foundation of a Carmel in Bethlehem, the first of the order in this region of the Holy Land, established on a hill near the Basilica of the Nativity. Remaining practically illiterate, she devoted herself there to material tasks and the spiritual guidance of the nascent community. She was also at the origin of the project for a second Carmel in Nazareth, near her birthplace, which would only be completed after her death. Her role as a "bridge between the Christians of the East and the West" was highlighted during her canonization: an Arab from the Holy Land who entered a Latin order, she embodies a meeting of traditions. Tradition also attributes to her a contribution to the identification of the biblical site of Emmaus (Emmaus-Nicopolis).

The reputation for holiness of Mary of Jesus Crucified rests largely on the exceptional mystical phenomena that punctuated her religious life and which are reported by numerous testimonies collected during her trial. Sources mention frequent ecstasies, stigmata, levitations, a transverberation of the heart, and gifts of prophecy. Despite her lack of education, she reportedly composed spiritual poems and manifested a penetrating knowledge of souls. Her spirituality is entirely centered on the cross—hence her religious name—and on a radical humility that led her to make herself the smallest. She remained above all famous for her devotion to the Holy Spirit, whose light she never ceased to claim and whom she invited others to invoke unceasingly. This childlike trust and poverty of heart, joined to a great strength in work and obedience, made her a striking spiritual figure of the 19th-century Carmel. Pope John Paul II, during her beatification, summarized her radiance by saying that "in her, everything speaks to us of Jesus."

Mary of Jesus Crucified died in Bethlehem on August 26, 1878, at the age of thirty-two, from gangrene following an arm fracture caused by a fall at the monastery construction site. Her reputation for holiness led to the opening of her cause: she was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 13, 1983. The miracle accepted for her canonization was the sudden and unexplained healing of an Italian newborn, Emanuele Lo Zito, who suffered from a severe congenital heart defect, recognized by decree on December 6, 2014. Pope Francis canonized her on May 17, 2015, in Saint Peter's Square, during a celebration in which three other blessed women were also canonized, including the Palestinian Marie-Alphonsine Ghattas. Her liturgical feast is set for August 26, the day of her death; in the proper calendar of the Order of Carmel, where August 26 honors the transverberation of Saint Teresa of Avila, her memorial is celebrated on August 25, and in France on August 30.

Honored under the nickname "the Little Arab," Mariam Baouardy is one of the few saints born in the Holy Land and the first Carmelite from the Near East. Her canonization, which took place during the Year of Consecrated Life and the year of the fifth centenary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Avila, had a strong resonance among the Christians of the Holy Land, who see in her a symbol of hope and unity. The two Carmels she helped to establish, in Bethlehem and Nazareth, remain living places of prayer and pilgrimage, and preserve her memory. Her devotion to the Holy Spirit has marked Carmelite spirituality, and many communities and faithful continue to entrust themselves to her intercession. A bridge figure between the Latin Church and the Eastern Churches, and more broadly between the peoples of the Holy Land, she has become a spiritual landmark for Arab Christians and for the universal Carmel, with her feast day on August 26 being celebrated throughout the Carmelite family.