Marie of the Incarnation (Carmelite)
| Bl. Marie of the Incarnation, O.C.D. | |
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| Widow and Religious | |
| Born | 1 February 1566 Paris, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 18 April 1618 (aged 52) Pontoise, Île-de-France, Kingdom of France |
| Venerated in | Discalced Carmelite Order |
| Beatified | 24 April 1791 by Pope Pius VI |
| Feast | 26 April |
Marie of the Incarnation, O.C.D., also as Madame Acarie (1 February 1566 – 18 April 1618), was the foundress of the nuns of the Discalced Carmelite Order in France, who later became a lay sister of the Order. She has been called the "mother of Carmel in France".
"Le belle Acarie" ("the beautiful Acarie"), as she was known in Paris, was born Barbara Avrillot in Paris. Her family belonged to the higher bourgeois society in Paris. Her father, Nicholas Avrillot, was Accountant General in the Chamber of Paris, and chancellor of Marguerite of Navarre, first wife of Henry IV of France; while her mother, Marie Lhuillier was a descendant of Etienne Marcel, the famous prévôt des marchands (chief municipal magistrate). She was placed with the Poor Clares of the Abbey of Longchamp, where she had a maternal aunt, for her education, and acquired there a vocation for the cloister. In 1584, through obedience she married Pierre Acarie, viscount of Villemor, a wealthy young man of high standing, who was a fervent Catholic, to whom she bore seven children. Pierre Acarie disapproved of Barbe's reading romance novels and with clerical advice removed the books and substituted books of a more pious and spiritual bent.
Pierre Acarie was one of the staunchest members of the Catholic League, which, after the death of Henry III of France, opposed the succession of the Huguenot prince, Henry of Navarre, to the French throne. He was one of the sixteen who organized the resistance in Paris and partly responsible for the subsequent famine which resulted from the siege of Paris (1590). Mary was so wise in her almsgiving that during a famine the wealthy persons who desired to help the poor caused their alms to pass through her hands, and she was widely respected. After the dissolution of the League, brought about by the abjuration of Henry IV, Acarie was exiled from Paris and his wife had to remain behind to contend with creditors and businessmen for her children's fortune, which had been compromised by her husband's want of foresight and prudence. She defended her husband in court, drafting memoirs, writing letters and furnishing proofs of his innocence. He was acquitted and enabled to return to the city after three years. In addition she was afflicted with physical sufferings, the consequences of a fall from her horse, and a very severe course of treatment left her an invalid for the rest of her life.
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