Note 374 — Chapter XII

Among the Ursulines who accompanied Madame de la Peltrie to Quebec was Marie de l'Incarnation, "the Theresa of France," and Marie de St. Joseph. The sanctity of these remarkable women and the miracles they performed are the favorite theme of the Jesuit historians of Canada. Several lives of the former have been published, one of them by Charlevoix. A quarto volume of her letters was also published (à Paris, chez Louis Billaine, 1681): they are highly extolled as "worthy of her high reputation for sanctity, ability, and practical good sense in the business of life." They record many historical facts which occurred during the thirty-two years that she passed in Canada, where she arrived in 1640. When the Ursulines and the "Filles Hospitalières" landed at Quebec, they were received with enthusiasm. "It was held as a festival day; all work was forbidden; and the shops were shut. The governor received these heroines upon the shore at the head of the troops, who were under arms, the guns firing a salute. After the first greeting he led them to the church, accompanied by the acclamations of the people; here the Te Deum was chanted."—Charlevoix.

"The venerable ash tree still lives beneath which Mary of the Incarnation, so famed for chastened piety, genius, and good judgment, toiled, though in vain, for the culture of Huron children."—Bancroft's History of the United States. vol. iii., p. 127.