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Marie of the Incarnation: A Canadian Mystic and Missionary

Marie de l’Incarnation: Études de théologie spirituelle by Pierre Gervais, S.J.:  A Review

Marie of the Incarnation, born Marie Guyart, was one of the first arrivals in ‘New France’, which would later become Canada, arriving here in in 1639, about the same time as many of the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries, and she was in fact a correspondent with the great fellow missionary, and future martyr, Jean de Brebeuf. She set up the first Ursuline community, in what is now Quebec City (where her remains now lie in the same convent), praying, working and educating young girls, both French and Indigenous. She was a great and noble soul, who gave all for God, and for the new nation to which knew she was called in a very vivid vision. What follows is a review of her spirituality. Editor

Pierre Gervais is a Canadian-born Jesuit, professor of systematic, sacramental, and spiritual theology at the Institut d’Etudes Theologiques of Brussels as well as editor of the Nouvelle Revue Théologique. In his Foreword, Father Gervais explains the makeup of these “studies” or essays in spiritual theology based on the life and writings of Marie of the Incarnation (1599-1672), an Ursuline nun first of Tours (France) and then of Quebec. Different stages of Marie’s spiritual experience are examined as recounted in her own writings: the extant excerpts of the “Relation” of 1654 and a spiritual autobiography composed for her son (and only at his insistent request), Dom Claude Martin, who was a monk with the Benedictines of Saint-Maur. Gervais presents the general path of Marie’s spiritual journey, outlining the great stages of her growing awareness of her call to an apostolic and missionary vocation in New France. Particular aspects of Marie’s spiritual theology are tied in with special moments in her life but nevertheless have their parallels in present-day questions about the Christian life.

Praise the Lord

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