A New and Treacherous Venture

On February 19^th, 1639, Madame de la Peltrie knocked on the door of the Ursuline Monastery of Tours in the company of Monsieur de Bernières who managed her affairs. She wished to go to Canada. While in Paris, she heard that an Ursuline from Tours also had the same wish.

Mary of the Incarnation was astonished to recognize in this visitor the lady she held by the hand in her dream of 1634.

From one surprise to another, obstacles were overcome, bonds were interwoven, and financial resources were taken care of, thanks to Madame de la Peltrie’s generosity. Moreover, Sister Marie de St-Joseph, 22 years old, offered to leave with them.

After have been granted all due authorizations, on February 28^th, 1639, the two Ursulines, Madame de la Peltrie and Monsieur de Bernières left for Paris to sign the necessary contracts with the Company of the Hundred Associates which managed affairs in New France and to draw up agreements with the Jesuit Fathers who were in charge of the Church in New France. Madame de la Peltrie took final possession of the inheritance received from her deceased husband. In spite of strong opposition from relatives, she dedicated an important part of her fortune to establishing a “seminary” in Canada for the education of native girls.

Having settled all their business, they made their way to Dieppe and awaited favourable winds to embark. During their stay, the two Sisters were guests of the Ursulines of Dieppe. To Mary of the Incarnation’s great joy, one of them, Sister Cecile de Sainte-Croix, accepted to join the missionaries. The sailing ship, named Saint Joseph, weighed anchor on May 4^th, 1639.

The voyage lasted three months. As their drinking water had been contaminated shortly after their departure, they soon became very thirsty. Long, heavy storms made them seasick. But worse yet, everyone expected to die when their ship just missed striking an iceberg.

On August 1^st, 1639, after transshipments in Tadoussac and on the Island of Orleans, the travellers finally landed in Quebec. “Forest as far as the eye can see, a country covered in fog, an abrupt and rocky path”, a sight that reminded Mary of the Incarnation of her dream of 1634.

A Community, a Monastery

The little colony welcomed the newcomers with all due honors. The three Ursulines and Madame de la Peltrie were lodged in a house near the port. It had two bedrooms, a cellar and an attic, and above that, the general store of the Company of the Hundred Associates. They could see the stars through the cracks between the planks.

They had hardly set foot on dry ground that the French settlers and the natives brought their daughters for instruction. For the first three years, they lived in close quarters and carried out their regular duties: Mass and Divine Office, cooking, cleaning, teaching, studying the native languages, taking care of the little native girls, etc. Moreover, in an improvised parlor, the Sisters received the children’s parents, the settlers, the Jesuits and the Governor.

It became urgent for the Sisters to build a monastery in order to carry out their mission in New France as adequately as possible. Mary of the Incarnation obtained the Governor’s authorization to raise a building in a location as safe as possible with regard to the threat of the Iroquois. She prepared plans and quotations, hired workers and closely supervised the construction.

The community’s debts began accumulating and its resources were running dry. As the Ursulines had always acknowledged the Virgin Mary as their first and principal superior, Mary of the Incarnation placed the community totally in her hands and affirmed having felt her faithful and loving presence from the beginning to the end of the enterprise.

On November 21^st, 1642, the community moved into the monastery, and its little boarding school section was soon overflowing with children.

 

First Monastery of Quebec

 

Fire and Rebuilding

Misfortune soon struck the small community. A Sister forgot to extinguish the embers placed beneath the bread bin to keep the dough from freezing. The bread bin eventually took fire and soon the whole monastery was engulfed in flames. The Sisters and boarders barely made it out, while Mary of the Incarnation threw the community’s important papers out the window before joining her Sisters outside. Most of them were scantly clothed and barefoot in the snow. During this night of December 31^st, 1651, the Ursulines bowed their heads and sang praises to God.

The settlers hurried to the Sisters’ help with clothing and blankets. For the following three weeks, the Hospital Sisters, though as poor as most of the settlers, welcomed the victims of the fire into their convent, furnishing them with clothing and food. The Ursulines afterwards moved into Madame de la Peltrie’s little house recently built close to the monastery. Once again, they experienced crowding and food shortage.

The civil and religious authorities as well as the settlers believed that the departure of the stricken Ursuline community was inevitable. However, Mary of the Incarnation and her companions did not share this opinion; they had come to stay.

The debt of the first monastery was far from written off. Rebuilding on the existing foundations required an act of faith in Divine Providence and a necessary appeal for help. Encouraged by the parents of the French and native children and still more by their faith in God, the Ursulines decided to remain in the country. Once summer came around, the sailors returning to France brought letters relating the painful ordeal. Help, however, might not come before another whole year.

As soon as the snow melted, Mary of the Incarnation began directing the new construction. The Ursulines did not wait for the interior to be completed before moving in.

Mary of the Incarnation had other huge responsibilities, alternating as she did between the roles of superior, assistant, treasurer of the community, and mistress of novices. Besides this, she successfully learned four native languages, composed dictionaries for these languages, participated in the education of the children, and shared in the household chores.

But where did she find the resources to feed the household, clothe the little native boarders, pay the workers and building materials and carry the weight of enormous debts? While she gives all the glory to God and the Virgin Mary, her contemporaries cry, “Miracle!”

Letter Writing

Mary of the Incarnation exchanged an enormous number of letters, both business and personal, with people in France. Her letters are a goldmine of information on the history of the first decades of the colony.

As a loving mother, she wrote moving letters to her son who had become a Benedictine monk. She responded with wisdom and astonishing clarity to the young religious in search of counsel. In 1654, upon her son Claude’s insistence, she once more took to put to writing the history of God’s grace in her life, the first manuscript having been destroyed in the fire of 1651. In spite of being separated by an entire ocean, these two people kept very close in God’s love, thanks to an assiduous exchange of letters.

Mary of the Incarnation found time to write only after sundown and late into the night. Only when her frozen fingers could no longer hold the pen would she extinguish the foul-smelling, smoking candle. After a few hours of sleep, she would join the community at sunrise for the prayer of Divine Office, meditation, and Mass. After which, together with her Sisters and united to Jesus, she would work hard to build a Church in Canada.

Aging and Death

A serious illness threatened Mary of the Incarnation’s life in 1645. A remission allowed her a few more years, but the illness continued its devious work. In 1657, she wrote to her son: “The extremity to which my illness reduced me made me realize more than ever that we must work for God and practice virtue when we are in good health, and especially keep a clean and pure conscience.”  Despite the uncommon courage that kept her active, she suffered greatly in her later years from the ailment that had never left her.

 

Up to the last hours of her life, she showed her affection for the little native girls whom she called, “my heart’s delight”. She received the Sacrament of the Sick with full consciousness, asked forgiveness of those around her and thanked her Sisters for their charity towards her. She encouraged them to remain faithful to their missionary vocation. She said goodbye to her son in a final letter. And, on April 30^th, 1672, surrounded by her Ursuline Sisters whom she had loved and served, she went to join her “Great God”.

 

In the obituary that her Sisters sent to the Ursuline monasteries in France, we read: “The rare virtues and excellent qualities that adorned the life of our beloved deceased Sister lead us to believe that she holds a high place in glory.” And from his Benedictine Abbey where he had become the Abbot, Claude wrote: “God did not will that love alone separate her soul from her body; He joined suffering to her love, that she might die, like her Divine Spouse, of love and suffering together.”

 

Mary of the Incarnation was beatified on June 20^th, 1980, by Pope John Paul II.

She was canonized by Pope Francis, on April 3^rd, 2014, as the Ursulines celebrated the 375^th anniversary of her arrival in Quebec.