A Saint fashioned on the Cross
"The cross is the greatest gift God could bestow on His Elect on earth.
There is nothing so necessary, so beneficial, so sweet, or so glorious as to suffer something for Jesus. If you suffer as you ought, the cross will become a precious yoke that Jesus will carry with you"
-St. Louise de Monfort.
The quotation about the Cross that we have cited above aptly describes the short life of 43 years spent in suffering by this "vagabond" missionary and Marian saint known as St. Louise de Monfort. Almost lost in obscurity he lived in so much hardship that very few thought that he would become this great years later. And what more! He shook the Church and created a storm of a new spirituality that has influenced millions,including four popes of the 20th century, the chief among them being Pope John Paul II. By his own admission, John Paul II had made a new turn in his life after reading the "True Devotion to Mary" written by the Saint who called himself the "Slave of Mary".
John Paul II made his confession in his book Gift of Mystery. On the 50th anniversary of my priestly ordination: " At one point I began to question my devotion to Mary, believing that, if it became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ...."
In another book (with the title of English translation: Andre Frossard talks with John Paul II: " Do not be afraid"] ( Rusconi, 1983),the French Journalist asked the Pope about his personal devotion to the Bl.Virgin Mary and the Pope again confessed:
" Reading that book ( True Devotion to Mary)" he said, "has marked a decisive turning point in my life. I said "turning point", although this is a long inner journey.... At that very moment this unique treatise came into my hands, one of those books which it is not enough 'to have read'. I reread it constantly and certain passages in succession".
It is also easy to understand how John Paul II got his motto, " Totus Tuus" (Completely Yours) that he took from the same book in which there is a consecration to Mary written by St. Louise de Monfort that uses the same phrase, " Totus Tuus". The secret of Pope John II's success as Priest. Bishop and Pope' definitely was his devotion to Our Lady, as was clear the way he loved and spoke about this devotion on various occasions. That secret was learnt from that great Marian devotee whose life we shall present briefly below.
His Early Days
Loius Grignion De Monfort was born in the hamlet of Monfort about thirteen miles east of Rennes, on 31 January 1673. The name of his birth place gradually became his surname. He was the second of eighteen children, and was one of the bfew who survived to adulthood. As a child he was noted for his love of the bHoly Eucharist that drew him into long hours of prayer.
From his twelfth year when he was sent as a day pup[il to the Jesuit College at Rennes, he kept up his devotion to the Holy Eucharist and failed to visit the church before and after class.As a young man he joined a society of young men who during holidays ministered to the poor and to the incurables in the hospitals. Louis Mary's uncle, a priest of the Church of the Holy Savior in Rennes, became the youth's close confident. His teachers considered him to be intelligent, studios, deeply religious, artistic in nature and somewhat shy. It was under the guidance of the Jesuits that Louis' priestly vocation matured. The decision to enter the priesthood was made, so he tells us,at the shrine of Our Lady in the Carmelite Church in Rennes. Monfort's solid devotion to the Mother of the Lord was already an integral part of his spiritual life.
His Vocatonal Life
At the age of nineteen and after eight years at the Jesuit College in Rennes, Louis Mary decided to pursue his theological studies at Saint Sulpice in Paris. Having left his family and all memories behind, he trusted in Divine Providence and gave to the first beggars he met, his money, baggage and even exchanged clothes with one of them. With total abandon, he gave joyful, free expression to his deep desire to experience the radical demands of the Gospel. Begging for food and shelter along the way, he walked to Paris, arriving in the rags of the mendicant. One of his numerous hymns expresses his deep happiness- in spite of the pain of separation from family and house- in trusting so completely in Providence: "The Lord is my Good Father,Jesus, my Dear Savior, Mary,my Good Mother,could I have greater joy!"
Vagabond Preacher
He was ordained Priest at the age of twenty-seven, and for some time fulfilled the duties of chaplain in a hospital. In 1705, when he was thirty-two, he found his true vocation, and thereafter devoted himself to preaching to the common people. During the next seventeen years he preached the Gospel in countless towns and villages.As an orator he was highly gifted,his language being simple but replete with fire and divine love. His whole life was conspicuous for virtues difficult for the modern world to comprehend: constant prayer,. love of the poor, poverty carried to an unheard-of degree, joy in humiliations and persecutions.
With utter disdain for human respect, Saint Louis Mary identified with the poor and found his greatest joy in serving them with the Word of God and also with any material help he could locate. Typical of his actions was the recorded event-probably one of many similar acts on his part- when the missionary tenderly embraced a dying leprous beggar lying in the streets of Dinan, carried him to a nearby religious house crying out "Open up to Jesus Christ!" The poor even took up a collection to purchased some warm clothing for this priest whom they proudly called "one of our own".
His preaching, flowing from his own experience of God's love and Mary's maternal care, atrracted thousands back to the faith. In a Jansenistic age which harsley stressed the distance between God and people, he began, a tender devotion to the Mother of God, a lived baptismal total surrender to Jesus in Mary.
A terrible setback gracefully accepted
One day he proposed to the poor people to build a Calvary at Ponchateau a neighboring village which they enthusiastically supported.For fifteen months between two and four hundred peasants worked daily without recompense, and the task had just been completed, when king commanded that the whole should be demolished, and the land restored to the former condition. The Jansenists had convinced the Governor of Brittany that a fortress capable of affording aid to persons in revolt was being erected, and for several months five hundred peasants, watched by a company of soldiers, were compelled to carry out the work of destruction. Father de Monfort was not disturbed on receiving this humiliating news, exclaiming only: "Blessed be God!"
Founder of two Congregations
A year before his death, Father de Monfort founded two congregations -- the Sisters of Wisdom, who were to devote themselves to hospital work and the instruction of poor girls, and the Company of Mary, composed of missionaries. He had long cherished these projects but circumstances had hindered their execution, and, humanly speaking, the work appeared to have failed at his death, since these congregations numbered respectively only four sisters and two priests with a few brothers. But the blessed founder, who had on several occasions shown himself possessed of the gift of prophecy, knew that the tree would grow. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Sisters of Wisdom numbered five thousand, and were spread throughout every country; they possessed fourty-four houses, and gave instruction to 60,000 children. Grignion de Monfort died in 1716 at Saint Laurent Survovre, France and was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII.
His great spiritual legacy
He may have failed in his effort to set up a Calvary to remember the passion and death of the Lord, but he did leave behind a mighty spiritual legacy that boosted the sagging spiritual life of many in the Church and even set the foundation for a more authentic Marian devotion. He defined Marian devotion as more centred on the Trinity and similarly on Christ rather than building it as separate niche parallel to God and his Son Jesus. It was so convincing and effective that several popes too used his concepts to evolve their own spirituality and that of the Church. In support of his christocentric concept of Marian spirituality he quite forcefully argues that if devotion to Mary alienates us from Jesus it is necessary to reject it as a diabolical temptation.With Mary, he says, we enter into a more intense and more immediate union with Incarnate Wisdom, without Mary we reject the plan of salvation as designed by the Father. He was one of the first charismatic preachers to stress the promises of Christ when he said, "Pray with great confidence based on the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray". His motto, "God Alone" shows a radical spirituality detaching him from every human or material attachment. Such a motto too influenced the many disciples and admirers he had, particularly the members of the Congregation he founded.
Returning to the theme of his Marian devotion, we cannot forget some of his memorable qoutes:
"She [Mothr Mary] is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God. If you say 'Mary' she say 'God'.
"If you put all the love of all the mothers into one heart it still would not equal the love of the Heart of Mary for her children."
"Never will anyone who says the Rosary every day be led astray. This is a statement that I would gladly sign with my blood."
"I feel a great desire to make Our Lord and his Holy Mother loved, and to go about in a poor and simple way, catechizing poor country people."
As a Final Word:
We should never forget this great saint who has taught us among other great things, an easy way to holiness, namely, the devotion to Our Blessed Mother. It was his total consecration to Mother Mary surrendering himself totally (Totus tuus) a formula that was adopted by Pope John Paul II that led him to sanctity. If that was possible for him, it can be also the same for us.
"The cross is the greatest gift God could bestow on His Elect on earth.
There is nothing so necessary, so beneficial, so sweet, or so glorious as to suffer something for Jesus. If you suffer as you ought, the cross will become a precious yoke that Jesus will carry with you"
-St. Louise de Monfort.
The quotation about the Cross that we have cited above aptly describes the short life of 43 years spent in suffering by this "vagabond" missionary and Marian saint known as St. Louise de Monfort. Almost lost in obscurity he lived in so much hardship that very few thought that he would become this great years later. And what more! He shook the Church and created a storm of a new spirituality that has influenced millions,including four popes of the 20th century, the chief among them being Pope John Paul II. By his own admission, John Paul II had made a new turn in his life after reading the "True Devotion to Mary" written by the Saint who called himself the "Slave of Mary".
John Paul II made his confession in his book Gift of Mystery. On the 50th anniversary of my priestly ordination: " At one point I began to question my devotion to Mary, believing that, if it became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ...."
In another book (with the title of English translation: Andre Frossard talks with John Paul II: " Do not be afraid"] ( Rusconi, 1983),the French Journalist asked the Pope about his personal devotion to the Bl.Virgin Mary and the Pope again confessed:
" Reading that book ( True Devotion to Mary)" he said, "has marked a decisive turning point in my life. I said "turning point", although this is a long inner journey.... At that very moment this unique treatise came into my hands, one of those books which it is not enough 'to have read'. I reread it constantly and certain passages in succession".
It is also easy to understand how John Paul II got his motto, " Totus Tuus" (Completely Yours) that he took from the same book in which there is a consecration to Mary written by St. Louise de Monfort that uses the same phrase, " Totus Tuus". The secret of Pope John II's success as Priest. Bishop and Pope' definitely was his devotion to Our Lady, as was clear the way he loved and spoke about this devotion on various occasions. That secret was learnt from that great Marian devotee whose life we shall present briefly below.
His Early Days
Loius Grignion De Monfort was born in the hamlet of Monfort about thirteen miles east of Rennes, on 31 January 1673. The name of his birth place gradually became his surname. He was the second of eighteen children, and was one of the bfew who survived to adulthood. As a child he was noted for his love of the bHoly Eucharist that drew him into long hours of prayer.
From his twelfth year when he was sent as a day pup[il to the Jesuit College at Rennes, he kept up his devotion to the Holy Eucharist and failed to visit the church before and after class.As a young man he joined a society of young men who during holidays ministered to the poor and to the incurables in the hospitals. Louis Mary's uncle, a priest of the Church of the Holy Savior in Rennes, became the youth's close confident. His teachers considered him to be intelligent, studios, deeply religious, artistic in nature and somewhat shy. It was under the guidance of the Jesuits that Louis' priestly vocation matured. The decision to enter the priesthood was made, so he tells us,at the shrine of Our Lady in the Carmelite Church in Rennes. Monfort's solid devotion to the Mother of the Lord was already an integral part of his spiritual life.
His Vocatonal Life
At the age of nineteen and after eight years at the Jesuit College in Rennes, Louis Mary decided to pursue his theological studies at Saint Sulpice in Paris. Having left his family and all memories behind, he trusted in Divine Providence and gave to the first beggars he met, his money, baggage and even exchanged clothes with one of them. With total abandon, he gave joyful, free expression to his deep desire to experience the radical demands of the Gospel. Begging for food and shelter along the way, he walked to Paris, arriving in the rags of the mendicant. One of his numerous hymns expresses his deep happiness- in spite of the pain of separation from family and house- in trusting so completely in Providence: "The Lord is my Good Father,Jesus, my Dear Savior, Mary,my Good Mother,could I have greater joy!"
Vagabond Preacher
He was ordained Priest at the age of twenty-seven, and for some time fulfilled the duties of chaplain in a hospital. In 1705, when he was thirty-two, he found his true vocation, and thereafter devoted himself to preaching to the common people. During the next seventeen years he preached the Gospel in countless towns and villages.As an orator he was highly gifted,his language being simple but replete with fire and divine love. His whole life was conspicuous for virtues difficult for the modern world to comprehend: constant prayer,. love of the poor, poverty carried to an unheard-of degree, joy in humiliations and persecutions.
With utter disdain for human respect, Saint Louis Mary identified with the poor and found his greatest joy in serving them with the Word of God and also with any material help he could locate. Typical of his actions was the recorded event-probably one of many similar acts on his part- when the missionary tenderly embraced a dying leprous beggar lying in the streets of Dinan, carried him to a nearby religious house crying out "Open up to Jesus Christ!" The poor even took up a collection to purchased some warm clothing for this priest whom they proudly called "one of our own".
His preaching, flowing from his own experience of God's love and Mary's maternal care, atrracted thousands back to the faith. In a Jansenistic age which harsley stressed the distance between God and people, he began, a tender devotion to the Mother of God, a lived baptismal total surrender to Jesus in Mary.
A terrible setback gracefully accepted
One day he proposed to the poor people to build a Calvary at Ponchateau a neighboring village which they enthusiastically supported.For fifteen months between two and four hundred peasants worked daily without recompense, and the task had just been completed, when king commanded that the whole should be demolished, and the land restored to the former condition. The Jansenists had convinced the Governor of Brittany that a fortress capable of affording aid to persons in revolt was being erected, and for several months five hundred peasants, watched by a company of soldiers, were compelled to carry out the work of destruction. Father de Monfort was not disturbed on receiving this humiliating news, exclaiming only: "Blessed be God!"
Founder of two Congregations
A year before his death, Father de Monfort founded two congregations -- the Sisters of Wisdom, who were to devote themselves to hospital work and the instruction of poor girls, and the Company of Mary, composed of missionaries. He had long cherished these projects but circumstances had hindered their execution, and, humanly speaking, the work appeared to have failed at his death, since these congregations numbered respectively only four sisters and two priests with a few brothers. But the blessed founder, who had on several occasions shown himself possessed of the gift of prophecy, knew that the tree would grow. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Sisters of Wisdom numbered five thousand, and were spread throughout every country; they possessed fourty-four houses, and gave instruction to 60,000 children. Grignion de Monfort died in 1716 at Saint Laurent Survovre, France and was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII.
His great spiritual legacy
He may have failed in his effort to set up a Calvary to remember the passion and death of the Lord, but he did leave behind a mighty spiritual legacy that boosted the sagging spiritual life of many in the Church and even set the foundation for a more authentic Marian devotion. He defined Marian devotion as more centred on the Trinity and similarly on Christ rather than building it as separate niche parallel to God and his Son Jesus. It was so convincing and effective that several popes too used his concepts to evolve their own spirituality and that of the Church. In support of his christocentric concept of Marian spirituality he quite forcefully argues that if devotion to Mary alienates us from Jesus it is necessary to reject it as a diabolical temptation.With Mary, he says, we enter into a more intense and more immediate union with Incarnate Wisdom, without Mary we reject the plan of salvation as designed by the Father. He was one of the first charismatic preachers to stress the promises of Christ when he said, "Pray with great confidence based on the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray". His motto, "God Alone" shows a radical spirituality detaching him from every human or material attachment. Such a motto too influenced the many disciples and admirers he had, particularly the members of the Congregation he founded.
Returning to the theme of his Marian devotion, we cannot forget some of his memorable qoutes:
"She [Mothr Mary] is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God. If you say 'Mary' she say 'God'.
"If you put all the love of all the mothers into one heart it still would not equal the love of the Heart of Mary for her children."
"Never will anyone who says the Rosary every day be led astray. This is a statement that I would gladly sign with my blood."
"I feel a great desire to make Our Lord and his Holy Mother loved, and to go about in a poor and simple way, catechizing poor country people."
As a Final Word:
We should never forget this great saint who has taught us among other great things, an easy way to holiness, namely, the devotion to Our Blessed Mother. It was his total consecration to Mother Mary surrendering himself totally (Totus tuus) a formula that was adopted by Pope John Paul II that led him to sanctity. If that was possible for him, it can be also the same for us.
