Colonial America Biographies | Marie Guyart Biography

c. 1599

France

c. 1672

Quebec, France

French missionary

French missionary Marie Guyart was a pioneering educator in seventeenth-century Canada. Going against the wishes of her family, Guyart achieved her lifelong dream of becoming a nun (member of a Roman Catholic order for women). In 1631 she entered the Ursuline convent (a house where nuns live) in Tours, France, where she took the religious name Marie de l'Incarnation and began her spiritual training. Eight years later Guyart went to Canada and established a convent in New France (now Quebec). Her school for daughters of settlers and Native Americans thrived in spite of many hardships. A tireless missionary, Guyart also wrote instructional materials in Algonquian and Iroquoian. Her autobiography, titled The Life of the Venerable Mother Marie de l'Incarnation published in 1677, is an important...