A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Avrillot, Barbe
AVRILLOT, BARBE,
Better known by the name of Acarie which was that of her husband, was born in Paris in 1565. In 1582 she married Perre Acarie, Maitre des Comptes of Paris, one of the most active partizans of the League. In 1594, when the city submitted to Henry the Fourth, M. Acarie was obliged to fly with his wife and six children; he was quite destitute, deeply in debt, and altogether in a state of great poverty and embarrassment. By the exertions of his wife, however, his children were placed in safe asylums, and a satisfactory arrangement made of the family affairs. After this was accomplished, Madame Acarie appears to have turned her attention to reforming the monastic establishments of the country. In conjunction with the cardinal De Berulie, she established the new order of Reformed Carmelites, taking upon herself the erection of the first monastery of the order in the fauberg St. Jacques. Having a great reputation for piety she was enabled, by her influence, to assist in works of the like nature. When, in 1613, she became a widow, she entered the order which she had founded, by the name of Marie de l'incarnation; she was eventually elected superior of the order, but, with true humility, declined the dignity, and retired to the monastery of Pontois, also founded by her, where she died on the 18th. of April, 1618. She was the authoress of five religious works in French, and her life has been written by several persons. All these memoirs are more or less disfigured by details of miracles, which is to be regretted, as they cast a shade of doubt upon the real excellencies of her character, and the more veritable records of what appears to have been truly a well-spent life.