Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/720

667 Emanuel I, King of Sardinia, and oi Maria Teresa of Austria, nieoe of the Emperor Joseph II. She lost her father in 1824 and her mother at the beginning of the year 1832. Charles Albert, who succeeded to the throne of Sardinia, insisted upon her appearing at the court of Turin, and she married Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies (21 November. 1832). She died at the age of twenty-three, after naving given birth fifteen days before to a son, Francesco-Maria-Leopold. Duke of Calabria. The renown of her virtues had been so great during her brief life, and after her death the graces obtained by her intercession were so numerous, that the Italian episcopate and many Cathollc sovereigns obtained from Pius IX the signature, on 9 February, 1859, of the decree by which the process of her canonization was introduced: before the Congre, tion of Rites. This resulted in her name being m scribed, in 1872, in the list of the Blessed.

Vie de la vhllrable aervante de Dieu Marit-Chrit/tine de Savoie, reine dea Deux-Siciles (Paris, 1872): Gu£rim, Lea Petlla Bollandiatea, XV (BaMe-Duo. 1874), 37-51.

Marie de France, a French poetess of the twelfth century. She has this trait in common with the other trouv,res, that she had no biographer; at least no biography of her has come down to us, and it is mostly by inference that scholars have been able to gather the meagre information that we possess about ner. In one of her verses, she tells us her name and that of her native country: Marie at nun, si sui de France (Roquefort,. "Poesies de Marie de France", II, p. 401). Her lays are dedicated to a King Henry, and her "Ysopet" to a Count WillianL Who were this King Henry, and this Count William? This question, whicn puzzled scholars for a long time, has been settled only recently by a careful philological study of her works. She was a native of Normandy and lived in the second half of the twelfth century, because she uses the pure Norman dialect of that time, and the two personages alluded to in her works were Henry II of England and his son William, Coimt of Salisbury. Marie was then a contemporary and, very likely, a habitual guest of the brilliant court of troubadours and Gascon knights who gathered in the castles of Anjou and Guyenne around Henry II and Queen Eleanor; a contemporary, too, of Clu-,tien de Troyes, who, about that time, was writing the adventures of Yvain, Erec and I>ancelot for the court of Champagne. Marie's contributions to French literature consist of lays, the *'Ysopet", and a romance published by Roquefort under the title, "Legend of the Purgatory of Saint Patrick".

The lays, which number fifteen, belong to the Breton Cycle, or more accurately, to what might be termed the "love group" of that cycle. They are little poems in octosyllabic verses, in which are told the brave deeds of Breton knights for the s,e of their lady-love. These little tales of love and knightly adventure show on the part of the writer a sensibility which is very rare among trouvdres. The style is simple and graceful, the narrative clear and concise. The *' Ysopet" is a collection of 103 fables translated into French from the English translation of Henry Beauclerc. In the '* Pureatory of Saint Patrick" the author tells us of the adventures of an Irish knight who, in atonement for his sins, descends into a cavern where he witnesses the torments of the sinners and the happiness of the just.

Bedier, Lea hxia de Marie de France in Revue dea Deux Mondea (Paris, 15 Oct., 1891); Hiatoire lilliraire de la France, XXX (Paris, 1888); Pams in Romania (Paris, 1872, 1907); Roquefort, Poiaiea de Marie de France (Paris, 1820); 'Vv arnkb, Marie de France und die Ananjfmen lata (Cobuig, 1892).

P. J. Mariqxje.

Marie de Tlncamation, Blessed, known also as Madame Acarie, foundress of the French Caimel, b. in Paris, 1 February, 15(W; d. at Pontoise, April, 1618.

By her family Barbara Avrillot belonged to the higher bourgeois society in Paris. Her father, Nicholas Av* rillot was accountant general in the Chamber of Paris, and chmicellor of Marguerite of Navarre, first wife of Henri IV; while her mother, Marie Lhuillier was a descendant of Etienne Marcel, the famous privdi dt9 marchatids (chief municipcd maostrate). She was placed with the Poor Clares of Longchamp for her education, and acquircKl there a vocation for the cloister, which subsequent life in the world did not alter. In 1684, through obedience she married Pierre Acarie, a wealthy young man of hieh standing, who was a fervent Christian, U> whom shelx)re six children. She was an exemplary wife and mother.

Pierre Acarie was one of the staunchest members of the League, which, after the death of Henry III, 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. The cruel famine which accompanied the siege of Paris gave Madame Acarie an occasion of displaying her charity. 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 business men for her children's fortime, which had been compromised by her husband's want of foresight and prudence. 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.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century Madame Acarie was widelv known for her virtue, her supernatural gifts, ana especially her charity towards tiie poor and the sick in the hospitals. To her residence came all the distinguished and devout people of the day in Paris, among them Mme de Meignelay, n, de Gondi, a model of Christian widows, Mme Jourdain and Mme de Br,aut,, future Carmelites, the Chancellor de Merillac, Pdre Coton the Jesuit, St. Vincent of Paul, and St. Francis of Sales, who for six monllis was Ikime Acarie's director. The pious woman had been living thus retired from the world, but sought by chosen souls, when, toward the end of 1601, there appeared a French translation of Ribera's life of St. Teresa. The translator, Abb6 de Br,tigny, was known to her. She had some portions of the work read to her. A few days later St. Teresa appeared to her and informed her that God wished to make use of her to found Carmelite convents in France. The apparitions continuing, Mme Acarie took counsel' and o,an the work. Urille de Longueville wishing to defray the cost of erecting the first monastery, in Rue St. Jacques, Heniy IV granted letters patent, 18 July, 1602. A meeting in which Pierre de B,rulle, future founder of the Oratory, St. Francis of Sales, Abbd de Br,tigny, and the Marillacs took part, decided on the foundation of the "Reformed Carmel m France", 27 July, 1602. Hie Bishop of Geneva wrote to the pope to obtain the autiiorization, and Clement VIII granted the Bull of institution, 23 November, 1603. The following year some Spanish Carmelites were received into the Carmel of Rue St. Jacques, which became celebrated. Mme de Longueville, Anne de Gonzague, Mile de la Vallieres, withdrew to it; there also Bossuet and Fenek>n were to preach. The Carmel spread rapidly and profoundly influenced French society of the day. In 1618, the year of Mme Acarie's death, it numbered fourteen houses.

Mme Acarie also shared in two foundations of the day, that of the Oratory and that of the Ursulines. She urged De B,rulle to refuse the tutorship of Louis XIII, and on 11 November, 1611 she, with St. Vincent de Paul, assisted at the Mass of the installation of the Oratorv of France. Among the many postulants whom Mme Acarie received for the Carmel, there were some who had no vocation, and she conceived the idea