Maryam of Bethlehem
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One
St. Maryam of Bethlehem (Maryam of Jesus Crucified)
St. Maryam was from I’billin, a small village between Nazareth and Haifa in Palestine, now Israel, on January 5th, 1846. Though her nickname was the “Little Arab” she is a Catholic Palestinian who was declared a saint on May 15th, 2015. There are two options for her feast: August 26 or August 30th when the Carmelites celebrate it. I want to share her life with you because I think her motto, if you will learn to live it, will transform your life.
Her parents died when she was just three years old, leaving her and her brother Paul orphaned. They were soon split up and given to different relatives. Maryam went to live with her uncle’s family who moved to Alexandria, Egypt in 1858. As was the custom in the middle east at the time, a marriage was arranged for Maryam when she was 12 years old. But she refused because from the time she was five years old she had promised to give herself to Jesus in consecrated virginity to be his bride alone. She begged, but her uncle would not change his mind, so she turned to the Blessed Virgin Mary for guidance. She was inspired to follow the example of Catherine of Siena who, facing a similar situation, had cut off all her hair. So Maryam did the same and arrived at the engagement party completely bald. Well, the boy rejected her and her uncle, enraged, disowned her and made her one of the servants of the family.
Longing to be reunited with her brother who still lived near Nazareth in Palestine, she learned of a Muslim man who was going to Nazareth so she went to ask him to carry a message to her brother. During their conversation the Muslim learned of her plight and tried to convert her to Islam. She declared Jesus to be God and flatly refused to convert. In a rage, he unsheathed his scimitar and slashed her throat. To hide the murder he dumped her body in a grotto in the countryside. Little Maryam had born witness to her faith and love for Christ to the point of shedding her blood. She was a martyr, but her story wasn’t over yet.
Two
Cared for by the Mother of God
Maryam recounted what happened next. She was taken to heaven, had a vivid experience of God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as well as Mary, Joseph and many saints. Then a voice spoke which said, “Maryam, your book is not finished.”
When she awoke in the grotto, the most beautiful women dressed in all blue sewed up the mortal wound to her neck and nursed her back to health. Each day the woman in blue would feed her an otherworldly soup. It was so good that little Maryam, looked up, and as children do said, “More?” Then the woman spoke saying, “Remember, Maryam, don’t act like other people who think they never have enough. Instead always be content! The Lord who is good, will send you all you need.” Then Our Lady explained that she must welcome everything as coming from the hand of God and that she must give thanks for everything.
“Always be content!” This became the motto of her life. Always be content does not mean, suck it up, accept things as it is because there is nothing you can do anyway.
It does mean that God is so involved in your life that everything that happens he willed or allowed to give himself to you. We should always be content because God is already enough.
Three
A Long Journey
Our Lady told little Maryam she must never go back to her Uncle’s house, that she would become a religious sister first in an order dedicated to St. Joseph and then as a Carmelite, and finally she would die in Bethlehem.
Once Our Lady nursed Maryam back to health she took to her the local Catholic Church and told Maryam to go to confession. When Maryam came out, Our Lady had disappeared. So she explained the whole story to the priest who promised to help her. He arranged that Maryam would go to work for a number of Catholic families in Jerusalem, Jaffa and then a French family living in Beruit who soon went back to Marseille, France, taking Maryam with them.
At 19 Maryam entered the sisters of St. Joseph in Marseille. But by the time she was 20, she had so many mystical experiences and so many miraculous events surrounded her that the Sisters of St. Joseph suggested she join the Carmelites, a contemplative community, in Pau, near Lourdes.
Just as Our Lady told her. In 1870 the Carmelites sent her to Mangalore, India to establish a new convent. There Sr. Maryam received the Stigmata, the wounds of Jesus in her hands, feet and side. From this time she seemed in constant contact with visits from Jesus, Mary, saints, souls in purgatory and attacks from demons. So great were mystical experiences and miracles, that the mother superior again didn’t know what to do with her, so she sent her back to France. Maryam was totally misunderstood and rejected by her community, but she lived her motto, “Always be content!”
Nothing happens that God does not will or allow. And if he allows something difficult, he does so to give himself to you in a greater way. So, she trusted him.
Four
A Convent in Bethlehem
Jesus appeared to Maryam seven times, asking her to go back to her homeland, to Palestine, to build a new Carmelite convent in Bethlehem. Each time Jesus appeared to her, He gave her explicit instructions on how to gain the permission from the Vatican and precisely how to build the convent. For the Lord wanted the convent in Bethlehem to be designed like a fortress with tower because Jesus told her this was to be a place of spiritual combat to defeat the powers of evil by love, prayer, and sacrifice in order to bring back the victory of Light over darkness.
In 1875 she arrived in Bethlehem and built the convent just as the Lord had instructed. To this day it stands and is in operation.
Then, just as Our Lady foretold, when Maryam was just 32 years old, she fell and broke her arm. Gangrene set in, which was very hard to cure in those days. She died on August 26, 1878.
Five
Always be Content!
In Philippians St. Paul writes, “I never complain, because I have learned, in whatever state I am, to always be content. I know how to be poor and I know how to be rich too. I have been through my initiation and now I am ready for anything anywhere: full stomach or empty stomach, poverty or plenty. There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength.”
We have to stop living in the world like orphans. God is Our Father. He is watching over absolutely everything in our life by his Providence, giving us everything we need and guiding all things for good for those who love him. Here is how God wants us to live like his sons and daughters: Spend time with God in prayer. Think, ask for guidance, make plans, take responsibility and do what is in your power. But do not live in fear and worry. Do what you can and leave the rest to God and “Always be content!” because in everything, the Father is giving you Jesus – and He is enough.