MARIE DE L'INCARNATION, BL.

Discalced Carmelite nun and mystic, baptized Barbé Avrillot; b. Paris, France, Feb. 1, 1566; d. Pontoise, France, April 18, 1618. At 16 she married the viscount of Villemor, Pierre Acarie. A mother of six children, three boys and three girls, Mme. Acarie, characterized as La Belle Acarie, was popular and respected in society at the French capital. However, her husband met with misfortune; his property was confiscated and he was exiled by the king for his part in La Ligue. Mme. Acarie bore this adversity with faith and courage, and dedicated herself to the education of their children. Deepening her spiritual life, she took an active part in various religious enterprises, especially the introduction of the Discalced Carmelite nuns into France (1604). Her three daughters entered the Reformed Carmel; upon the death of her husband, she herself took the habit of St. teresa of Ávila as a lay sister in the convent of Amiens, with the religious name of Marie of the Incarnation. Shortly afterward she was transferred to the new foundation of Pontoise, and died there with a reputation for holiness.

She wrote two small works: Les Vrays exercises (Paris, 1622) and Oraison, resembling the works of St. john of the cross in tone; she inserted both into the Constitutions of Pontoise. Her influence in that period of French Catholicism, which H. brÉmond calls "L'invasion mystique" of the Teresian Reform in France, was enormous, because of her social position, her personality and spirituality, and her connections with the élite of French spirituality: St. francis de sales, Jean Duval, Cardinal pierre bÉrulle, Brétigny, and others.

pius vi signed the decree of the heroicity of her virtues (Sept. 27, 1788), and she was beatified in 1794. Her cause has recently been resumed.

Feast: April 18 (Discalced Carmelites).

Bibliography: a. duval, La Vie admirable de Soeur Marie de l'Incarnation (Paris 1621). bruno de jÉsus-marie, La Belle Acarie, bienheureuse Marie de l'Incarnation (Paris 1942). l. c. sheppard, Barbe Acarie, Wife and Mystic (New York 1953). gabriel de jesÚs, La Beata María de la Encarnación (Madrid 1923).

[o. rodriguez]