Mary Of The Incarnation

Mary Of The Incarnation (born Feb. 26, 1566, Paris—died April 18, 1618, Pontoise, Fr.) was a mystic whose activity and influence in religious affairs inspired most of the leading French ecclesiastics of her time.

Although Mary wished to be a nun, her parents insisted that she marry (1582) Pierre Acarie, vicomte de Villemore. With the aid of King Henry IV of France and his wife, Marie de Médicis, she brought the Carmelite nuns to Paris, leading to the introduction into France in 1604 of the Discalced Carmelites, an order of meditative, cloistered nuns. She helped to reform the French Benedictine convents and worked for the expansion of the Ursulines, the first order of nuns dedicated to the education of girls. She encouraged her cousin Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle to found (1611) the Oratory, a congregation of priests that played an important part in the religious development of France in the 17th century.

After Pierre’s death (1613), she entered the Carmelite convent at Amiens, Fr., where she made her vows in 1615, taking the name of Mary of the Incarnation. She was beatified in 1791 by Pope Pius VI, and her traditional feast day is April 18.