L'INCARNATION, Mother Marie de, - A Stan Klos Biography Site
L'INCARNATION, Mother
Marie de, educator, born in Tours, France, 18
October, 1599; died in Quebec, 30 April, 1672. The name of her parents was
Guyard. She was noted for her piety in early life, and wished to enter a
convent, but, in deference to the wishes of her parents, married, at the age of
seventeen, M. Martin, a silk manufacturer. She aided him in his business,
showing an ability for management which was subsequently to be of great
assistance to her.
Her husband died when she was nineteen, and
when her son had attained the age of twelve she entered the Ursuline convent of
Tours, in 1631. Here she met Madame De la Peltrie, and formed with her the
project of founding an Ursuline convent in Quebec. She arrived in Canada with a
few nuns in 1639. She immediately began the work of instruction in Quebec, the
nuns taking as pupils not only the daughters of the colonists, but also those of
the friendly Indian tribes. This led her to acquire several of the Indian
languages, in which she wrote instructions for her pupils.
She was not able to begin her monastery
until 1641, which was finished in 1642. It was destroyed by fire in 1650, in the
middle of a Canadian winter. Notwithstanding poverty and trials of various
kinds, she set to work with energy and soon rebuilt it. She continued to direct
the monastery up to her last illness. In the troubles of the colony caused by
the war waged by the Iroquois, she was frequently consulted, and her advice
often adopted.
In one of her letters she predicted the
great future in store for whatever people should occupy the valley of the
Hudson, and endeavored to persuade her countrymen to take possession of it. She
was styled by Bossuet "the Teresa of our days and of the New World." The cause
of her canonization as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church was introduced
before the papal authorities several years ago, and is still prosecuted in Rome.
[She was beatified in 1980 by Pope John Paul
II.]
She was the author of
"Lettres" (Paris, 1677); "Retraite, avec une expression succincte du cantique
des cantiques" (1682); and "Ecole chretienne, ou explication familiare des
mysteres de la foi" (1684). These were all
published after her death by her son, DOM CLAUDE MARTIN, who also issued her
life, written by herself by order of her superiors (Paris, 1677). See also a
shorter biography by Charlevoix (Paris, 1724).
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001
VirtualologyTM
L'INCARNATION, Mother Marie de, educator, born in Tours, France, 18 October, 1599; died in Quebec, 30 April, 1672. The name of her parents was Guyard. She was noted for her piety in early life, and wished to enter a convent, but, in deference to the wishes of her parents, married, at the age of seventeen, M. Martin, a silk manufacturer. She aided him in his business, showing an ability for management which was subsequently to be of great assistance to her. Her husband died when she was nineteen, and when her son had attained the age of twelve she entered the Ursuline convent of Tours, in 1631. Here she met Madame De la Peltrie, and formed with her the project of founding an Ursuline convent in Quebec. She arrived in Canada with a few nuns in 1639. She immediately began the work of instruction in Quebec, the nuns taking as pupils not only the daughters of the colonists, but also those of the friendly Indian tribes. This led her to acquire several of the Indian languages, in which she wrote instructions for her pupils. She was not able to begin her monastery until 1641, which was finished in 1642. It was destroyed by fire in 1650, in the middle of a Canadian winter. Notwithstanding poverty and trials of various kinds, she set to work with energy and soon rebuilt it. She continued to direct the monastery up to her last illness. In the troubles of the colony caused by the war waged by the Iroquois, she was frequently consulted, and her advice often adopted. In one of her letters she predicted the great future in store for whatever people should occupy the valley of the Hudson, and endeavored to persuade her countrymen to take possession of it. She was styled by Bossuet "the Teresa of our days and of the New World." The cause of her canonization as a saint of the Roman Catholic church was introduced before the papal authorities several years ago, and is still prosecuted in Rome. She was the author of "Lettres" (Paris, 1677); "Retraite, avec une expression succincte du cantique des cantiques" (1682); and "Ecole chretienne, ou explication familigre des mysteres de la foi" (1684). These were all published after her death by her son, DOM CLAUDE MARTIN, who also issued her life, written by herself by order of her superiors (Paris, 1677). See also a shorter biography by Charlevoix (Paris, 1724).
