Marie Heurtin

Marie Heurtin (13 April 188522 July 1921) was a French deafblind woman. Despite learning no language until the age of ten, Marie was taught to sign, read, and write by the nuns of Notre Dame de Larnay, a convent near Poitiers. As a young adult, Marie helped educate other deafblind girls at the convent, including her younger sister, who was also deafblind.

Biography

Marie Joséphine Heurtin was born on 13 April 1885 in Vertou, Loire-Inférieure. Her parents were Stanislas Aristide, a cooper, and Josephine Marie, a charwoman; they were reported to be second cousins. Sister Sainte-Marguerite, the nun who would become Marie's caretaker and teacher, described the scene: "Not a little girl of ten years came into Notre Dame de Larnay, but a raging monster. When the child found that she was left behind by her father and great-aunt she fell into a fury, which hardly abated for two months." Marie was taught grammar, arithmetic, knitting, sewing, and other subjects, in addition to abstract concepts like death and God. Arnould described in depth the methods that Sister Ste. Marguerite used to instruct Heurtin.

Around 1909, a 12-year-old deafblind girl, Anne-Marie Poyet, arrived at Larnay.