St. Miriam the Little Arab (St. Mary of Jesus Crucified), pray for us!
Feast Day: August 26th.
I have been re-reading all of my books about this holy soul this week preparing for a podcast I will be doing in the next couple of weeks about saints who intercede for Muslims.
When I was in the Holy Land for a month in 2008 everywhere I went I saw this beautiful face staring at me -and I kept asking in shops who she was and if they had any books about her. In all of Jerusalem there was only one book in English about her and it was $40 -I had been swindled by the French (sisters) who ran the hostel where I was staying and I literally had no money. They had quoted (promised) me a price for rooms in USD and when I went to pay they changed it saying, 'The dollar isn't so strong today.' A French Canadian man came to my rescue and along with Jesus telling him to pay for me, he paid for my book about St. Miriam of Jesus Crucified.
As I began working in North Africa and the Middle East among Muslims I began thinking about her again and trying to remember to pray for her intercession. Once the Taliban started murdering Christians in Afghanistan last week and we began the project of translating my books to be sent to these people, I printed out big pictures of St. Miriam (entrusting the project to her intercession along with St. Charles de Foucauld and St. Charbel). I threw the one random picture of St. Therese of Lisieux in the middle because she encourages me in my discouragement as much as her sister St. Miraim.
Miriam's life is incredible. She is from Nazareth -her parents had 12 sons all who died in infancy and they made a pilgrimage to Bethlehem to ask the Lord for a daughter and they conceived her. They had another son a year and a half later -but both parents died within days of each other when Miriam was three and she and her brother were sent to separate families and never saw each other again. Miriam was set on belonging only to the Lord -so when her uncle arranged a marriage she cut off her hair and refused and he beat her terribly and left her with the slaves. She went to visit a Muslim who was traveling to her brother's village and brought him a letter to give to her brother. The Muslim pitied her beaten state and tried to convert her saying 'what religion would do this to a child/woman?' When Miriam staunchly declared her belief in Jesus and the Catholic Church the Muslim turned on her and slit her throat -in essence killing her -and threw her to the garbage. But a beautiful woman (Our Lady) dressed in blue and white stitched her throat and nursed her back to health, leading her to a church where the parish priest took pity on her and got her a job as a nanny/housekeeper. Eventually her work took her to France where she joined the Carmelites and eventually she returned to the Holy Land to found the Carmels in Bethlehem and Nazareth.
Her life is incredible -she had the stigmata and many mystical gifts -and I have much more to share, but I will do it on my podcast. But today is her Feast Day and I strongly encourage you to pray to this simple, holy soul today... and please, as you are entrusting your hearts and intentions to her intercession, please pray for our project in the Middle East (especially in Afghanistan) and especially for the funds we need to print and transport these books.
St. Miriam, the little Arab -St. Mary of Jesus Crucified, pray for us!!!
FROM HER WRITING AND BIOGRAPHY:
“A nun dressed in blue picked me up and stitched my throat wound. This happened in a grotto somewhere. I then found myself in heaven with the Blessed Virgin, the angels and the saints. They treated me with great kindness. In their company were my parents. I saw the brilliant throne of the Most Holy Trinity and Jesus Christ in His humanity. There was no sun, no lamp, but everything was bright with light. Someone spoke to me. They said that I was a virgin, but that my book was not finished. "
She then found herself once again in the grotto with the “nun dressed in blue”. How long did Mariam remain in this secret shelter? She later spoke of one month, but she was not sure. One day, the unknown nurse prepared some soup for her that was so delicious that she greedily asked for more, and all her life she was to remember the taste of this heavenly soup. On her death bed she was heard to say tenderly, "She made me some soup! Oh, such good soup! There I was a long time, looking, and never ate soup like that. I have the taste in my mouth. She promised me that at my last hour, she will give me a little spoonful of it."
Toward the end of her sojourn in the grotto, the nurse in blue outlined for Mariam her life`s program, "You will never see your family again, you will go to France, where you will become a religious. You will be a child of St. Joseph before becoming a daughter of St. Teresa. You will receive the habit of Carmel in one house, you will make your profession in a second, and you will die in a third, at Bethlehem."
The scar on her neck remained the rest of her life.
Mariam herself later wrote:
“After my wound was healed I then had to leave the grotto and the Lady took me to the Church of St. Catherine served by the Franciscan Friars. I went to confession. When I left, the Lady in Blue had disappeared.”
Years later when in ecstasy, on September 8, 1874, the anniversary of the attack and the feast of our Lady’s nativity, Sr. Mariam said, “On this same day in 1858, I was with my Mother (Mary) and I consecrated my life to her. Someone had cut my throat and the next day Mother Mary took care of me.”
Once again, in August 1875, when she was on a boat going toward Palestine, she recounted what she remembered to her director, Father Estrate, and she stated precisely, "I know now that the religious who cared for me after my martyrdom was the Blessed Virgin."
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