MARIA DELL'INCARNAZIONE, Venerable. – Born Marie Guyart, mystic and Ursuline missionary, she was born in Tours on 28 October 1599 and died in Québec on 30 April 1672. Though drawn to contemplation from childhood (her first vision dates to 1607), she yielded to her father’s wishes and in 1617 married the silk-factory owner 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 while still remaining for several years in active life, managing business affairs. 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, she reached the calm of perfect union with God (1628). On 25 January 1631 she entered the Ursuline convent in Tours, leaving her eleven-year-old son only after painful hesitation.
On the octave of Christmas 1634 she had a dream that inflamed her spirit for the missions. She then began to hear about New France (Canada), corresponded with missionaries already on site, and with some Jesuits about to depart. After various developments, in company with Mme de la Peltrie she sailed from Dieppe on 4 May 1639 and arrived in Québec on 1 August. There, amid hardships and privations, she began her greatest outward mystical activity: she became the counsellor and guide of the indigenous peoples, the governors, and the merchants. With Mme de la Peltrie she used her modest resources to found the Hôtel-Dieu of Saint-Joseph; for herself and her nuns she founded a monastery, rebuilt it after a fire (1650), and for eighteen years served as its superior and animating spirit. She endured wars, earthquakes, rebellions, raids, and humiliations with courage.
The cause for her beatification was introduced in 1877; the decree on the heroicity of her virtues was issued on 10 July 1911.
The writings of Maria dell’Incarnazione (her autobiography, letters, and mystical works) were edited and published by her son Claude Martin (Paris 1677–84), and later issued with critical notes and a new biography by A. Jamet (4 vols., 1912–1929). Her doctrine became a subject of debate in the controversy over pure love (v.) between Fénelon and Bossuet.