Originally printed in The Reign of Mary, Spring 1987

The “Secret” of St. Louis Marie de Montfort

By a Sister of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen

July 20, 1987 marks the fortieth anniversary of the canonization of one of God’s greatest saints, Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. Addressing the great concourse of pilgrims assembled for the occasion, Pope Pius XII summarized the life and spirit of the newly-canonized: “The greatest force behind all his apostolic ministry and his secret for attracting and giving souls to Jesus was his devotion to Mary. All his activity depended on that devotion; in it he placed all his security: and he could not have found a more efficacious remedy for his age. To the sad austerity, the somber terror, the depressing pride of Jansenism he opposed the filial, trusting, ardent, expansive and effective love of the devout servant of Mary…. our life, our sweetness and our hope.”

Louis de Montfort died on April 28, 1716, at the age of 44. Given the title Apostolic Missioner by Pope Clement XI, Louis had spent the sixteen short years of his priesthood as a “home missionary” in his native France. He founded two congregations which, at his death, comprised a handful of religious and only two priests. De Montfort’s beautiful treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary was only discovered 126 years after his death. The life of this indefatigable missionary, misunderstood by contemporaries and ruthlessly persecuted by his enemies, was what many might call a “failure.” It was not until over 200 years later that Louis Marie de Mont fort was elevated to the highest honors of the Church by the foremost Marian Pope of modern times and given to the twentieth century as a model of devotion to Our Lady. Who was he, and what was his “secret for attracting and giving souls to Jesus,” his True Devotion to Mary?

Born at Montfort in Brittany in 1673, our Saint was the second of eighteen children. Studying under the Jesuit Fathers, Louis walked off with class honors year after year, gifted as he was with a brilliant mind and tenacious memory. In 1693 Louis entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris to study for the priesthood. “Montfort was not the kind of present Providence usually sent the Sulpicians,” writes one of his biographers. “When they received him they might have sung the Te Deum, but with a stress upon the Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy!’” (St. Louis de Montfort, G. Rigault, p. 22).

It must be admitted that the Sulpicians had many reasons for misunderstanding their new student. Louis was indeed pious, humble, mortified, hard-working, possessed of a brilliant mind and remarkable fervor — but, they objected, he is so strange, so eccentric… why can’t he be holy like normal people? Often the butt of practical jokes, his fellow students did not know whether to mock or admire this silent and mortified devotee of Our Lady who made it a point of giving meditations out loud during recreation, or cutting his stockings from heel to toe so as to suffer the rub of his shoes… He is surely a pious hypocrite,some concluded; severe treatment and public reprimand would cure him of his pride. Louis accepted all with that tranquility and humility he was to unvaryingly display in the face of misunderstanding and persecution.

The Sulpicians could not reshape Louis — as writes his biographer: “Montfort was to bear his witness in words and sufferings, to carry his rosary through town and country, his stick surmounted by the Cross, with his striking face that could never be forgotten — the great aquiline nose, the wide mouth, the fiery glance in the long oval face…. His triumph was to be won at the cost of insult, misunderstanding, persecution. He had the make-up of an apostle and a martyr, the double gifts of conqueror and organizer. This his masters had not foreseen” (Rigault, pp. 32-33).

When our Saint was ordained in 1700, France was experiencing a “revival” of that “sad austerity, somber terror and depressing pride” of Jansenism. Bishop Cornelius Jansen had died in 1638; his errors are basically summed up in this: after the fall, man is radically evil. He is basically incapable of resisting good or evil by an act of his own will. Jansenism invented a new type of worship to honor the inaccessibility, the unapproachableness of our Divine Savior! How such a severe and unloving a doctrine could have the strangling influence it did upon Catholic France can be explained by one of the guises it wore: religious reform. Jansenists reacted strongly against the laxity and worldliness corrupting the clergy and laity. Under the pretext of restoring Church discipline, they stripped religion of its warmth, beauty, filial devotion and faith. Carried to its extreme, Jansenism was a ghastly spectre of fear and terror.

Father Olier, founder of St. Sulpice, came face to face with just such extremism in the Paris of his own day. St. Merry’s parish church, 1645, run on true Jansenistic principles: “One of the (public) penances commonly imposed was that of standing at the further end of the church, or outside the door, and never raising the eyes to the Blessed Sacrament; and it is related that a pious young woman, having accidentally looked towards It, immediately ran out into the street for fear of being led to look again and make an act of adoration… Then, too, in the early mornings, a strange sight might have been witnessed in one of the chapels of St. Merry’s — a whole assembly of women scourging themselves with the utmost vigor; so great, indeed, was the ardor and enthusiasm with which they gave themselves to these and similar austerities that several died or went mad from the effects…the spirit of disobedience and singularity everywhere excited was productive of the gravest disorders. But that which caused the man of God the deepest grief was the general neglect and infrequency of Communion which inevitably resulted from the spread of Jansenistic tenets…” (Life of J.J. Olier, E.H. Thompson, p. 348-49).

Given “spiritual directors” who refused their penitents the help and consolation of frequent Holy Communion, is it any wonder why temptations became harder to resist, passions waxed stronger, faith and piety waned, religion was abandoned? One effect of Jansenius’ propositions on grace was reasoning such as this: “Well, if we have grace, we shall be saved; if we have it not, we shall be lost, so what does it matter what one does?” This was the influence Father Olier’s spiritual son Louis de Montfort was to fight in his own day with that most “efficacious weapon,” True Devotion to Our Blessed Lady. Pius XII explains its effect: “Convinced by his own personal experience of Mary’s role, the missionary declared with a picturesque simplicity all his own that ‘never did a sinner resist him after he had touched his coat collar with the Rosary.” But would it had been that easy!

De Montfort’s great work was preaching missions; for this he was endowed with extraordinary abilities. “Behold him in the pulpit — a striking figure… Those eyes, which look alternately at the tabernacle and the crowd, have an amazing brilliancy. That long face framed by flowing black hair, the flaming glance, who has not seen such a face upon the battlefield?… But there was gentleness in that eagle face, for the war which he was carrying on with such energy and strategy was to lead to true peace… His listeners were often more numerous than the parish church could hold, and he would then go out of doors, and stand on a mound or climb a tree. Thence he could see at his feet the surging human sea…” (Rigault, pp. 115-117).

De Montfort conducted processions, composed hymns, acted out plays, erected Calvaries, used every method he could employ to bring the realities of the Faith back to these simple people. In every parish where the saint preached a mission, he established his True Devotion to Mary, the Holy Bondage of love he called the “Secret of Mary.” He preached it not only to the devout and pious, but to the worst of sinners. Through its means, and through the Rosary, the results of the missions were kept alive in the hearts of the faithful. But while his methods were successful and sinners were converted, the archenemy of souls made every effort to silence such a formidable opponent. Slander, gossip, persecution followed Louis everywhere. His success was purchased at a great price, one of suffering and humiliation.

What was that True Devotion taught by St. Louis, or more properly the Holy Slavery of Love? As Pius XII points out to us: “… True and perfect devotion to the Blessed Virgin is not bound up with any modes in sucha manner that one of them can claim monopoly over the others.” This is very true. De Montfort taught a particular form of Marian devotion; that form, while not claiming to be the only true and perfect devotion, has nevertheless been highly praised by many recent Pontiffs. In 1848, Pius IX gave his blessing to De Montfort’s book, and claimed it was the best and most acceptable form of devotion to Our Blessed Lady. Pius X gave his apostolic benediction to anyone who would even read the treatise; it has been said that his enyclical Ad Diem IIlum is a reflection of De Montfort’s teaching. Benedict XV highly praised the work, and Pius XI said of it: “I have known and practiced this devotion from my childhood” (The De Montfort Way, Frank Duff, p.7).

Perhaps the Holy Slavery is better understood if viewed in perspective, keeping in mind the times in which St. Louis lived. The “devotion of the inaccessibility” of God to His creatures was aimed a death blow by the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary later in that same century. “Behold this Heart which has so loved men…” are hardly words to frighten anyone except a Jansenist; indeed Our Lord had “saved” this great revelation for the days when the world had grown very cold. But in its own realm, the True Devotion to Mary taught by St. Louis was calculated to bring about the same results — God very near to us, very accessible, full of love and mercy, God seen in the sweetest, most loving and loveliest of His creatures. Through Mary, “He has had pity on our weakness, has drawn near to us, has given us access to His Majesty….”

St. Louis rallies the most just praises given to that sweet Mother by her foremost lovers — Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventure, Bernardine of Siena. She is the Mother of Mercy, the Hope of the hopeless, the Refuge of sinners; “Nowhere do we creatures find Him nearer to us and more adapted to our weakness than in Mary… Everywhere else He is the Bread of the strong, the Bread of the angels, but in Mary He is the Bread of children” (The Secret of Mary). Our Lady, the perfect “mold of God,” has but one desire, to unite us to her Son — we make no mistake travelling the same road by which Jesus came to us. Mary is the safe, sure, easy, quick way to arrive at union with Our Lord.

The term Holy Slavery is used to signify the scope of the consecration one makes to God in this devotion. Catholic piety is familiar with the Heroic Act, whereby the soul makes the offering of all its satisfactory works and suffrages after death in behalf of the Holy Souls in purgatory. The Holy Slavery goes further. We offer to Jesus through Mary our body and soul, interior and exterior goods, our graces, merits, virtues, good works and all that may be offered for us after our death, to be distributed by her in the manner she chooses, to save sinners or to release souls from purgatory. We give her the right to dispose of us and all that belongs to us, knowing that, offered by her hands, our works will accrue to the greatest honor and glory of God. Thus “stripped,” the soul goes to God “empty-handed” (much as did St. Therese, who offered herself as a Victim of Love to God’s Infinite Mercy and desired no longer to “work for herself”). The soul can now lay claim to the mercy of that Mother who will never let herself be outdone in generosity. We give ourselves to her, and she gives herself to us, with her own merits, virtues and graces. These are not pious phrases — slaves of Mary experience an influx of grace in their lives it were not possible to explain in any other way.

Who does not see the loving confidence and holy abandonment to God here that slays the spirit of Jansenism in its very core? Obviously it is Christocentric; were it not, it could hardly be called a Catholic devotion. We see Jesus ‘living in and by Mary;” at the Incarnation He becomes our Model in Marian dependence. We do only what Jesus did before us. It is possible to misunderstand De Montfort, but then, it is possible to misunderstand the Son of God Himself.

True Devotion lay hidden in an old chest through the long years of the bloody revolution; it was discovered in 1842, saved for a time which has been rightly called the “Marian Age.” Little Bernadette was born but two years later; Bernadette, whose simple faith would open the flood-gates of grace at Lourdes. The whole world would look to Lourdes and realize what De Montfort was saying: all graces, all heavenly gifts come to us through Mary. In canonizing St. Louis Marie de Montfort just forty years ago, Pope Pius XII set the Church’s seal of approval upon his doctrine; moreover the Holy Father holds him up to us a model and teacher: “We ardently hope that…you will draw from the treasury of writings and example of our Saint that which constitutes the basis of his Marian Devotion: his firm conviction of the most powerful intercession of Mary, his resolute will to imitate as far as possible the virtues of the Virgin of virgins, and the vehement ardor of his love for her and for Jesus.”

If we did not know that Louis Marie de Montfort is a “saint for our times,” we have only to read his celebrated prayer, “An Urgent Plea for Marian Apostles.” The terror of Jansenism has given way to an easy Ecumenism: the grace of God can be found in every religion; as for sin and hell — God is so good and forgiving, must we really believe such awful things? And the prophetic voice of our Saint, as a new Baptist in the wilderness, cries out to God to avenge Himself: “It is time, O Lord… Thy Divine law is transgressed; Thy Gospel ignored, Thy religion abandoned; torrents of iniquity overwhelm the world, carrying away even Thy servants; the whole earth is made desolate; impiety is enthroned; Thy sanctuary is profaned, and abomination has reached even the holy place. Wilt Thou suffer this any longer, just Lord, God of vengeance? Will the end of all be like that of Sodom and Gomorrah? Wilt Thou be forever silent?…

“What is it I am asking from Thee? Nothing for myself, all for Thy glory. What am I asking of Thee?… Children: Priests, free with Thy freedom, detached fromall things,…without means, without worry, without cares, and even without any will of their own. Children: Slaves of Thy love and of Thy will; men according to Thy Heart, who…accomplish all Thy designs and crush all Thy enemies; other Davids, with the staff of the Cross and the sling of the holy Rosary in their hands… True servants of the Blessed Virgin, who like other St. Dominics, would go everywhere with the bright and burning torch of the holy Gospels in their mouths and the holy Rosary in their hands; barking like faithful watch-dogs at the wolves who would fain tear to pieces the flock of Jesus Christ; burning like fires, and lighting up the darkness of the world…

“Ah, let me, let me cry out everywhere: Fire! Fire! Fire! Help! Help! Help! Fire in the House of God! Fire in souls! Fire even within the sanctuary! Help for our brother who is being murdered! Help for our children whose throats are being cut! Help for our Father Who is being stabbed! If any man be on the Lord’s side, let him join with me. Let all good priests who are spread over the Christian world, and those who are actually in the warfare, and those who have withdrawn from the combat to bury themselves in deserts and solitude, let them all come forward and unite with us…in order that we may form, under the banner of the Cross, a well-regulated army in battle array, and together attack the enemies of God who have already sounded the alarm… Arise, O Lord; why feignest Thou to sleep? Arise in Thy might, Thy mercy, and Thy justice, to form Thyself a chosen bodyguard to keep Thy house, to defend Thy glory, and to save the souls bought at the price of Thy Precious Blood, that there may be but one fold and one shepherd, and that all may glorify Thee inThy holy temple…Amen.”