I hate making New Year's Resolutions but I sure do love picking Saints of the Year. This year I was on a bus to a FOCUS Conference in Dallas and picked my first saint from a bag.

And then I moved to Pittsburgh and the secretary at the Newman Center told me I could pick a saint from their basket and, not wanting to be rude, I picked another one.

So I totally double dipped for 2014. Not even mad.

Here we go!

Blessed Mariam of Baouardy (...of Bethlehem, Lily of Palestine, Little Arab, etc).

She has a lot of names. She's a mystic from Bethlehem and was born in 1846 and is a mystic, victim soul, and stigmatist. Her story is pretty amazing and is summarized in long form here and shorter form here. Bl. Mariam was betrothed to be married, refused, and was beaten, then a young man tried to make her convert to Islam and she refused and he cut her throat. and left her to die. Bl. Mariam later recounts that a "nun dressed in blue" came and took care of her and stitched her wound. She survived and took perpetual vows and joined a Discalced Carmelite order.

Seriously, her life was crazy. St. Joseph appeared to her, angels appeared to her, she received the stigmata at age 20, she helped found two convents, she experienced numerous ecstasies, and her religious name is Sr. Mary of Jesus Crucified. So...pretty hardcore.

Here's an icon of her: