JEANNE-MARIE DE MAILLE, WIDOW

JEANNE-MARIE DE MAILLE, WIDOW - 28 MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 28th of March

VENERABLE JEANNE-MARIE DE MAILLE, WIDOW

A page of one of Fortunatus Hueber's
Saints' books,
"Stammenbuch..." (1693)

Venerable Marie (Maria) was born on April 14, 1331 at Roche Saint Quentin (in rupe S. Quintini), bishopric of Tours. Harduin de Maille was her father, her mother's name was Johanna de Montbazon (Mons Bassonis). Everyone called her Marie only after her Confirmation - originally she had received her mother's name at baptism. Even as a child she was inclined to great piety and had heavenly visions.

When she came of age, she married, at her parents' wish, a certain Robert de Silley, whom she persuaded to remain in a virginal marriage with her. All her joy consisted in devotional works to the poor, widows, orphans, and every kind of unfortunate to whom she came to the rescue for Jesus' sake.

When her husband was taken prisoner of war near Chateau de Germelle (Grevelle) in 1359, she was unable to pay the ransom for him. Therefore she took up residence in the workhouse until she had saved enough by manual work to redeem him.

Further trials awaited Marie when her husband died three years later. She was expelled from her castle. In great poverty she took up residence at her mother's in Maille, who taught her how to prepare various ointments for the sick. All the while, Marie diligently persisted in prayer. She was offered a second marriage, which she refused.

Her mind was set on heavenly treasures, so that, in order to escape any marriage proposals and instead serve God completely and undisturbed, she travelled to Tours, where she took up a cell near Saint Martin's Cathedral. There she remained for several years in exercises of piety and charity. In addition to looking after the sick, she took special care of the most abandoned and poorest of her sex by persuading the girls to shun vice, to practise penance and honourable work and - given her connections - by trying to find good and reliable husbands for them.

Marie herself herself kept her bodily senses under strict control by fasting, praying, and watching. In the end she was taken in by the nuns of Beaumont (Bellus mons) les Roches (on the Loire) and died godly in 1413 (Migne* mentions states that she passed 1414).

Miraculously, the old woman, in death, looked as fresh as a young girl in her prime. The people of Tours have always called her a "blessed"; in the choir books she was even called "Saint Marie". Marie's relics, an object of pious veneration until the time of the Huguenot Wars, were scattered by the heretics, and only a few are said to have survived. (III. 735–765).

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 4, Augsburg, 1875, p. 185)

*A hagiography source used by the authors

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

➡️ More information about Jeanne-Marie de Maille

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