ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
St. Louis Marie Grignon, (1673-1716), born at Montfort in France, was sent as missionary to his own country by Pope Clement XI. He labored successfully in the conversion of his fellow countrymen from Jansenism and preached the devotions of the Way of the Cross and the Rosary. He founded an institute of Sisters and a congregation of Missionaries called the Society of Mary. He is also most certainly numbered among the saints most devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
EARLY LIFE
St. Louis was born in the village of Montfort in Brittany (northwestern France) on Jan 31, 1673. (Centuries before Brittany had been its own Duchy and is the land were St. Vincent Ferrer died and where his body still remains to this day.) When Louis was 12 he was set to study at the Jesuit College at Rennes. While he was praying before a statue of Our Lady at a Carmelite Church in Rennes he received a private revelation that God was calling him to the priesthood. In a miraculous way he then unexpectedly received the opportunity to pursue these studied in Paris.
He was twenty years old and abandoned all he knew and owned. He enthusiastically embraced poverty, gave away what he owned, and then knelt upon the ground promising our Lady to never own anything but to rely solely on the Divine Providence of Our Heavenly Father. With just the clothes on his back he set off walking the two hundred miles to Paris. He begged for his food and shelter along the way, and even sharing what he was given with fellow beggars.
St. Louis studied at the world famous University of Paris and received his priestly training at the renowned Seminary of St. Sulpice. He was well known for his outstanding intelligence and holiness of life. He became the librarian at St. Sulpice and mastered many of the spiritual works there. After being ordained in 1700 he attempted to fulfill his greatest desire: to be a foreign missionary to New France (Canada), so great was his zeal for the salvation of souls. However his spiritual director advised against it. St. Louis’ spirit of obedience and humility proved stronger. Thus, he opted for a missionary life in his native land of France.
THE JANSENIST HERESY
France desperately needed a holy missionary. She was suffering under the despotic and corrupt rule of King Louis XIV (the Sun King). The king was obsessed with making France the greatest military power on earth and extending his earthly dominion as much as possible. His taxes were enormous, his standing army the largest seen in Christendom, and his royal court utterly immoral and full of lavish living. He refused to obey Christ’s command (given through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque) to foster devotion to the Sacred Heart of our Lord in his country which our Lord promised would have made France the greatest nation on earth (including the consecration of his nation to the Sacred Heart, placing the Sacred Heart on France’s flag, and building a Church in which to honor the Sacred Heart). The king’s disobedience to this direct command from heaven ultimately paved the way for the diabolical French Revolution. His horrible witness to a Christian living also gave a tremendous impetus to the Huguenot movement (French Calvinists).
All was not well within the French Church either. Ultra Montanism (literally referring to Beyond the Alps Mountains) was on the rise, which was the erroneous belief that the French Church should be (quasi) independent from the Papacy. Many French bishops, prelates and religious were also infected with the Jansenist heresy, despite its repeated condemnations by several Holy Fathers. Jansenism is a kind of blending of Catholicism with Calvinism which owes its immediate historical origin to Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), a Dutch Bishop of Ypres. The Calvinists claimed they were only adhering to the teaching of St. Augustine but infallible papal authority judged them to be interpreting the Church’s Doctors writings erroneously (both in the bulls Cum occasione (1653) by Pope Innocent X and Unigenitus (1713) by Clement XI).
The Jansenists had a concept of rigorous predestination akin to Calvin, misunderstood the mysterious interplay between grace and free-will, and over emphasized the depravity of fallen human nature subject to Original Sin. They were very severe and rigorous and trumpeted God’s justice and wrath. They even tended to deny (in practice, not in theological theory) the Divine Mercy of God. Thus, they tended to give the external appearance of holiness and purity while interiorly were lacking in the divine charity and mercy of God. This overflow of hypocrisy made them similar to the white-washed sepulcher Pharisees condemned by Christ (cf. Mt 23:27). In local pastoral practice, they were known to dissuade the Sacrament of Confession until one was ‘truly contrite’ and to encourage people not to receive Holy Communion, except once a year in Easter and only after the most rigorous examination of conscience, penances, and sacramental absolution. This lack of daily grace led many Catholics to be lax and apathetic in their faith, even abandoning the sacramental life all together. Under the cruel spiritual lash of Jansenist prelates, many Catholics fell into despair and simply gave into great debauchery and sin-ridden lives. All these problems were further intensified by many French Jansenist hierarchs presuming they ought to be free of “Rome’s meddling” in their ecclesiastical affairs. While claiming to piously uphold Church disciplines, they actually flaunted the directives from the Pope which they felt inclined to disregard. They even proposed many of those liturgical abuses so common today, such as liturgy in the vernacular, more democratic participation in Mass by the people, reception of Holy Communion under both species, and some even attacked the Real Presence by claiming it was just a symbol.
St. Louis de Montfort would spend his entire life fighting against the Jansenist heresy. What especially troubled him was the lack of priests, the lack of zeal and holiness among priests, and the widespread ignorance of the Faith by Catholic laity. He wrote, “Seeing the needs of the Church, I cannot help praying continually for a small society of poor priests who, under the protection of the Virgin Mary, will go forth from parish to parish, instructing the poor in the faith, relying solely on divine providence.” In the end, God answered this prayer by sending him the graces to fulfill his own wish.
DEVOTIONS AND LABORS
Although he was first assigned to the city of Nantes, St. Louis knew God was calling him to greater work. He considered life as a hermit and then joined the Dominican Tertiaries. After being imbued with their spirit (especially as regards preaching and the rosary) he formed the missionary Company of Mary. Later on in life he founded a parallel order for women to focus on works of charity, the Daughters of Wisdom.
St. Louis had a great devotion towards the angles and urged everyone “to show marks of respect and tenderness to their guardian angels." He often ended his letters with a salutation to the guardian angel of the person to whom he was writing: "I salute your guardian angel". Every time before he entered a city or town, he would first salute its guardian angel.
As one might imagine, he was also extremely devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. From his earliest youth, he would spend many hours kneeling before the Real Presence, rapt in prayer.
Once he gave a mission for the kings’ soldiers (a notoriously immoral and raucous group) at the garrison of La Rochelle. These rough and violent men were so moved by his preaching that, without exception, they wept and cried aloud for the forgiveness of their sins. All went to confession and returned to the bosom of the Church. The mission ended with a grand procession. An officer walked at the head, barefooted and carrying a banner of Jesus and Mary. The soldiers all followed, also barefoot and carrying a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, singing hymns to praise God. What a sight this must have been! Let us pray that such things will happen yet again, as they surely must – but may they happen in our native land and amongst us!
PAPAL MISSIONARY TO FRANCE
As a missionary, St. Louis de Montfort would walk from one diocese to diocese, preaching missions, offering the Sacraments, and bringing people back to the Church. In particular, he preached confidence in God’s mercy, the love of the Sacred Heart, the necessity of faithfully obeying all of God’s laws, true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, devoutly meditating upon and reciting the Rosary every day, fidelity to the Holy Father, and praying the Way of the Cross. Because he cared little for human respect and had an unconventional way of life, he received much criticism. Since he was outspoken in condemning what was wrong in the Church and firmly opposed the doctrinal errors of his day, he made many enemies, especially amongst the French episcopacy and people of social and political influence.
Because he met so much resistance and disapproval, he exercised the right held by every baptized Catholic, to appeal his case directly to the Pope. As was his character, he walked all the way to Rome (over a thousand miles) to seek a private audience with His Holiness. Pope Clement XI gave full support to his preaching and ministry. He assured him that it was his vocation to re-evangelize France and gave him the title of Apostolic Missionary. He asked him specifically to catechize the children, instruct the poor in the knowledge of the faith, and to encourage the people to renew their baptismal promises. But always to work under the guidance of the diocesan authorities.
St. Louis de Montfort spent the rest of his life faithfully living in accordance with this papal mandate. He only served God as a priest for sixteen years but they were incredibly busy and full. He walked throughout France, visited countless parishes and numberless dioceses. He provided for the poor, preached, instructed, taught the children catechism, organized the building of shrines, established school, and renovated broken down Churches. He also organized the Way of the Cross up hills and led many penitents upon these Via Crucis. Sadly, he continued to face the ire and rejection of many hierarchs. Whenever one would refuse to support him or order him out of his diocese, St. Louis de Montfrot would promptly comply. One bishop demolished the beautiful Calvary he had built, supposedly under direct authority from the French King.
Yet St. Louis also met with much spiritual success. The area in which his teaching was most accepted and took greatest root was, not surprising, the Vendée. This is the area of France that remained most staunchly Catholic during the French Revolution. In fact, the peasant army of the Vendée waged a successful counter revolution against the Grand Armée of the French Revolution (1793-99) and almost succeeded in capturing Paris and restoring the Monarch. Napoleon himself an officer and the army had feared having to face the Vendée Catholics.) Surely, this great Catholic resistance was possible because of St. Louis’ preaching earlier in the century.
DEATH AND GLORY
In addition to this apostolic zeal he inflicted terrible, austere and unceasing penances upon himself. There were also attempts against his life by his enemies. Once they tried to poison him. Another time he was warned by his guardian angel to take a circuitous route home, because assassins were lying in wait for him along the street he would normally have trod. All this took a great toll on his sturdy health and he fell gravely ill. In 1716, while preaching in the town of St. Luarent-sur-Sevre he struggled from the pulpit as he gave his final sermon (which appropriately was on the kindness of Jesus Christ).
As he lay in bed on April 28th, he kissed his crucifix and the little statue of our Lady which he always carried with him. He then exclaimed, “In vain do you attack me; I am between Jesus and Mary. I have finished my course: all is over. I shall sin no more.” Then he died peacefully. Thousands streamed to his funeral and to honor his relics. He was buried there in the parish church of St. Laurent which has since become a great place of pilgrimage.
He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1888 and canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1947. Today if you visit St. Peter’s Basilica you will see a huge “founders statue” of him in the upper niche of the south nave. He is shown with crucifix and rosary, and his feet crushing the devil, in faithful imitation of the Blessed Mother. The devil cowering below him holds some of the saints works in his hands. This is because Satan did everything he possibly could to keep his writing from seeing the light of day. St. Louis himself prophesied this would happen. For many years his works remained “lost” but following the French Revolution they were accidentally rediscovered in a deserted attic. They were published and since then have spread throughout the world. (Who cannot see the hand of Divine Providence at work here!)
St. Louis along with St. Bernard of Clairvaux are often considered the two greatest Marian theologians. In can be said that St. Louis de Montfort is the “Father of Mariology.” Two of his greatest works are The Secret of Mary and True Devotion to Mary, but he has many other excellent works such as The Secret of the Rosary and Friends of the Cross. Today no one can rightly considered himself knowledgeable on the subject of Mariology without having read and studied his works. Surely if more Protestants were willing to read his treatises, they would soon return to the one Ark of Salvation. St. Louis de Montfort is also a viable candidate to become a Doctor of the Church and many believe he will be thus proclaimed during the time of the peaceful reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
St. Louis de Montfort also had a great influence on numerous popes, including Popes Leo XIII, St. Pius X and Pius XII.
The other popular image of St. Louis de Montfort is to show him kneeling before an apparition of the Blessed Mother. He conversed with her frequently and intimately. In fact, his motto was that we should always Go to Jesus through Mary, or in Latin, Ad Iesum per Mariam.