Marie Barbier (1663-1739) was a Congrégation de Notre-Dame of Montreal nun, superior and mystic. The story of her life remains in the form of two biographies. The first biography was written by Charles de Glandelet, her confessor and spiritual advisor, some time before his death in 1725. The second biography is an edited version of the Glandelet manuscript, almost 40 years after Marie Barbier's death. This article examines the many challenges faced in the attempt to construct a biography of this woman. It will explore not only the physical difficulties involved in interpreting these hand-written manuscripts, the obstacles presented by their hagiographical and 18th-century scholarly tradition, but also the barriers presented by post-modern scholarship with respect to the accession of "truth" and "voice."
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