Marie of the Incarnation (Ursuline)

Free to pursue her religious inclinations after her husband's death, Guyart took a vow of chastity, obedience, and poverty. On 24 March 1620, she reported a religious vision that set her on a new path of devotional intensity.[4]

In 1627 Guyart read and found a role model in the autobiographical account, Vida, about the Spanish mystic Teresa of Ávila. She found many spiritual connections with Teresa, and was heavily influenced by her work. Guyart aspired to travel to the New World and becoming a martyr there. Fueled by Jesuit teachings and her own visions, Guyart became more and more encouraged to travel to New France. So much so, she recorded a vision that would inspire her voyage to the New World. With the assistance of her spiritual director, Guyart identified the country in her vision to be Canada and further incentivized her departure to New France. Despite never achieving martyrdom, Guyart would spend many years in the New World aspiring towards it, working diligently in the meantime. After her death, the two names would often be connected, and Marie would occasionally be referred to as the Teresa of Canada.[5]

In 1631, after working with a spiritual director for many years, Guyart decided to enter the Ursuline monastery in Tours to answer her religious vocation. At that time she received the religious name by which she is now known.[2] Joining the monastery required her to leave her young son, and he expressed much difficulty with the separation. Claude tried to storm the monastery with a band of school friends, and could repeatedly be found crying at the gates, trying to enter. She left him in the care of the Buisson family, but the emotional pain of the separation would remain with them both. Later, when her son had become a Benedictine monk, they corresponded candidly about their spiritual and emotional trials.

Prior to her departure, Guyart had been leading a cloistered life as a member of the Ursuline Order. After having professed her vows in 1633,[6] she changed her name to Marie de L'Incarnation;[7] that Christmas, she recounted a powerful vision, which functioned as the catalyst for her mission to New France. In this mystical dream, Guyart saw herself walking hand in hand with a fellow laywoman against the backdrop of a foreign landscape, on the roof of a small church in this distant, foggy landscape sat the Virgin Mary and Jesus; she interpreted this as the mother and son discussing her religious calling to the new land. She recounted the vision to her priest at the Order, who informed her that the nation she described was Canada, and suggested that she read The Jesuit Relations;[8] from this Guyart concluded that her vocation was to help establish the Catholic faith in the New World.

Personal and financial obstacles delayed her departure by four years. Over this time, she maintained a continuous correspondence with Jesuits in Quebec who were supportive of a female religious presence, which might facilitate the Christianization of Huron women; Guyart's Mother Superior in Tours, and her pre-Ursuline religious director Dom Raymond de Saint Bernard were largely unsupportive, the latter suggesting that it was too lofty for a lowly laywoman.;[9] Guyart was met with similar resistance from her family. Her brother, Claude Guyart attempted to persuade her into abandoning her mission by accusing her of parental neglect, and by revoking an inheritance designated for her son; these measures did not deter her.[10]

Guyart's initial financial concerns for the funding of the journey, and the establishment of a convent in New France were resolved when she was introduced to Madeleine de la Peltrie on 19 February 1639. Guyart recognized that this religiously devoted widow, the daughter of a fiscal officer, was the laywoman from her vision four years earlier. De la Peltrie's contribution to the endeavour was met with strong opposition from her aristocratic family; to garner their support, de la Peltrie arranged a sham marriage with Christian Jean de Brenière. De la Peltrie's new marital status gave her the legal authority to sign over the bulk of her estate to the Ursuline Order, thereby fully funding the mission.[11] Following this, the Ursuline went to Paris, and signed legal contracts with the Company of One Hundred Associates, and the Jesuit Fathers, who were responsible for the colony's political and spiritual life, respectively. The official royal charter sanctioning the establishment of the foundation was signed by Louis XIII shortly thereafter.[4]

On 4 May 1639, Guyart and de la Peltrie, set sail from Dieppe for Quebec on board the Saint Joseph. They were accompanied by a fellow aristocratic Ursuline Marie de Sanonières, the young commoner Charlotte Barré, three nurses, and two Jesuit Fathers.[11]

In August 1639 the group landed in Quebec City and established a convent in the lower town. When they began their first work at the foot of the mountain, Quebec was but a name. Hardly six houses stood on the site chosen by Champlain thirty-one years previously.[12] She and her companions at first occupied a little house in the lower town (Basse-Ville).[13] In 1642 the Ursulines moved to a permanent stone building in the upper town.[6] The group managed to found the first school in what would become Canada, as well as the Ursuline Monastery of Quebec, which has been designated one of the National Historic Sites of Canada.

Guyart's early interactions with Native populations were largely shaped by the constraints created by differing lifestyles, illnesses, and alliances. Indigenous divisions of manual and domestic labour by gender and age diverged significantly from European conceptions of masculine and feminine spheres of work. This made it difficult for Marie and the other Ursulines to educate young girls with methods developed in Europe.[14]

With European colonization came an influx of illnesses. Smallpox outbreaks from the 1630s to the 1650s ravaged Native populations, leading them to believe that Jesuits and Ursulines were imparting disease through their religious practices and paraphernalia. Fears that baptisms, holy icons, and crosses were the source of all epidemics greatly limited the groups' interactions, and strained Marie's relationship with Natives in her first decades in New France.[15]

The most volatile relationship Guyart and the Ursulines faced revolved around the conflict that pitted the French, Huron, and other indigenous allies against the Iroquois.[16] Iroquois hostility towards the Jesuit-allied Hurons shaped Guyart's negative view of the Five Nations. Iroquois military victories in the 1650s, and their dominance by the start of the next decade, brought Guyart and the Ursulines close to despair.[17] Their distress was heightened by a fire that destroyed their convent in 1650.[16] Simultaneous political troubles in France caused European Ursulines to pressure their Canadian sisters to return home, adding to Guyart and the Ursulines' stresses, and fears. Such feelings of helplessness were quelled, however, when the convent was reconstructed with seemingly miraculous speed; a blessing attributed to the Virgin Mary.[18]

A strong, universalizing impulse underscored Guyart's interactions, and activities in New France. Her perceptions of similarities between European Christians, and the potential converts in the New World were the upshots of a cloistered convent life, and largely non-existent experiences with other cultures;[19] such seclusion allowed for an over-simplification of her ambition to spread God's word transnationally.[20] According to Natalie Zemon Davis, the integrative approach towards Native interactions that developed from this mindset was dissimilar to the Jesuit's methods of establishing relationships in New France. Jesuits, adopted Native roles in the presence of First Nations peoples, but were quick to shed these association when outside the confines of their settlements;[21] this double life made any fully integrative experience, or universal mindset impossible.

Guyart noticed that Native girls were in possession of commendable traits such as submissiveness, and conscientiousness,[22] which would facilitate their adoption of Christian practices, and their commitment to a Christian marriage; the two pillars of a thorough, universalizing conversion.[23]

In the 17th century, a key pillar of education was religious education. Marie followed a strict orthodox teaching method she had learnt during her time with the Ursulines in Tours.[24] The system was based on basics of faith, French and Latin literature, and civility. The basics of faith included catechism, prayers, and hymns. The main objective of the Ursuline school was to educate young French girls and Natives to become good Christians. The young French girls paid one hundred and twenty livres to cover both their education and pension fees.[24] At the time, the young Native girls did not have to pay for their education. The Ursuline's encouraged the young Innu, Hurons, and Algonquins to use the seminary as a resource.[25] These girls were taught French mannerisms and were taught how to dress based on French culture. After their education, the young aboriginal students were encouraged to go back to their homes and share their teachings. By educating young girls from different tribes, francization was transmitted from daughter to mother. In her writings, Guyart emphasized the fact that the Aboriginal students were treated the same way as the French students at the school. They allowed the girls to sing hymns in both French and their native languages.[25] Many of the nuns created mother-like bonds with the First Nation students. There were, however, some problems with the education system during the 17th century. Some students did not stay at the school long enough to receive a complete education. The Ursuline nuns did not have the authority to keep them if the girls wanted to leave. Another problem was limited economic resources. The school could only accept a limited number of students because of a lack of funds.[24]