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Saint Marie of the Incarnation
Image: Hugues Pommier · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Saint Marie of the Incarnation

The widow from Tours who became a pioneer Ursuline in Québec

Rank
Saint
Kind
Founder, Religious, Mystic, Missionary
Life
1599 – 1672
Era
17th century
Feast
30 April
Countries
Canada, France
CanadaFrance

Life story

Marie Guyart was born on 28 October 1599 in Tours, France. She married young and had a son, Claude, but her husband died after only a few years. As a widow she raised her child while working in her brother-in-law's transport business, a job that demanded careful accounting and management.

In 1631 she entered the Ursuline convent at Tours, leaving her son in the care of her family, a decision that cost her great anguish. The boy later became a Benedictine monk and edited his mother's letters. In the convent she took the name Marie of the Incarnation and wrote about her inner life in works that are still read today.

On 4 May 1639 she sailed from Dieppe with several sisters and the benefactor Madeleine de la Peltrie; they reached Québec on 1 August 1639. The sisters founded the first Ursuline convent there and opened the first school in what later became Canada. She learned Algonquin, Huron and Iroquois so that she could teach Indigenous girls, and left dictionaries and catechetical texts in these languages. In 1642 the community moved into a stone building in the upper town; the convent burned in 1650 but was rebuilt.

She died in Québec on 30 April 1672. John Paul II beatified her on 22 June 1980, and in April 2014 Pope Francis extended her cult to the universal Church by equipollent canonisation, together with Bishop François de Laval. Her feast day is 30 April.

Works and witness

  • Widow who worked in a transport business before entering the Ursulines at Tours in 1631
  • Arrived in Québec on 1 August 1639 and founded its first Ursuline convent
  • Opened schools for French and Indigenous girls
  • Learned Algonquin, Huron and Iroquois and compiled dictionaries and catechisms
  • Canonised in 2014 by equipollent canonisation

Saints from the same country

Saint André Bessette, Saint Sebastian, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Dominic

References

  • Martyrologium Romanum
  • Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
  • Marie de l'Incarnation, Correspondance (edited by Dom Guy-Marie Oury)

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.