Our Lady of Oegnies

https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-oegnies.html

August 9: Our Lady of Oegnies, Brabant, Netherlands

Oegnies, also spelled Oignies & known as Ongniacume in ancient times, is a village located in north of France.
It is thought to be birthplace of Saint Mary of Oegnies, who visited holy image of Our Lady of Oegnies once every year, even walking barefoot to shrine during severe rigors of winter.

Saint Mary of Oegnies was beatified by the Church, & her feast day is June 23rd.
It is said that Virgin Mary once sheltered her from rain with her mantle.
Saint Mary of Oegnies was born at Nivelles in 1167, & died on June 23rd, 1213, of natural causes.

Mary was born into a wealthy family.
Very early in life she felt call to consecrated life.
According to tradition beginning of her conversion came about due to her contemplation of the Cross & Passion of Christ.

Meditating on Passion one day she was so moved to tears that her steps in church might be traced by copious drops that fell on paves.
Many who observed her also felt moved to devotion, reading in her countenance as in a book unction of Holy Ghost.

Despite her wishes, Mary’s parents desired for her to marry & arranged a marriage for her at age of 14. Mary was obedient, but convinced her husband, John, to live chastely with her as brother & sister.
They gave what they had to poor, & for many years she & her husband served lepers in a hospital at Willenbrouch near Nivelle.

Mary was greatly devoted to Our Lady of Oegnies & Saint John the Evangelist, & was a friend to a woman known as Christina the Astonishing, a remarkable woman who truly merited her name.

Having apparently died while in her early 20’s, Christina came back to life & levitated from her casket during her funeral ceremony to tell those present that God had shown her Heaven, Hell & Purgatory, & that she'd returned to do penance for relief of dead & conversion of sinners.

These penances included casting herself into furnaces from which she'd later emerge unharmed, & allowing wild dogs to tear & rend her flesh until she was covered with her own blood, only then to immediately heal with no trace of wound or scar.

Eventually unable to bear frequent attention of devotees, Mary & her husband felt it God’s will that they should separate to live contemplative lives.
Mary retired to a hermitage of Saint Nicholas in Oignies, near Namur.

There she prayed for souls in Purgatory, & gave spiritual advise to disciples who gathered around her, among them James of Viry.
She practiced asceticism worthy of Desert Fathers, & was privileged to have mystical ecstasies & visions, mainly of Saint John & her guardian angel.
Mary also continued to care for lepers.

Three days before she died, Mary began to sing in ecstatic strains in Romance language concerning the Trinity, Humanity of Christ, the Virgin & Saints.
She sang as if sentences with their rhythm were written before her.
She said, greatly rejoicing at it, that the Holy Spirit would soon visit His Church, & send laborers more abundantly than usual into harvest.

There is so-called Treasure of Oignies, which consists of 30 reliquaries, crosses, & other precious items dating from 13th century, & together they're considered one of Seven Wonders of Belgium.

The Treasure of Oignies is work of an exceptional jeweler, brother Hugo d’Oignies, & is one of most important heritage treasures with which Belgium is enriched.
Made in priory of Oignies-sur-Sambre between years 1228 & 1238, they escaped as by miracle from French revolutionaries who destroyed monastery in year 1796.