Barbara Maix
Austrian religious sister
Feast: 17 March (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Barbara Maix was born in Vienna on 27 June 1818; her childhood was marked by repeated typhoid and hardship. In 1843, seeing growing unemployment, she opened a hostel for young working and unemployed women.
As Maria Barbara of the Most Holy Trinity she founded the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She died on 17 March 1873, leaving the example to 'forgive always, with all the pleasure and comfort of the Heart'.
The miracles
Onorino Ecker, aged four — diocese of Porto Alegre, Brazil — July 1944
After seven days in hospital the little boy suddenly woke and about fifteen days after admission was discharged completely healed, without marked scars or infection.
Why that counted as sanctity
She loved and served the poor and loved and forgave her spiritual daughters.
The cause
Barbara Maix has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: Barbara Maix Religious Institute: Blessed Barbara Maix.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Maria Barbara della Santissima TrinitÃ
- Wikidata Q435289 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Barbara Maix (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.