Marie de lIncarnation

Marie de l'Incarnation , 1599-1672, French missionary. Her name was originally Marie Guyard. She was married in her youth and bore a son; when her son was 12 years old, her husband being dead, she entered the Ursuline order. At her entreaty, the authorities gave her and another nun permission to go to New France to work among the Native Americans. In 1639 she arrived in Quebec, where she was soon head of an Ursuline convent. She administered her house with great success and worked among the Native Americans with notable results. Her letters are valuable sources of French Canadian history. She wrote devotional works and catechisms, not only in French but in Native American languages.

Bibliography: See A. Repplier, Mère Marie of the Ursulines (1931).

Guyard (or Guyart), Marie (1599–1672), Bl Marie de l'Incarnation. Though drawn to the religious life, in 1617 she married C. J. Martin (d. 1620) and had a son. In 1631 she entered the Ursuline convent at Tours. She was among those who accepted an invitation to form a convent at Quebec in 1639; she became its first superior. She was the recipient of visions from childhood. Feast day, 30 Apr.