St. Marguerite Bays

St. Marguerite Bays was born on Sept. 8 (the Nativity of Mary), 1815 in Switzerland. She was the second of seven children, and her parents were farmers. She was known as a good student in school. In 1830 she began an apprenticeship as a seamstress and soon served as a seamstress for several households.

She was pious and made a small alter in her room at home for prayer. Many around her suggested she join a religious order, but instead, she remained a single laywoman and virgin and devoted herself to an austere life of work and caring for her siblings.

During that time, local farmers were losing jobs to mechanization. She served them by delivering milk and bread and doing their washing and mending. She joined the Secular Franciscans. She regularly attended Mass and adoration and taught catechism to children.

In 1853 she got bowel cancer. On Dec. 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the immaculate conception dogma. On the same day, Marguerite found herself cured of the cancer and took it as a sign. Also in 1854, she discovered she had the stigmata and consulted her bishop. While she tried to keep it secret, news got out. She would fall into ecstatic raptures and feel the pain of Christ’s death once a week. She had a medical exam in 1873.

She grew very sick and weak in early 1879 with acute pain in her head, throat, and chest. She died at 3 p.m. on June 27, 1879.

She was one of five people canonized this past Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019. Her feast day will be June 27, and she is a patron of Franciscan tertiaries.