Saint Marie of the Incarnation (1599 – 1672) was a mystic and missionary to Canada, contemporaneous with the first settlers of this wild and savage land, along with the Franciscans and Jesuits who brought the Faith. She was born Marie Guyart in 1599, in Tours, France, her father a baker, her mother a homemaker, who had eight children, Marie being the fourth. As a child, she received a vision of Christ, Who asked, ‘Do you wish to belong to me?’, to which Marie replied ‘yes’. After this, she was determined to enter religious life, but her parents had other plans of marriage, to which Marie gave way. She married Claude Martin in 1617, and they had a son named after his father. Claude Senior died a few months later, leaving Marie a bereft 19-year-old widow, so she ended up moving in with her sister and brother-in-law.
It was a few years after the death of her husband, sometime in 1620, that she received a vision of a strange land, covered in fog. As she related:
“I saw at some distance to my left a little church of white marble … the Blessed Virgin was seated. She was holding the Child Jesus on her lap. This place was elevated, and below it lay a majestic and vast country, full of mountains, of valleys, of thick mists which permeated everything except the church … The Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, looked down on this country, as pitiable as it was amazing … it seamed to me that she spoke about this country and about myself and that she had in mind some plan which involved me.
The land, of course, was ‘New France’, and Marie was determined to set forth on the missions. Her desire for religious life returned stronger than ever, and she entered the Ursulines in 1633, taking the name Marie of the Incarnation, leaving her son in the care of her relatives. A long preparation ensued, She eventually set sail with some companions on a ship fittingly named Saint Joseph. Her departure was a painful one, not least leaving behind her son – sword of sorrow, indeed. Claude eventually became a Benedictine monk, with whom she corresponded regularly. Marie arrived at Quebec City on August 1st, 1639, comprised of a total of six houses.
What followed was a life of constant hardship and trials, mixed with joys and consolations, as Marie and her Ursuline companions taught the local French girls, along with the Indigenous, with all the cultural tensions that entailed. Poverty, misunderstanding, isolation, illnesses – especially smallpox, to which the Indigenous had no immunity – but through it all, Sister Marie persevered. She died on this April 30th, 1672, leaving behind a profound legacy of holiness, along with the thousands of letters which provide a window into the early years of the land that would become Canada.
Marie of the Incarnation was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II on June 22nd, 1980, and canonized equipollently, along with the first bishop of Quebec, Francois de Laval, by Pope Francis on April 2nd, 2014.
Canada, not least in light of our new government, could certainly use her intercession. We may hope that her mystical visions of this fair Dominion mean that God has not abandoned us, even if, like those great saints of old, we have to endure trials and tribulations, to see the fruit of His holy will.
Saint Marie, prie pour nous! +
