Mariam’s parents, Giries and Mariam Shashyn, were Catholics in a Muslim area.  They were persecuted for their faith and their first 12 children, all boys, died in infancy so they decided on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem, to beg Our Lady for a daughter with a promise to name her Mariam.

Prayers were answered when she was born on January 5, 1846, in Ibillin, a village near Nazareth.  2 years later, her only surviving brother, Paul, was also born.

Just before she was 3, both of her parents died from illness.  Her father had commended her care to Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin in a prayer.  She was taken to the home of a wealthy paternal uncle, and her brother went to live with a maternal aunt.

She was treated kindly but surprised the family with her intense devotion to Our Lady, even at a very young age.  After receiving her 1st communion she told the priest that Jesus came to her ‘as a child’.

At the age of 13, they moved to Alexandria, and she was arranged for marriage.  She refused and her uncle beat her severely.  She tried to contact her brother through a Muslim servant who was going to Galilee.  After hearing her story, he tried to make her deny her faith, but when she refused, he slashed her throat and dumped her in an alley.  When found she told of a nun in blue who had brought her to a grotto, stitched her, and fed her.  The nun told her to go to France, be a child of Saint Joseph and then a daughter of Saint Teresa.  The nun also predicted her profession and death.

She still sought her brother but was misdirected several times, endured temporary blindness, and injuries, over the course of a year.

Just as the nun had foretold, at 17 she moved to Marseille, France, and after much rejection by various orders, was accepted into the Sisters of Saint Joseph.  Mystical graces, ecstasies, and stigmata began to occur and she was rejected by a small group out of their disturbance.  Their new superior was being transferred to a new congregation of the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel, in South France, and Mariam was invited.  There she received her habit.

Her mystical experiences intensified and the new congregation saw her genuine devotion and willing obediance.

In 1870 she helped to found a Carmel in Mangalore, India.  Sisters saw her ecstasies as demonic possession and sent her back to France.  Realizing their mistake, they apologized.

She then went to the Holy Land where she was instrumental in founding the Carmelite at Bethlehem.  She oversaw the construction and while carrying water to the workers, she fell and injured her arm.  The injury quickly turned gangrenous and affected her respiratory tract.  Early on August 26, 1878, she felt she was suffocating and died, having just uttered the words, “My Jesus, Mercy.”

Her feast day is August 25.

For God’s Glory.