MARIA des VALLÉES. - Mystic, nun, called “the seer” or “the saint of Coutances,” born at St-Sauveur-Lendelin (Coutances), of a poor family, on 25 Sept. 1590, died at Coutances on 25 Feb. 1656. After an unhappy childhood, in which she already showed herself inspired by Grace, at the age of 19 she began to be subject to
MARIA DES VALLÉES - MARIA CAROLINA DI NAPOLI E SICILIA
to terrible nervous crises attributed to sorcery, from which attempts were vainly made to exorcise her 3 times, and which lasted until a few months before her death. During these crises M. suffered in spirit, first the torments of hell (1616-18), then those of the Passion of Jesus (1621-33).
For fear of falling into sin, M. desired completely to annihilate her own will in order to follow only the impulses of a higher will that spoke to her through inner voices; this led her to have to renounce Eucharistic Communion for more than 30 years. She therefore had many detractors, but many venerated her, chiefly among them s. Giovanni Eudes (v.), whose counsellor and inspirer she was. She bore her affliction with great courage for the conversion of sinners: « Je cherche mes frères qui sont perdus », she would say. Though uneducated, she reasoned with the depth of a theologian, and the fragments of heavenly visions which s. Giovanni Eudes wrote down at her dictation are full of spontaneous and evocative poetry.