In 1607, having reached the age of 7, MARIE GUYART is astonished by
a dream in which she is married to Jesus. But her parents envision a different life for
her ; they force her to marry at age 19, but she becomes and remains widowed after
the birth of a son. Not long after, a new vision plunges her into a spiritual adventure
which puts her behind convent walls, despite the love which she has for her son. From the
cloister, her mystic call pushes her to become the first French woman missionary in North
America. Her illusion of evangelism collides with the reality of a hostile land filled
with hostile natives. Moreover, when the massacres by natives force the men to return to
Europe, she and her companions decide to stay until the return of the troop
reinforcements. She learns to love the culture she has found, and defends it at the time
the Royal Regime has been established.
Media star before her time, Marie Guyart is one of the pillars of the French
civilization in North America. Her adventure is followed like a series in Relations des
Jésuites, considered the first widely-circulated newspaper.
Her autobiography, written to her son, constitutes one of the rare writings by a French
woman of the 17th Century. After her death her son consecrates five years to
study the letters he had received from his mother. The book which resulted has become a
best-seller which has been published 22 times. In 1900, at Trois-Rivières, a copy of the
original autobiographical manuscript, written in 1654, was discovered : It is on
these writings that the scriptwriter Denis Boivin has based the original screenplay, which
he has perfected with the help of Jean-Claude CARRIÈRE.
Denis
Boivin
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