MARIE OF THE INCARNATION, Blessed. - Carmelite, born Barbe Avrillot in Paris on 26 February 1566, died at Pontoise on 18 April 1618. She married (1582) Pierre Acarie, counselor at the Court of Accounts, and had six children by him; the three daughters became Carmelites.
Converted to fervor in 1588, she was often rapt in ecstasy, and it is known from her confessors, Fr. Benedict of Canfield, Cardinal de Bérulle and Fr. Coton, that she bore the stigmata. M.'s mystical life is characterized by the absence of any concern for her own grace and by a particular gift for the direction of souls.
While caring for her family, Mme Acarie radiated her influence over the high society of her time. «Of the hearths kindled under the reign of Henry IV none equals in splendor, in intensity, in radiance, the hôtel Acarie» (H. Bremond). For 30 years M. was one of the most listened-to authorities in mystical theology: she directed the extraordinary religious ferment that took place around her. She prepared the works of charity of St. Vincent de Paul; she persuaded her cousin Mme de Sainte Beuve to found the Ursulines of France (1608); she helped the reform of the Benedictine monasteries; she watched over the nascent Congregations of Fr. Gallemant at Aumale and Pontoise; she organized the Congregation of Ste Geneviève from which the Carmel of France would come. Warned by an apparition of St. Teresa, she introduced (1603) into France, with the help of Cardinal de Bérulle (v.), the reformed Carmel; she therefore directed the efforts of Jean de Quintanadoine, and obtained from the princess de Longueville the support of the court of France; she provided the incipient Carmel with the first recruits, selected and formed by herself. One of these Carmels, that of Dijon, would be the cenacle in which the sanctity of Giovanna F. de Chantal would blossom.
Widowed in 1613, Mme Acarie entered (1614) the Carmel of Amiens as a lay sister; from there she was sent to that of Pontoise. She was beatified on 5 June 1791. Feast on 18 March. Her Lettres were published by Richadeau (2 vols., Tournai 1876).