Blessed Marie of New France - Book Report/Review Example

The Life of the Blessed Marie of New France In the early part of the 1600s, Canada was only settled by a few people. The Native Americans outnumbered the settlers. In this period of the history of Canada, the people in New France (now Canada) lived mainly in the eastern part. New France was a colony of France. It was a difficult time to live. There were not any cars, or roads. The only way to get around was by boat, horse or with your feet. Journeys that would take hours today would take days or weeks.

There was no electricity, telephones or other things that we now have today. Many people did not live a long lifetime because of disease and other hardships. It was not easy life. Some of the people that came from France to Canada were missionaries. Missionaries are persons, men and women, who travel to sometime in dangerous and strange places to tell them about their religion. They hope that they will listen and become Christians and member of their church. In Canada at this time, all of the missionaries were Roman Catholic.

One of the most important missionaries to New France in the 1600s was Blessed Marie of New France. During her lifetimes, she was called Marie the Immaculate. The Roman Catholic Church later designated her “Blessed” later because of all the good things she did when she was in Canada. She was born in France in 1599 in Tours. Her father was a baker. She was a special person even when she was very young. She often helped the poor and the sick. One day, she had a dream that she was to devote her life to God.

After this dream, she knew that she wanted to become a nun. But, it was not that easy for her. Her family did not share here vision and arranged a marriage at an early age. After two years of being married, her husband after only two years of died. They had one child, a boy. After her husband died, she went back to live with her parents. She took a job being a bookkeeper. She was so good at her job that she was asked to be manager. However, she still wanted to be a nun and went to a convent in 1631.

At the convent, she was given the name, Marie of the Incarnation. In another dream, she was inspired to go to New France to be of help there in spreading the faith to the Native Americans. She was a gifted organizer and inspirational and raised the funds and the nuns for her mission. In 1639, Marie of the Incarnation travelled to New France to the then small settlement of Quebec to start her work there. Other nuns came along with her. It was a long journey and dangerous as the ships of this day were small and sometime crowded.

Disease was common on ships and many died on the trip to the Americans. The ship ran into a storm on the way there and they thought that they were going to drown. They built a convent in New France. Life was not easy there. They all lived in a small house. Marie worked very hard. She learned many of the languages of the Native American so that she could tell them about her faith in their own language. She was also responsible for developing dictionaries for many Native American languages. After some years, their convent burned.

Some of the women missionaries wanted to go back to France. She was determined to stay there and rebuilt the housing for the convent. She continued to stay in New France and to tell the Native Americans about her belief in God. She died in 1664. Later Pope John Paul II in 1980 in a ceremony would name Maria “Blessed” for all her good work in Canada. She is a candidate for sainthood. Maria the Blessed of New France is a person that showed bravery and had a gift of motivation and organization.

She left her home in France where she had a nice home and family and went to a place that was cold and rough. All of her life, she did many good things for the Native Americans in then what was then called New France, now Canada. Many of us may have a dream to go and do something good for people we have never met. We may not become a nun or a priest, but it may be something that will help other people. Saints and other people designated by the Roman Catholic Church to be people that other should model their lives.

Maria the Blessed should be a person we look up to for inspiration. References: Blessed Marie of New France." Kwintessential. Web. 15 June 2011. http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/France/Blessed-Marie-of-New-France/2420 Saintpatrickdc.org. Web. 15 June 2011 http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0430.shtml Windeatt, Mary Fabyan. Blessed Marie of New France: the Story of the First Missionary Sisters in Canada. Rockford, IL: Tan, 1994. Print.