Biography

Who is Marguerite ?

Childhood

Marguerite was born on 8 September 1815 in La Pierra, in the countryside of Fribourg, Switzerland. She was the second of seven children from a modest farming family. From childhood, she helped her parents with housework and gardening. Although she was lively and cheerful, she was already attracted to prayer in solitude and silence. Her contemporaries thought she would enter a convent, but this was not to be: she lived as a seamstress while embracing a life of celibacy chosen in chastity.

Fertility beyond their blood relatives

Marguerite is involved in all the events of the parish. She accompanies many children spiritually but also materially; she sometimes sews clothes without payment for children and the poorest and walks with them on Sundays to the chapel of "Notre Dame du Bois". After a moment of prayer, which bores no one, she plays with them. They call Marguerite "godmother" as a sign of affection. A true disciple of Saint Francis, she joined the Third Franciscan Order in Romont.

Through her profession she is compassion and mercy

Her spinning wheel rattles early in the morning and Marguerite attends the daily mass in Siviriez with passion. In the families to which she goes afterwards, she has the opportunity to get to know and understand worried mothers burdened with difficulties. She helps them with much kindness, patience and prayers. She is often asked by these mothers to care for their sick and to prepare their dying for an encounter with God.

What can we remember about Blessed Marguerite Bays?

Marguerite leaves us the memory of her life, her love for God and her service to others. Pearls which still warm our hearts today such as comfort, kindness, listening and grace... towards those who turn to her.

Marguerite stays in her father's home, where she does the housework. Josette, her sister-in-law, makes her life more difficult. She is a strict and ruthless woman who humiliates Marguerite and does not go easy on her. Marguerite is not angry with her, however. And, when Josette is struck early by illness and her life draws to a close, Marguerite takes care of her and prepares her for death. Marguerite is even the only person who lets Josette come to her.

Her sister Marie-Marguerite, called "Mariette", suffers from her divorce and comes back to the family home. Her unmarried brother Joseph, with a violent character and occasionally careless manners, eventually serves a small prison sentence. And Claude, the eldest, has an illegitimate child, little François. Marguerite asks Claude to officially recognise his son, and she takes care of his upbringing. Her brother Jean, on the other hand, better understands his sister's mystical life and sometimes worries about her health.

Marguerite would never have condemned her brothers and sisters in any way, given their difficult life situations. On the contrary, through her testimony of a life filled with love and mercy, each of her brothers and sisters felt drawn to Christ to begin a journey of conversion in love.

She has a great fervour for Mary Immaculate and Jesus in his Passion-Resurrection. The Mass she goes to every day is "the highlight of her day". She prays often during the day, we could even say that her day is prayer. She worships her rosary which she always carries with her. To those who confide their miseries to her she says: "Pray your rosary, you will see that it will be better afterwards. (grateful testimony (1929), quoted in the Summarium). She went regularly to the Fille-Dieu, where there are touching testimonies from the nuns who appreciated her prayer and advice. She went on pilgrimage several times on foot to Einsiedeln, some 242 km away, carrying in her heart the worries and sufferings of her neighbours.

True friendship in faith

With her goddaughter, Mother Abbess of the Fille-Dieu Lutgarde Menétrey, she forged great bonds of friendship: both of them became true sisters of the heart, sharing their joys and sorrows under the gaze of God-Love-Mercy.

Afflicted by a cancer – the premise of unity in the Passion

Affected by a cancer, Marguerite prayed to The Virgin Mary : she was quite happy to suffer for Jesus, but she wanted to be spared the medical visits which grieved her in her modesty. Whilst she was dying, she was miraculously cured on September 8 1854, the date of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Then came the experience of the stigmatization. Each Friday, Marguerite relived the Passion of Christ in her flesh. United with Jesus, she offered up the suffering she endured in the silence and privacy of her bedroom, sheltered from public eyes.

Death

Marguerite died on June 27 1879 at 15.00 hours. The church was as full as on a day of festivity. Despite the large crowd present, the funeral ceremony was modest, as was the case in the countryside. Before the coffin was lowered into the tomb, the persons present attempted to touch the coffin with their rosaries because they had faith. Those present knew that Marguerite was now with God and the gravedigger, after having arranged the tomb, exclaimed : « we have buried a saint ».

At the cemetery of Siviriez, on her tombstone, which is preserved as a treasure, was inscribed, still very moving for visitors today : « She lived doing good. Her memory will remain blessed. Venerated sister, dear and tender Godmother, do not forget those that you