Marie des Vallées

MARIE DES VALLÉES. - Mystic, nun, called "the seer" or "the saint of Coutances," b. at St-Sauveur-Lendelin (Coutances), to a poor family, on 25 Sept. 1590, d. at Coutances on 25 Febr. 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 terrible nervous crises attributed to sorcery, from which three attempts were made in vain to exorcise her, 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 to annul her will completely so as to follow only the impulses of a superior will that spoke to her with inner voices, which led her to having to renounce Eucharistic Communion for over 30 years. She therefore had many detractors, but many venerated her, and among these principally St. John Eudes (v.), of whom she was adviser and inspirer. She bore her illness with great courage for the conversion of sinners: "Je cherche mes frères qui sont perdus," she would say. Although uneducated, she reasoned with the depth of a theologian, and the fragments of heavenly visions, which St. John Eudes wrote down at her dictation, are full of spontaneous and evocative poetry.

Renata Orazi Ausenda