In the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland, Blessed Margaret Bays, virgin, who, practicing the trade of a dressmaker within her own family, gave herself wholly to the manifold good of her neighbor, never neglecting prayer.
Lifespan: 1815–1879
Beatified: 29 October 1995 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized: 13 October 2019 by Pope Francis, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 27 June
Prayer does not distance us from the world. Quite the contrary! It liberates the interior being, disposing us toward forgiveness and fraternal life.
John Paul II
Life and Works
Margaret Bays was born on 8 September 1815 at La Pierraz, a small hamlet in the parish of Siviriez in the Canton of Fribourg (Switzerland), the second of seven children born to Joseph Bays and Maria Josepha Morel, modest farmers and devout Christians.
Endowed with liveliness and exceptional intelligence, she attended school at Chavennes-les-Forts for three or four years, learning to read and write, and showing from childhood a particular inclination toward prayer — often stopping her play with companions to withdraw into the silence of contemplation.
At the age of eight she received Confirmation, and at eleven she was admitted to First Communion in the parish of Siviriez. Around the age of fifteen she undertook an apprenticeship as a seamstress, a trade she practiced throughout her life both at home and in the households of neighbors, paid by the day.
Margaret set aside the possibility — urged upon her from many quarters — of consecrating herself as a religious, preferring to remain unmarried and to seek holiness within her own family and her parish, where she remained virtually for the whole of her life.
Her three brothers and three sisters were deeply devoted to her. Blessed Margaret took care of everything necessary for the running of the household — sewing, cooking, and performing the domestic work — and in this way created an atmosphere of good humor and peace amid the inevitable small family tensions.
In 1860 her brother Claude, who directed the family farm with competence and authority, married one of the household servants, Josette, who was thereby suddenly elevated to mistress of the house. Margaret found herself having to endure the hostility and incomprehension of her sister-in-law.
Added to the sister-in-law’s surly behavior were reproaches for the time Margaret spent in prayer or working quietly at her sewing while she herself labored hard in the fields. For fifteen long years Margaret responded with silence and patience, the fruit of a charity that drew the admiration of all who surrounded her.
Her readiness to serve and her patient bearing of the injuries she received ultimately led her sister-in-law to acknowledge her own wrongs; and Margaret, with great Christian charity, attended her in the final moments of her life as she lay dying.
Both in her own home and in the households where she went to work, she would invite those present to recite with her one or two decades of the Rosary. She attended Mass every day, which was “the summit of her day”; on Sunday, the day of feast and prayer, after Mass she remained in the church in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, prayed the Way of the Cross for an hour, and recited the Rosary. She loved making long and arduous pilgrimages on foot to Marian shrines, alone or with friends, living constantly in the presence of God and nourishing that spirit with unceasing prayer.
As a laywoman full of zeal, she devoted her free time to an active apostolate among children, teaching them catechism and forming them in moral and religious life, while also preparing young women for their future vocation as wives and mothers. She visited the sick and the dying; she helped the poor, whom she called “the favored ones of God”; she introduced missionary works into the parish and contributed to the spread of the Catholic press.
In her dealings with others she would not tolerate slander or calumny, putting into practice the golden rule: “When you have not seen something yourself, you must not speak of it; if you have seen it, keep silent.”
At the age of thirty-five, in 1853, she underwent surgery for intestinal cancer. Distressed by the nature of the treatment required, she implored the Blessed Virgin to heal her and allow her to suffer differently — with other pains that would enable her to share more directly in the Passion of Jesus. Her prayer was answered in full on 8 December 1854, at the very moment when in Rome Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
From that day her life was wholly transformed and forever bound to the suffering Christ. A mysterious affliction would immobilize her in ecstasy every Friday at three in the afternoon and throughout Holy Week, as she relived in body and spirit the sufferings of Jesus from Gethsemane to Calvary. The five stigmata of the Crucifixion appeared upon her body, causing her intense pain, yet she carefully concealed them from the curious. The Bishop of Fribourg, Mgr. Étienne Marilley, ordered a medical consultation to examine the ecstasies and the stigmata, and officially authenticated the mystical origin of these phenomena.
In the final years of her life her pain grew ever more intense, yet she bore everything without complaint, in total abandonment to the will of God.
In keeping with her own desire, she died on the feast of the Sacred Heart, 27 June 1879; the parishioners of Siviriez and the surrounding area, upon learning of her death, said to one another: “Our saint has died.”
Her funeral was held on 30 June, with the participation of numerous priests and a great crowd of the faithful. She was buried in the cemetery at Siviriez, and was later transferred to the parish church, where she now rests in the Chapel of Saint Joseph.
“Iter” of the Cause
a) Toward Beatification
The reputation for holiness that Margaret Bays had enjoyed during her life continued to grow after her death. On 30 June 1927, forty-eight years after the death of the Servant of God, the Bishop of Lausanne-Geneva-Fribourg opened the Cause of Beatification. The Process concluded in 1930. The Acts of the Process were deemed insufficient, and the Dicastery required a supplementary Process, which concluded in 1955. On 25 November 1956 the decree on writings was issued, and on 9 March 1957 the decree of non cultu. After the decree of juridical validity was issued on 13 December 1985, the Positio was assembled for the iter prescribed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
The special Congress of Theological Consultors, held on 13 February 1990, gave a positive response to the question concerning the heroic exercise of the virtues. The Ordinary Session of Cardinals and Bishops, meeting on 19 June 1990, reached the same conclusion. The decree on the virtues was promulgated in the presence of Saint John Paul II on 10 July 1990.
The extraordinary event required for beatification had occurred on 25 March 1940, and concerned the inexplicable survival of a young seminarian whose climbing rope broke while he was ascending Mount Dent-de-Lys (Switzerland).
The Diocesan Inquiry was conducted at the Diocesan Curia of Lausanne-Geneva-Fribourg (Switzerland) during 1987–1988. A supplementary Inquiry was held in 1990.
The juridical validity of the Inquiries was recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints by decree of 12 April 1991.
The Technical Board, on 25 February 1993, judged the survival of the young seminarian to be inexplicable, as he had miraculously escaped the danger of falling into the void on Mount Dent-de-Lys.
The case was examined with a unanimously positive outcome by the Theological Consultors on 2 July 1993.
At the meeting of the Ordinary Session on 16 November 1993, the most eminent Cardinals and the most excellent Bishops judged the case presented to be a true miracle attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God Margaret Bays. The decree super miraculo was promulgated on 23 December 1993.
The solemn beatification took place in St. Peter’s Square on 29 October 1995.
b) Toward Canonization
On 6 March 1998 in Siviriez (Switzerland), there occurred the inexplicable survival of a little girl who had been run over completely by the wheel of an agricultural tractor.
The diocesan inquiry into this event was conducted at the Diocesan Curia of Lausanne-Geneva-Fribourg from 23 October 2005 to 27 May 2014. The inquiry experienced delays owing to certain procedural irregularities, changes among various Postulators, and the succession of two bishops in the episcopal see.
The decree of juridical validity was issued by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 1 October 2015.
The Medical-Technical Board, on 12 April 2018, gave a unanimous positive opinion regarding the inexplicable survival of the child.
The Congress of Theological Consultors gave a favorable — and again unanimous — verdict on 11 October 2018, concerning the miracle and its attribution to Blessed Margaret Bays. The Ordinary Session of Cardinals and Bishops, meeting on 8 January 2019, reached the same conclusions.
The Holy Father Francis then ratified the opinion of the Cardinal Fathers and Bishops, authorizing the promulgation of the decree super miraculo on 15 January 2019.