St. Marie of the Incarnation

St. Marie of the Incarnation (born Marie Guyart, 28 October 1599 in Tours, France; died 30 April 1672 in Quebec) was an Ursuline nun, mystic, and one of the founders of the Catholic Church in New France. Widowed young and drawn from prosperous business into a life of intense contemplative prayer, she entered the Ursulines at Tours and, moved by a vision, sailed to Canada in 1639, where she established the first convent and girls' school in Quebec — the first institution of its kind in North America.

Devoted to the evangelization of the native peoples, she learned Algonquin, Montagnais, Huron, and Iroquois, composing catechisms and dictionaries in those languages to hand on the faith. Her voluminous spiritual letters and autobiographical writings rank among the great mystical texts of the French school. Bossuet called her the Teresa of the New World. She was beatified in 1980 and canonized by Pope Francis in 2014, and is honored as a co-patroness of Canada.