Saint louis marie de montfort biography examples

Jesus and consecration: the captivating model. Marian consecration to Christ-Wisdom: the captivating practice. Act of Consecration. Come, Holy Spirit. Litany of the Holy Spirit. Prayer to Jesus. Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus. Ave Maris Stella. Litany of the Blessed Virgin. Confraternity "Mary, Queen of All Hearts". Our Lady of the Totus Tuus Journey.

Statue of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort in St. He studied in Paris, in the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, and was ordained in Inwhen he was thirty-two, he found his true vocation, and thereafter devoted himself to preaching to the people. During 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 modern degeneracy to comprehend: constant prayer, love of the poor, poverty carried to an unheard-of degree, joy in humiliations and persecutions.

Saint louis marie de montfort biography examples: French priest who promoted the devotion

The following two instances will illustrate his success. He once gave a mission for the soldiers of the garrison at La Rochelle, and moved by his words, the men wept, and cried aloud for the forgiveness of their sins. In the procession which terminated this mission, an officer walked at the head, barefooted and carrying a banner, and the soldiers, also barefooted, followed, carrying in one hand a crucifix, in the other a rosary, and singing hymns.

When he announced his determination of building a monumental calvary on a neighbouring hill, the idea was enthusiastically received by the inhabitants. For fifteen months between two and four hundred peasants worked daily without recompense, and the task had just been completed, when the king commanded that the whole should be demolished, and the land restored to its 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. What has he to say to us today? To discover answers, in this section we will follow Montfort through a brief retelling of his life journey.

Along the way, we will point out several significant events that reveal how and what he lived. We will not attempt here to present in a synthetic and organic manner the key aspects of his spiritual patrimony. But it is important to add that without his writings, we would be missing certain salient aspects of his life. These problems the family came to know quite well.

There were eighteen children, of whom seven or eight died very young. These difficulties happened to a man who was a difficult sort of character. The role of first-born fell to Louis Marie when the actual first-born child of the family died at the age of five months. We must not, however, make the situation look too dark. Jean-Baptiste Grignion was a staunch Christian and made sure that he transmitted his faith to his children, providing them with a solid human and religious education.

Undoubtedly he was helped in this by his wife, Jeanne Robert, who had three brothers who were priests. Three of the Grignion sons became priests, and two of the daughters became nuns. InLouis Marie entered the College of St. Thomas Becket run by the Jesuits at Rennes. The young people of the school, though not living fast and loose, were still full of that turbulence of life so normal to those their age.

Louis Marie appeared to them somewhat distant, to some even unsociable. He had a close relationship, however, with certain of his instructors, such as Fathers Descartes and Gilbert, and he knew how to form solid friendships, which would remain for many years. Examples of this were Claude Poullart des Places, who in the future was to become the founder of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit in Paris, and Jean-Baptiste Blain, whose recollections would later become so precious to the Montfort community.

Louis Marie heard the call to the priesthood. In the autumn ofhe left for Paris in order to do his "seminary" training there. He refused to accept a horse offered to him "to make half the trip," which was over kilometers miles. His uncle Father Alain Robert and his brother Joseph accompanied him up to the outskirts of the city of Rennes, bidding him farewell at the Cesson bridge.

Once alone, there was nothing more urgent for the young man than to give to the first poor person he encountered all the things that he had been forced to accept for his stay in Paris. How can this act of radical detachment be explained? Was it an adolescent reaction against an overbearing father with an excessive desire for material goods? This problem had at times poisoned the atmosphere of the Grignion household.

Was it now conjoined to juvenile enthusiasm? Such a psychological explanation is insufficient, because this attitude of Louis Marie towards material goods was not of a fleeting nature. It was to be the permanent rule of his life. His friend Blain testified: "This trip, being the first, was also a model for so many others to come, which his zeal for souls saw him multiply in the future.

What I mean to say is that he had to be apostolic, poor, humbled, accepting of pain and fatigue, and abandoned to Divine Providence. It was this last virtue which I admired the most in him when he departed. Perhaps it was premature for Fr. Blain to call this his entrance into "the apostolate. He possessed an absolute confidence in his heavenly Father.

He was convinced that he would never be deceived by Him. As a consequence, he became effectively detached from seeking security in earthly or material goods, in human power or influence. His sense of "poverty" had a directly theological dimension. It was a simple expression of his faith. This is not to say that Louis Marie rejected recourse to all natural or human means and supports.

He knew how to solicit such things at certain times. For example, he came to the aid of the Daughters of Wisdom when they needed material assistance. But his faith was not in such things; it was in God Alone. An almost immediate consequence of his radical detachment was his capacity to give without measure to those deprived of the necessary means of life.

One can speak of both his material poverty and his spiritual poverty. At Paris, Montfort placed himself under the guidance of the Sulpicians. But beginning inothers, especially his spiritual director, Fr. Leschassier, found him hard to understand. Though he showed an obedient willingness to seek and follow their advice, they found his behavior strangely "out of tune.

At Saint Sulpice, little by little, the well-codified ascetical trend of Fr. Tronson had supplanted the more mystical orientation of Fr. For Fr. Leschassier, the ideal for a "good ecclesiastic" was to be found in surrendering himself to the balanced mold of the "common rule. This "rule" was not so much the written rule, which Louis Marie obeyed assiduously; rather, it was an image of the model seminarian.

Montfort was a generous, passionate seeker of God whose fervor and good will were obvious. But it was also obviously impossible for him to conform himself to an established framework. Should not certain excessive or extravagant acts also be considered a sign of uniqueness of character? Could such behavior be inspired by the Holy Spirit? But could not such a quasi-impossibility of freeing himself manifest an unconscious attachment to his "own judgment," which might not be very balanced?

The Holy Spirit was truly at work in him. Over time Louis Marie would rid himself of the roughness and imperfections in his character. He did not understand half saints louis marie de montfort biography examples that compromised with the spirit of the world. The inner Master continued working to mold him into a saint and apostle, even through the trials and difficulties that resulted from his being misunderstood by others.

Montfort throughout his life would remain more of an enigma "for the sages and wise men," than for the "poor and little ones," who spontaneously recognized him as a man of God, as someone they could trust. For a long time, even his friend Jean-Baptiste Blain would have reservations about him. Only after their Rouen meeting in did he drop his prejudices.

Montfort was never a troublemaker. His apparent anti-conformism resulted from something much deeper, something immensely more praiseworthy. It was rooted in the absoluteness of God and in the radicalness of the Gospel. He drew concrete conclusions without being preoccupied with how they might impact on himself. Blain asked his friend "whether he ever hoped to find people willing to follow the type of life he led.

In response, he showed me his New Testament and asked me if I could improve on what Jesus Christ had said and done. Could I show him a better life than that of his Apostles, one of poverty and mortification based on abandonment to Providence? Blain reproached him: "But where do you find in the Gospel valid examples of your odd or unusual ways of doing things.

He replied that truthfully he had not intended his actions to be odd or unusual, that he had paid no attention to his actions in natural terms; yet if his actions caused humiliation, then they were not without purpose.

Saint louis marie de montfort biography examples: Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, TOSD

As for the rest, he said if acts of charity, mortification, and other such uncommon practices of heroic virtue were considered odd or unusual, then in that sense he would be happy to be considered odd or unusual. If being uncommon was a defect, then it was one shared with every saint. For Montfort, Saint Sulpice was more than a time of trial, testing, and conflicting spiritual lifestyles.

It prepared him for the misunderstandings and rejections that he would later experience. Even though he opted for the "science of the saints" rather than that of the worldly wise, he did receive a solid theological formation; he was thus able to bring together, notably on the Marian plane, important documentation that would later make it possible for him to translate and to communicate his spiritual experience into several major works.

Discovering the devotion "of holy slavery," he enthusiastically made it his own, giving it new dimensions. He realized, deepened, and was shaped in his Christ-centeredness by a profound grasp of the mystery of the Incarnation. This allowed him to integrate organically his exceptional Marian piety, to bring it to the very heart of his Christian life, and to discover its ultimate implications.

It set in place the essential foundations of his spiritual life. After his priestly ordination, June 5,his desire to depart for the missions of Canada was not fulfilled. He went to Fr. But his hope was unrealized, and the young priest, so on fire with apostolic zeal, had to cool his heels. He found himself inactive, in a community where he was ill at ease.

Though he handled the situation with maturity and sensitivity, he managed to communicate the strain this left him under, as well as his desire for the active apostolate, something that would never leave him. Writing with total candor of heart to Fr. Leschassier, who remained his spiritual director, he said: " With conditions as they are, I find myself, as time goes on, torn by two apparently contradictory feelings.

On the one hand I feel a secret attraction for a hidden life in which I can efface myself in combat, my natural tendency to show off. On the other hand, I feel a tremendous urge to make our Lord and his holy Mother loved, to go in a humble and simple way to teach catechism to the poor in country places and to arouse in sinners a devotion to Our Blessed Lady.

This was the work done by a good priest who died a holy death here recently. He used to go about from saint louis marie de montfort biography examples to parish teaching the people catechism and relying only on what Providence provided for him. I know very well, my dear Father, that I am not worthy to do such honorable work, but when I see the needs of the Church I cannot help pleading continually for a small and poor band of good priests to do this work under the banner and protection of the Blessed Virgin" L 5.

This is a remarkable text. It shows how he was being led to understand and live out his mission during this early period. It reveals as well his vision of a foundation and of how he planned to make it a reality. It was natural that he would experience a tension between the desire for the hidden life of solitude, on the one hand, and for the active apostolate, on the other.

What Montfort said was not unusual, and in fact he found ways to live both a contemplative and an active life. For the first time in his life, he spent five months in forced inactivity. But though Providence closed one door, it opened another. Madame de Montespan, who was a benefactor of his sister Sylvia and had helped her to enter the Abbey of Fontevrault, invited Louis Marie to come and assist at the ceremony where his sister received her religious habit.

During his stay at the monastery, the young priest met with Madame de Montespan a number of times. She was interested in his future and recommended that he visit the bishop of Poitiers and speak to him about his projects. Montfort agreed, but upon his arrival in Poitiers, he found that the bishop was away. How would he find what to do?

He wrote to Fr. I went into their little church to pray and the four hours I spent there waiting for the evening mealtime seemed all too short. However it seemed so long to some of the poor, who saw me kneeling there dressed in clothes very much like their own, that they went off to tell the others and they all agreed to take up a collection for me.

Some gave more, some less; the poorer ones a denier, the richer ones a sou.

Saint louis marie de montfort biography examples: Louis Marie Grignion was born 31

All this went on without my knowing anything about it. Eventually I left the church to ask the time of supper and at the same time to ask permission to serve the poor at table. But I misconceived the situation for I discovered they did not eat together and I was surprised to find out that they wanted to make me an offering and had told the doorkeeper not to let me go away.

I blessed God that I had been taken for a poor man wearing the glorious livery of the poor and thanked my brothers and sisters for their kindness. Since then, they have become so attached to me that they are going about saying openly that I am to be their priest, that is their director, for there has not been a regular director in the poorhouse for a considerable time, so abandoned has it become" L 6.

This event is quite revealing. How can one explain the feelings of sympathy, the attraction, that the poorhouse residents felt for this unknown priest? Quite simply! Montfort himself gives the reason: "Some of the poor. And then there was the fact that they saw him "dressed in clothes very much like their own. These two reasons seem to explain the behavior of the poor.

They took up a collection among themselves to help him out. Instinctively they sensed that this priest, so close to God and to them, understood them deeply. In spite of their social differences, he was "one of them," to the degree that after the initial contact, they wanted him for themselves. This was not the only time that he helped people materially.

He had been doing this his whole life. Montfort attracted "the poor" to himself because he loved them. This love for the poor is one of the keys to his spiritual physiognomy. The poor of Poitiers would almost immediately get their wish. When Montfort returned to Nantes, Fr. He did this with surprising success for someone who was just beginning his ministry.

But on August 25,a letter came from Bishop Girard asking him to fulfill the wishes of the residents of the poorhouse in Poitiers. Montfort accepted, but on September 16 he wrote to Fr. Leschassier: "The only saint louis marie de montfort biography examples that would make me want to go to the poorhouse at all would be the hope of being able to extend my work later into the town and the countryside and so be able to help more people" L 9.

Mission work was his only goal. At the poorhouse, his devotion and sense of organization worked marvels and in time also aroused the hostility of certain malcontents. He was forced to leave Poitiers in the spring of They both would forever remain faithful to him and would become, a dozen years later, the first two Daughters of Wisdom. He was not, however, finished with the poorhouse at Poitiers, for "his" poor wanted him.

Here is the beginning of the letter dated March 9,that they sent to Fr. Leschassier: "We, four hundred poor, petition you very humbly, for the great love and glory of God, to return to us our venerable pastor, him who loves the poor so much, Fr. Once again, however, after a very encouraging beginning, new difficulties arose, and he became disconcerted.

His final farewell to the poorhouse at Poitiers occurred in From the spring of to MarchMontfort lived in Paris. For five months he devoted himself to their care. He was very effective, but this incited the ire of those who opposed such fruitful change, and they attacked him. At the end of just five months, they asked him to leave.

When Montfort arrived in Paris, it was to find that his benefactor had not provided enough money for him, so he lodged in a succession of boarding houses, living among the very poor, in the meantime attending the Sorbonne University for lectures in theology. After less than two years, he became very ill and had to be admitted to hospital. He survived this, despite the blood letting that was common practice at that time.

Leaving hospital, he was surprised to find his place had been kept open for him at the Little Saint-Sulpicewhich he entered in July This seminary had been founded by Jean-Jacques Olierone of the leading exponents of what came to be known as the French school of spirituality. This later led to his focus on the Holy rosary and Montfort's acclaimed book, The Secret of the Rosary.

Even as a seminarian in Paris, Montfort was known for his veneration of angels : he "urged his confreres to show marks of respect and tenderness to their guardian angels" and often ended his letters with a salutation to the guardian angel of the person to whom he was writing. When, later, he arrived in Nantes, he saluted all the angels of the city.

Apparently, this was something he repeated whenever he entered a village or town. One reason behind Montfort's showing such devotion to angels is that veneration of the pure spirits was an integral part of his training, and also of his culture. His college teachers, all Jesuits, were known for their zeal in propagating devotion to the angels.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, manuals of piety and treatises on the pure spirits abounded. Louis was ordained a priest in June[ 4 ] and assigned to Nantes. His great desire had been the foreign missions, preferably in the new French colony of Canada, but his spiritual director advised against it. Letters of this period show he felt frustrated by the lack of opportunity to preach as he felt he was called to.

In November he joined the Third Order of Saint Dominic and asked permission not only to preach the rosary, but also to form rosary confraternities. This was to eventually lead to the founding of the Company of Mary. Around this time, Louis de Montfort was appointed chaplain of the hospital in Nantes. During Louis de Montfort's time, France was beginning to face a mounting economic crisis.

Outpacing food supply was a rapidly growing population. For several years he preached in missions from Brittany to Nantes. As his reputation as a missioner grew, he became known as "the good Father from Montfort". At Pontchateau he attracted hundreds of people to help him in the construction of a huge calvary. However, on the very eve of its blessing, the Bishop, having heard it was to be destroyed on the orders of the King of France under the influence of members of the Jansenist school, forbade its benediction.

It is reported that upon receiving this news, he simply said, "Blessed be God. Montfort left Nantes and the next several years were extraordinarily busy for him. He was constantly occupied in preaching missions, always walking between one and another. The heated style of his preaching was regarded by some people as somewhat strange and he was poisoned once.

Yet he continued, undeterred. He went on preaching and established free schools for the poor boys and girls. The bishop of La Rochelle had been impressed with Montfort for some time and invited him to open a school there. Montfort enlisted the help of his follower Marie Louise Trichet, who was then running the General Hospital in Poitiers. In Marie Louise and Catherine Brunet left Poitiers for La Rochelle to open the school there and in a short time it had students.

At the ceremony Montfort told them: "Call yourselves the Daughters of Wisdom, [ 4 ] for the teaching of children and the care of the poor. Montfort's 16 years of priesthood include many months of solitude, perhaps as many as a total of four years; at the cave of Mervent, amidst the beauty of the forest, at the hermitage of Saint Lazarus near the village of Montfort, and at the hermitage of Saint Eloi in La Rochelle.

During it, he fell ill and died on 28 April of that year. He was 43 years old, and had been a priest for only 16 years. His last sermon was on the tenderness of Jesus and the Incarnate Wisdom of the Father. Thousands gathered for his burial in the parish church, and very quickly there were stories of miracles performed at his tomb. In Montfort's approach to Marian consecration, Jesus and Mary are inseparable.

He views "consecration to Jesus in Mary" as a special path to being conformed to, united and consecrated to Christ, given that. God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters, and He named it the sea mare.