Saint of the Day: St. Marie of the Incarnation Guyart

Ursuline Sister and Educator (1599-1672)

Her life

+ Marie Guyart as born in Tours, France, and entered the Ursuline order following her husband’s death.

+ Known in religious life as “Sister Marie of the Incarnation,” she sailed to Canada in 1639 and established the first school for women in North America.

+ In 1642, she established the first community of Ursuline sisters in the New World. The first students were Native Americans and Marie mastered the Algonquin and Iroquois languages to effectively provide her students with a catechism and books on Church history. She would later compose a dictionary of both languages.

+ A devout and gifted woman, she guided the Ursulines through the trials of frontier life, combining a contemplative spirit with highly developed administrative skills.

+ Saint Marie of the Incarnation died on April 30, 1672, and was canonized in 2014.

For prayer and reflection

“The Church’s mission of evangelization is essentially a proclamation of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness, revealed to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Missionaries have served the Church’s mission by breaking the bread of God’s word for the poor and those far off, and by bringing to all the gift of the unfathomable love welling up from the heart of the Saviour.”—Pope Francis at the Mass of Thanksgiving for the canonization of Saint Marie of the Incarnation

Vocations

The Ursuline Sisters of the Canadian Union: www.ursulines-uc.com/eng/index.php

Prayer

O God, who raised up blessed Marie of the Incarnation in your Church to show others the way of salvation, grant us, by her example, so to follow Christ the master, that we may come with our neighbor into your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For Educators)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.