Blessed Mary
of the Incarnation
Madame Acarie is a model for us, men and women today, whatever our state of life.
DISCOVER MME ACARIE’S SITE IN ENGLISH !
Her life, her history, the founding of Carmel in France… discover and make discover this multifaceted figure of holiness !
You will meet an extraordinary personality! This is Barbe AVRILLOT, wife of Pierre ACARIE, born in Paris on February 1, 1566 and died in Pontoise on April 18, 1618.
A woman in the world, married, 6 children, who has heroically faced great trials, she is “the main initiator of Carmel in France”. Widowed, she herself is called by God to become a converse sister: Sister Marie of the Incarnation, today Blessed.
In this woman of very good sense, the love of God is reflected in the complete fulfillment of the duty of state. Combining numerous natural gifts with an intense interior life, she knew how to simultaneously fulfill her duties towards God and towards her neighbor.
Madame Acarie is a model for us, men and women today, whatever our state of life.
Madame Acarie is particularly prayed for for future births, and for the reception and protection of life in all circumstances.
Barbe Avrillot, who became the wife of Pierre Acarie at the age of sixteen and a half, shows during his thirty-two years of marriage that the highest mystical life is not incompatible with any of the obligations of family and social life.
In this heart wholly in God, maternal love will know how to be tender and firm. A seasoned educator, Madame Acarie brings up her six children without weakness or harshness: by turns cheerful and serious, she is the adviser to her three sons and three daughters.
Woman of influence in a prominent milieu, belonging to the Parisian « haute robe » by her birth, her alliances and her fortune, she is held in consideration in the circles of power, at the Court, and even by the Sovereigns, thanks to its sole human and spiritual influence. It testifies that POWER IS A SERVICE.
Helping in any distress, people come to consult her from all sides, attracted by her prudence and her supernatural enlightenment. His individual action, however fruitful it may have been, does not equal what we would today call his « social » action.
The sense that she had, in fact, of the need to combine forces to make them more effective, made before the date a model of member of Catholic Action: she was the initiator of all the great Parisian works of her time. time, and she responds to all the distresses encountered on her way.
Her best claim to fame is undoubtedly having been the introducer to France of the daughters of Saint Teresa of Avila.
Prepared by sufferings of all kinds, Madame Acarie will know how to respond fully to the divine mission. When Saint Thérèse appeared to her twice, ordering her on behalf of God to implant her Order in France, this woman, so flexible to God and to men, had for a long time, without knowing it, a Carmelite soul and heart. .
At this time of strong political tensions, Madame Acarie therefore sent a group of people to Spain, in order to obtain the arrival of several Spanish Carmelites to found a first Carmel in France. It is done, October 18, 1604, in Paris.
Her best claim to fame is undoubtedly having been the introducer to France of the daughters of Saint Teresa of Avila.
Prepared by sufferings of all kinds, Madame Acarie will know how to respond fully to the divine mission. When Saint Thérèse appeared to her twice, ordering her on behalf of God to implant her Order in France, this woman, so flexible to God and to men, had for a long time, without knowing it, a Carmelite soul and heart.
At this time of strong political tensions, Madame Acarie therefore sent a group of people to Spain, in order to obtain the arrival of several Spanish Carmelites to found a first Carmel in France. It is done, October 18, 1604, in Paris.
Illnesses, family hardships (husband, children, elderly father), reverses of fortune and all kinds of work carried out with courage and abnegation made his life a long way of the Cross.
From the age of 27, she received the stigmata, a grace of configuration to the Suffering Christ. She is the first French woman whose veracity of the stigmata – although invisible – has been attested by eminent figures.
When the news of the death of Sister Marie de l’Incarnation spread in the city (Pontoise) on April 18, 1618, people said : « The Saint is dead ! »
It is not a question here of recalling the miracles, there were many, nor of speaking of the testimonies of veneration which manifested themselves at his burial, and then around his tomb, but the fact that his own son, Pierre Acarie, challenged by these astonishing facts, demanded the opening of the investigations which could lead to the beatification, from 1622.
These surveys, completed in 1632, were not taken into consideration in Rome until the end of the 18th century. The Beatification was celebrated at Saint Peter’s in Rome on June 5, 1791.
Madame Acarie was beatified by the Church two hundred years after her death, and her canonization process is underway.
Today, it requires a miracle recognized by the Church to succeed.
Will the recognition, today, of the holiness of Mary of the Incarnation, extending her worship to the whole Church, come to fill with new joy the Christians of the third millennium after the Incarnation of the Savior?
The new saints can only enrich the Church. It is to love the glory of God to rejoice in the holiness of his servants.
Prayer to request canonization :
O most holy and admirable Trinity, who deigned to grant to your Servant, the Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, an ardent interior life, joined to an intense activity entirely devoted to your glory, teach us to do your will and give – us to be able to extend the reign of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ Our Lord. Draw us to You to burn us with the fire of your love and deign to hasten the hour of the glorification of your faithful Servant by granting us the grace that we ask of You today through her intercession. Amen.
History :

Religion in France during the time of Madame Acarie
After the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563), there was a firm commitment to the reform of the Catholic Church…
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St. Francis de Sales’ friendship with Madame Acarie
St. Francis de Sales met Madame Acarie in Paris, at the beginning of 1602. They met frequently over a period…
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Mother Geneviève de Saint-Bernard Acarie
Geneviève Acarie’s childhood was very perturbed by the misfortunes which pounced on her parents : the exile and the absence of…
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Madame Acarie, founder of the French Carmel
The name of Barbe Acarie – Mrs Acarie – objectively occupies a prominent place in the History of the Discalced…
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Madame Acarie and her neighbours in difficulty
Faced with the many demands on her charity and having given time to God and her family, Madame Acarie was…
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Political state of France
Pierre Acarie was a member of the Catholic League, as was his father-in-law, Nicolas Avrillot. The Catholic League was founded…
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Beatification of Madame Acarie
“While in France the power and the unity of the Church are outraged by so many and so odious enterprises…
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Madame Acarie reads St. Teresa of Avila
In 1601, Madame Acarie had the works of St. Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582) read to her. These had…
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The miracles of Marie de l’Incarnation
After having briefly recalled the progress of the two cases to instruct the cause of Marie de l’Incarnation’s canonization, the…
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Some aspects of her life in Carmel
When, for the widow of Pierre Acarie, came the moment so longed for since childhood to embrace monastic life (1614),…
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The life of Madame Acarie
• Desired and happy child despite a context of civil wars, teenager thwarted in her vocation and mistreated by her…
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The franciscan networks of Madame Acarie
It is in the line of this work but enlarged that takes place Monsieur Pierre Moracchini’s paper. Presenting the numerous…
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Mary de Jésus Acarie
The eldest of Madame Acarie’s three daughters is a privileged witness of her mother’s life. In the world, she lived…
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