Saint Marie Guyart

Marie of the Incarnation OSU (née Marie Guyart; 28 October 1599 – 30 April 1672) was a French Ursuline nun from Quebec City. As part of a group of nuns sent to New France (modern-day Quebec, Canada) 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. A skilled creative, Marie wrote many letters, learned Indigenous languages, practiced embroidery and needlework, and spread her faith. Due to her work, the Catholic Church declared her a saint, and the Anglican Church of Canada celebrates her with a feast day. She was born Marie Guyart in Tours, France. Her father was a baker. 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 six months after the birth of their son, leaving Marie a widow at the age of nineteen.