April 28th - St. Louis de Montfort

 

Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Louis Marie De Monfort. Born in France in 1673, he was the oldest of 8 children. During his college days, he became aware of his call to the priesthood. At the end of his ordinary schooling, he began his studies of philosophy and theology. During that time, he enjoyed listening to stories from a local priest, about a missionary priest, who would go from city to city preaching. And then decided he wanted to be a missionary priest, who would do likewise, by going about preaching from city to city.

Five months after his ordination to the priesthood, in November 1700, he wrote: "I am continually asking in my prayers for a poor and small company of good priests to preach missions and retreats under the standard and protection of the Blessed Virgin.”

This eventually led him to form a group of religious priests called, the Company of Mary. About the time he started the group of priests, he met Marie Louise Trichet, a young 19 yr. old woman who would co-found a women’s religious order called the Daughter’s of Wisdom. She and her sisters would serve the poor and sick for many years.

Frustrated with local bishops, who didn’t want him to preach in their diocese, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, to ask Pope Clement XI, what he should do. The Pope recognized his vocation and told him to go back to France to preach as an Apostolic Missionary.

For several years, he preached in missions from Brittany to Nantes, and his reputation as a great missionary grew. He became known as "the good Father from Montfort". At the city of Pontchateau, he attracted thousands of people to help him build of a huge replica of Calvary. This turned out to be one of his greatest disappointments. On the night before it was to be blessed, the Bishop, forbid the completed structure of Calvary to be blessed because the King of France did not want it to be built. On receiving this news, St. Louis told thousands of people who waited for the structure to be blessed, "We had hoped to build a Calvary here; let us build it in our hearts. Blessed be God."

As he continued to preach from town to town on devotion to Mary and the many sermons on the Holy Rosary, he converted thousands of people. His devotion to Mary was so great he added “Marie” to his middle name.

Pope John Paul II took his motto, “Totus Tuus”, from St. Louis De Montfort, who said we should belong totally to Jesus through Mary.

Once when he was traveling on a boat, he asked passengers, who were singing obscene songs, to join him in praying the rosary. Twice they made fun of him, but eventually they prayed the rosary with him on their knees, and listened to his sermon afterward.

Worn out by hard work and sickness, he finally came in April 1716 to Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre to begin the mission, which would be his last. During the mission, he became ill and died on April 28^th, 1716. He was 43 years old, and had been a priest for only 16 years. Thousands gathered for his burial in the parish church, and very quickly there were stories of miracles performed at his tomb.

During his life, he wrote several books on devotion to Mary and about the Rosary. They are True Devotion to Mary, the Secret of Mary and the Secret of the Rosary.

Today, let us remember to pray the Rosary every day, and pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary asking for Her favors, knowing that She is a good Mother, who will help us in all our needs. And if we have the opportunity, may also read some of St. Louis De Montfort’s books so, that we may come to know more about Mary and truly love Her as we ought.