Baring-Gould’s sources: Belgian Martyrologies. Authority: — A»life by a contemporary.] Wb have in this saint a sad instance of the miscarriage of justice, of circumstantial evidence leading to the condemnation of the wrong person. Mary was a young modest girl of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, a village near Brussels, who had made up her mind to renounce the world. She lived in a little hut near the church of Our Lady, probably that of Stockel. She spent the day in prayer, and in asking alms. But her solitary life exposed her to dangers to which she had not given a thought. A young man, as he passed, cast eyes on her, and was inflamed with passion, for she was very beautiful, and her simplicity added a charm to her fair face. He waylaid her when she went out, and besieged her at home with his offensive attentions, and even ventured to make to her proposals of the most odious nature. She avoided him as much as she could, and gave him to understand that she abhorred the sight of him. He therefore determined to conquer her opposition through her fears, and hid a silver cup in the sack, in which she put the things she had begged, and then threatened to denounce her to the magistrate, unless she returned his affection. She calmly replied that she would fall into the hands of God, rather than into those of men. Then, taking her sack, the young man went before the magistrate, and denounced the girl for having stolen it. He also added a charge of witchcraft against her, alleging that she had cast a spell upon him, so that he could not rest night or day.
Mary ran to her parents and told them all, but they, being humble peasants, were unable to do more for her S. Mary the Sorrowful.
than advise her to place her confidence in God. She was then arrested and brought before the judge, who asked her if that was her sack in which the cup had been found. She admitted it, but said that she had not put the cup into it, and did not know how it had got in. The magistrate, not believing her, sentenced her to death, and to a death of great barbarity. She was led to the place where she had lived, and there before her execution, she obtained leave to enter the church and pray for herself, her parents, and him who had by false witness caused her death. Then she was led forth, a pit was dug, and she was cast into it. “Pray for me, Mary !” said the executioner sorrowfully, and then a great stake was driven crashing through her breast, and the earth was thrown over her. At the sound of the fall of the stake, the young man, who was present, uttered a shriek and fell to the ground in a fit. From that moment he had no rest in his conscience, he languished, grew haggard, hollow-eyed, and at last went before the magistrate and confessed his crime. Later, her body was exhumed and laid under the altar of the church of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre. In 1363, the pope, Urban V., granted indulgences to such as should visit the chapel of Mary the Sorrowful. A chapel called the “ Kapel der Elendige Marie ” still exists on the place where she was executed; and her festival is celebrated annually at Woluwe, or, in French Volvich, on June 17th.
[Jane 19 Jane 19. S. Zosimus, M. in Pisidia, circ. A.D. tiO. SS. Gbrvasius AMD Protasius, MM. at Milan, ind cent. SS. Gaudkntius, B., and Comp., MM. at Arezzo, after a.d. 363. S. Zbno, H. in Egypt, 4/A cent.
S. Innocent, B. of Le Mans, A.D. 543. S. Deodatus, B. of Nevers, a.d. 679. ' S. Ratmo, Count of Andecfu in Bavaria, a.d. 953. S. Boniface [English missionary to Germany, martyred 754], or Bruno, B.M. among the Prussians, A.D. too8. B. Odo, B. ofCambrai, a.d. 1113.
S. Juliana Falconieri, V. at Florence, a.d. 1341.