Statue of St. Louis de Montfort at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
Missionary in Brittany and Vendee; born at Montfort, 31 January, 1673; died at Saint Laurent sur Sevre, 28 April, 1716.
From his childhood, he was indefatigably devoted to prayer before the
Blessed Sacrament, and, when from his twelfth year he was sent as a day
pupil to the Jesuit college at Rennes, he never failed to visit the
church before and after class. He joined a society of young men who
during holidays ministered to the poor and to the incurables in the
hospitals, and read for them edifying books during their meals. At the
age of nineteen, he went on foot to Paris to follow the course in
theology, gave away on the journey all his money to the poor, exchanged
clothing with them, and made a vow to subsist thenceforth only on alms.
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 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.
Blessed Marie-Louise Trichet takes the habit from Saint Louis de Montfort as the first of the Daughters of Wisdom.
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.
The desk upon which Saint Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort wrote the Treatise on True Devotion to Mary.
Grignion’s extraordinary influence was especially apparent in the
matter of the calvary at Pontchateau. 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. Father de Montfort was not disturbed on receiving this
humiliating news, exclaiming only: “Blessed be God!”
The tomb of Saint Louis de Montfort, where his remains were moved after his canonization.
This was by no means the only trial to which Grignion was subjected.
It often happened that the Jansenists, irritated by his success, secure
by their intrigues his banishment form the district, in which he was
giving a mission. At La Rochelle some wretches put poison into his cup
of broth, and, despite the antidote which he swallowed, his health was
always impaired. On another occasion, some malefactors hid in a narrow
street with the intention of assassinating him, but he had a
presentiment of danger and escaped by going by another street. A year
before his death, Father de Montfort 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
forty-four houses, and gave instruction to 60,000 children. After the
death of its founder, the Company of Mary was governed for 39 years by
Father Mulot. He had at first refused to join de Montfort in his
missionary labours. “I cannot become a missionary”, said he, “for I have
been paralysed on one side for years; I have an affection of the lungs
which scarcely allows me to breathe, and am indeed so ill that I have no
rest day or night.” But the holy man, impelled by a sudden inspiration,
replied, “As soon as you begin to preach you will be completely cured.”
And the event justified the prediction. Grignion de Montfort was
beatified by Leo XIII in 1888.
[
Note: He was canonized by Pius XII in 1947.]
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CRUIKSHANK, Blessed Grignion, etc. (London, 1892); JAC, Vie, etc. (Paris, 1903); LAVEILLE, Vic, etc. (Paris, 1907).
AUSTIN POULAIN (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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