[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 27 



Athanase — dites-lui que je l'emporte en mon cœur dans le paraàis. Nor 

 was public duty forgotten. One of her last acts was to dictate a letter 

 to an influential personage in France, uirging the completion of her well- 

 considered scheme for the re-union of all branches of the Ursuline 

 Order throughout the world. To the great regret of everyone Bishop 

 Laval was tlien absent from Quebec. But the veteran Père Lallemant, 

 who had served in every post of danger sinjce the time of Champlain, 

 gave her the last consolations of the faith. For some hours on the day 

 of her death she neither spoke nor heard — rapt in ecstasy between both 

 worlds. The evening Angelus was sounding, as it had for her fellow- 

 labourer five months before, when she opened her eyes for one final look 

 at the Ursulines kneeling round her, and then gently closed them again 

 forever. All who were present saw a ray of celestial light rest on her 

 face as her soul took flight for Heaven, and believed it to signify her 

 consummated union with her Lord. The Ursulines commemorate this to 

 the present day, by singing a special Te Deum on the last night of each 

 recurring April. Père Lallemant preached the funeral sermon, pro- 

 nounced the benediction, and the congregation dispersed. Then the 

 Governor and Intendant, with the clerg}' and nuns, approaching the bier, 

 were so struck by her expression that they sent for an artist to per- 

 petuate it. The original of this portrait was burnt, in the second fire; 

 but a contemporary copy sent to France was afterwards returned to 

 Canada, and is now in the convent. The portrait taken, the coffin was 

 closed and this inscription placed upon it: Ci-gît la Révérende Mère 

 Marie Guyart de l'Incarnation, première supérieure de ce monastère^^ 

 âécédée le dernier jour d'avril 1673, âgée de 72 ans et 6 mois. Religieuse 

 jjrofesse, venue de Tours. Priez pour son âme. 



The night she died in Quebec her Ursuline niece in Tours distinctly 

 saw her laid out in a winding sheet, while a voice breathed close by, 

 " Elle est morte." The other nuns were averse from believing this story 

 next morning ; but the first ship from Canada brought the confirmation 

 of it. The whole Ursuline Order deplored the loss of such a saintly 

 life. The Jesuits and all who knew her bore eqlially ready witness to 

 her surpassing virtues. While Dom Martin's filial piety and religious 

 zeal prompted him to publish her life and letters a few years later : "C'est 

 ici un livre de reconnaissance envers Dieu et de piété à l'égard d'une 

 îpersonne à laquelle je dois, après lui, tout ce que je suis, selon la nature 

 et selon la grâce." 



Her cult began forthwith and has grown ever since. Fifty years 

 after, Father Charlevoix hoped to hasten the day of her beatification by 

 a new account of her merits. In 1752 a Quebec Ursuline writes : " Kous 

 avons eu quelque espérance de voir notre vénérable mère mise sur les 



