Marie of the Incarnation, OSU (28 October 1599 – 30 April 1672) was a French Ursuline nun. As part of a group of nuns sent to New France (Quebec) to establish the Ursuline Order, Marie was crucial in the spread of Catholicism in New France. She was a religious author and has been credited with founding the first girls' school in the New World. Due to her work, the Catholic Church declared her a saint, and the Anglican Church of Canada celebrates her with a feast day.
Early life
She was born Marie Guyart in Tours, France. Her father was a silk merchant. She was the fourth of Florent Guyart and Jeanne Michelet's eight children. From an early age she was drawn to religious liturgy and the sacraments. When Marie was seven years old, she recounted her first mystical encounter with Jesus Christ. In her book Relation, of 1654 she recounted: "...with my eyes toward heaven, I saw our Lord Jesus Christ in human form come forth and move through the air to me. As Jesus in his wondrous majesty was approaching me, I felt my heart enveloped by his love and I began to extend my arms to embrace him. Then he put his arms about me, kissed me lovingly, and said, 'Do you wish to belong to me?' I answered, 'Yes!' And having received my consent, he ascended back into Heaven." From that point onward, Marie felt "inclined towards goodness."
Intent on belonging to Christ, Marie, aged fourteen, proposed to her parents that she enter religious life with the Benedictines of Beaumont Abbey but her parents disregarded her desire. Instead, she was married to Claude Martin, a master silk worker in 1617. By her own account, she enjoyed a happy—although brief—marriage and within two years she had a son, also named Claude. Her husband died only months after the birth of their son, leaving Marie a widow at the age of nineteen.
With her husband's death, Guyart inherited his failing business which she then lost. Forced to move into her parents' home, Guyart secluded herself to pursue a deepening of her commitment to spiritual growth. After a year with her parents, Guyart was invited to move in with her sister and brother-in-law, Paul Buisson, who owned a successful transportation business. She accepted, and helped in managing their house and kitchen.
Though nothing could distract Guyart from the pursuit of a spiritual life. "I was constantly occupied by my intense concentration on God..." she wrote in Relation of 1633. Over time, her inclination toward religious life only grew and eventually led her to enter the Ursuline convent on 25 January 1631.
Religious beginnings
Free to pursue her religious inclinations after her husband's death, Guyart took a vow of chastity, obedience, and poverty. On 24 March 1620, she reported a religious vision that set her on a new path of devotional intensity.
In 1627 Guyart read and found a role model in the autobiographical account, Vida, about the Spanish mystic Teresa of Ávila. She found many spiritual connections with Teresa, and was heavily influenced by her work. Guyart aspired to travel to the New World and becoming a martyr there. Fueled by Jesuit teachings and her own visions, Guyart became more and more encouraged to travel to New France. So much so, she recorded a vision that would inspire her voyage to the New World. With the assistance of her spiritual director, Guyart identified the country in her vision to be Canada and further incentivized her departure to New France. Despite never achieving martyrdom, Guyart would spend many years in the New World aspiring towards it, working diligently in the meantime. After her death, the two names would often be connected, and Marie would occasionally be referred to as the Teresa of Canada.
In 1631, after working with a spiritual director for many years, Guyart decided to enter the Ursuline monastery in Tours to answer her religious vocation. At that time she received the religious name by which she is now known. Joining the monastery required her to leave her young son, and he expressed much difficulty with the separation. Claude tried to storm the monastery with a band of school friends, and could repeatedly be found crying at the gates, trying to enter. She left him in the care of the Buisson family, but the emotional pain of the separation would remain with them both. Later, when her son had become a Benedictine monk, they corresponded candidly about their spiritual and emotional trials.