MARIA dell'INCARNAZIONE, venerable. — In the world Maria Guyart, mystic and Ursuline missionary, born at Tours on 28 October 1599, died at Québec on 30 April 1672. Although inclined to contemplation from childhood (her first vision dates from 1607), submitting to her father’s wishes she married in 1617 the silk manufacturer Claude Joseph Martin, by whom she had a son, Claude Martin. Widowed in October 1619, she was able to devote herself more intensely to prayer, although she remained for another 11 years amid active life, engaging in business. After various ecstasies, in which she attained mystical knowledge of the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and after sufferings and transports of love, having reached the calm of a perfect union with God (1628), on 25 January 1631 she entered the Ursuline convent at Tours, leaving her eleven-year-old son after painful hesitations.
During the octave of Christmas in 1634 she had a dream that inflamed her spirit for the missions. She then began to hear about Nouvelle France (Canada), entered into correspondence with the missionaries already there, with several Jesuits who were preparing to leave, and with M.me de la Peltrie; after various vicissitudes, having embarked at Dieppe on 4 May 1639, she arrived at Québec on 1 August. There, amid hardships and privations, she began her greatest outward activity, which was mystical in character: she became the counsellor and guide of the indigenous people, governors, and merchants. For the little Iroquois girls she founded, with M. me de la Peltrie, the « Séminaire » of S. Giuseppe; for herself and her sisters she founded a monastery, rebuilt it after a fire (1650), and for 18 years was its superior and moving spirit. Wars, earthquakes, rebellions, bitterness, and humiliations—all she endured with courage.
The cause of her beatification was introduced in 1877; the decree on the heroicity of her virtues dates from 10 July 1911.
The writings of M. dell'I. (the autobiography, letters, and mystical writings) were revised and published by her son Claude Martin (Paris 1677–84), and, with announced critical editions and a new biography, by A. Jamet (4 vols., ibid. 1929–1939). The doctrine of M. dell'I. was the subject of discussion love (v.) between Fenelon and Bossuet.