April 30: Saint Marie of the Incarnation
Born: October 28, 1599, Tours, France
Died: April 30, 1672, Quebec City, New France (Canada)
Nationality: French
Vocation / State: Wife, widow, mystic, Ursuline nun, missionary, foundress
Attributes: Ursuline habit, book or quill, holding a crucifix, often shown teaching Native children
Patronage: Catholic education in Canada, Ursulines, missions in North America
Beatification: 1980 by Pope St. John Paul II
Canonization: 2014 by Pope Francis
Born Marie Guyart in Tours in 1599, she displayed extraordinary piety from her youth, experiencing mystical visions of Christ that never left her. At seventeen she was married, but only two years later her husband died, leaving her with an infant son.
For years she worked in her brother-in-law’s business while raising her child. During this time her mystical life deepened, including visions of Jesus asking her to dedicate herself completely to Him. She longed to enter religious life but delayed out of love and duty to her son. Once he was provided for, she entered the Ursulines in 1631, taking the name Marie of the Incarnation.
Soon she was drawn to the missionary call. In 1639 she sailed across the Atlantic to Quebec, then a rough frontier settlement, where she founded the first Ursuline convent and school in North America. There she taught French and Native girls alike, embracing both cultures with maternal care. She worked to learn indigenous languages -including Algonquin and Iroquois- so she could catechize and write grammars and dictionaries to aid future missionaries.
Marie’s writings -her letters and spiritual accounts- reveal both a deep mystical theology and a tireless practicality. She wrote of her mystical espousals with Christ even as she described the challenges of building schools in the wilderness.
She died in Quebec on April 30, 1672, at the age of 72. Her son, Claude Martin, became a Benedictine and later published her correspondence, which gained wide influence in France.
When Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1980, called her the “Mother of the Canadian Church.” Pope Francis called her “a bridge between France and the New World” and as a pioneer of Catholic education in Canada.
Saint Marie of the Incarnation, pray for us.