Saint Louis Marie de Montfort
An Often Misunderstood Saint Part I
Fr. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
After an introduction summarizing Saint Louis de Montfort’s clashes with ecclesiastical authorities, this article [series] will clarify in some detail five principal rejections experienced by the missionary. The final section will examine in some depth the reasons for each of these rebuffs and will conclude with a general summary indicating how these incidents clarify the personality of this giant among the saints.
[From time to time during the three hundreds years following the death] … of Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, the question of the saint’s relationship with his superiors … [surfaces] once again. And understandably so, for it is underlined in all his biographies. Why was this humble man, who claimed that no one could ever fault him for lack of obedience, be expelled from some dioceses and so misunderstood by a number of the religious authorities of his time?
René Laurentin’s short biography of Saint Louis de Montfort (Petite Vie de Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Desclée de Brouwer, 1996) is [an example] … to scan the heart of this Breton saint. Laurentin’s brief work, in common with other biographies of Montfort, repeatedly makes one wonder, “Is this man for real?” Following the path trod by Louis Marie Grignion constantly leads to a holy space where we yearn to be yet dare not enter.
But all is not mystery in the life of this priest from the village of Montfort in Brittany. It is rather simple to outline his career. There is no problem in presenting a rather detailed list of towns visited, parish missions preached, schools attended, books written. There is no need for expensive software to draw up a curriculum vitae for Louis Grignion. His biographies are readily divided into two main periods: 1673-1700, his family life and education, and 1700-1716, his ministry. And the in-betweens are also quite discernible as all his “lives” demonstrate.
Facts and figures, however, do not a saint make or a saint explain. For that matter, no one’s personhood is truly disclosed by filling out a job application. The problem lies beyond the lifeless documentation of where a person lived and where they worked. A biography penetrates into the spirit of an individual. It is not only what did he do and where did he do it, but also why does he do it, why does this happen? It is that mysterious why that so often eludes us about the saints. And who is satisfied by the cover-all statement that such was the will of God? Providence is expressed through human events and it is precisely the human choices which must be scrutinized to uncover that elusive why.
What is so amazing in the life of Saint Louis de Montfort that it becomes incredibly difficult to explain? It is not just one astounding aspect of his life but the sum total of them all, found in the short career of a missionary priest who died at the early age of 43. A brief listing of some of these extraordinary events would include:
and all this and more accomplished during only sixteen years of priestly ministry. How could all this be done by a man who was a contemplative, gifted by the Spirit with rare mystical graces?
Tile murals depicting two scenes of St Louis de Montfort’s Life
These two murals appear immediately outside the chapel in Montfort’s Spiritual Center. The first scene depicts Louis Grignion’s leaving to begin his studies in Paris. Louis Grignion walked to his destinations and this journey was no different. It is over 250 miles between the towns. He would give up his clothes and money along the way.
The second scene depicts his visit to Rome to seek an audience with the pope and receive clarification and direction for his missionary assignment and for his ministry.
The murals are two of the six scenes in the chapel.
Note from the editor:
Obtaining and reading a biography of the life of Saint Louis de Montfort is easy to do. However, not all the biographies give an insight into the man, and therefore, contribute to some of the misunderstandings. They indicate that he was not liked by many of his superiors, and this is true. This series provides insights as to why he was not liked by several people of his time, including his superiors at the seminary. It may be difficult to appreciate this saint, when learning of so many disapprovals, including some clergy. This set of articles was written by Fr. Gaffney, SMM, who was instrumental in publishing The Handbook of the Spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort. The articles attempt to provide some insights into the man, so one can further appreciate the priest who would become a saint.
A biography penetrates into the spirit of an individual. It is not only what did he do and where did he do it, but also why does he do it, why does this happen? It is that mysterious why that so often eludes us about the saints.
As difficult as it is to attempt an explanation of such a life, there is one crucial aspect of Louis de Montfort which is the greatest enigma of all. Without it, perhaps this saint would not be such a puzzle. It is the haunting problem which seems to escape a solution: why was this priest, so obedient, so humble, a thorn in the side of many of his superiors, even Bishops.
A few examples, as they are popularly recounted:
1. His spiritual director Father Leschassier, washed his hands of him, refusing even to speak with him. When Louis de Montfort sought his advice during a time of intense difficulty, Father Leschassier, then the Superior General of the Sulpicians, only gave him a cold stare, forcing the young priest to leave. Four years later, when Father de Montfort visited his former seminary superior, Father Brenier, he was dismissed in the same humiliating manner.
2. Bishop de la Poype of Poitiers, although truly appreciating Father de Montfort, felt obliged to order the priest to get out of his diocese and “at once.” When Montfort returned from his pilgrimage to Rome and visited Poitiers, he was curtly told to leave the diocese within twenty-four hours.
3. Father Leuduger, an illustrious and holy preacher of the Diocese of St. Brieuc, accepted Father de Montfort into his renowned mission band. After only a few months, he summarily dismissed him.
4. Bishop Desmaretz of St. Malo forbade Louis de Montfort to preach in the chapel of the hermitage where the saint was staying.
5. Bishop Gilles de Bauveau of Nantes not only reversed his decision to permit the blessing of the saint’s monumental Calvary of Pontchateau, but commanded him to destroy it. The Bishop then ordered Montfort to get far away from Pontchateau and never to return.
Each of these events will be examined in some detail in the next section. However these disturbing facts and others could be narrated—they must not overshadow the truth that the Bishops of Lucon and La Rochelle, in whose dioceses he carried out the last several years of his ministry, were among his strongest and faithful supporters, not to speak of Pope Clement XI himself. And it can never be forgotten that for the majority of bishops, priests, religious and laypeople who encountered the saint, he was “the Good Father from Montfort.”
It is a serious exaggeration to characterize the saint as a missionary hounded by Church authorities or to qualify his ministry “a continual martyrdom.” The events mentioned above cannot be denied or minimized, but the opposition must not be blown out of proportion. Saint Louis Marie de Montfort’s relationship with his religious superiors was generally one of sincere, mutual esteem. None of the dismissals he suffered at the hands of a few was a canonical penalty. And Father Louis Grignion always obeyed.
Did these trials have any effect on Father Louis Marie? Clearly, yes. They damaged his reputation. They were discouraging blows. Several times, he mentioned openly, yet respectfully, that he had been treated unjustly. After having been silenced by the Bishop of Nantes in connection with the Pontchateau affair, he was seen, so some of his biographers tell us, with his head in his hands, weeping. His artistic nature, but even more so, his total obedience to the Gospel, deeply felt the insults handed to him by those whom God had placed as his superiors and directors. It even led him, according to his friend John-Baptist Blain, to question whether or not he should continue in the active ministry. “Consider the pain of Father de Montfort,” wrote Blain in his memoirs, “who saw men so holy and so enlightened in the ways of God, doubt him, not even willing to advise him”. There appears to be no bitterness within him, absolutely no thought of revenge or even of clearing his good name. His joyful serene trust in Providence appear to have intensified, thanks to these trials.
II. What did happen?
Starting with the rejection by Father Leschassier – probably the most painful of them all – we will examine at some length each of the five mentioned above.
The Rejection by Father Leschassier (1703)
Why was the young Father Louis Grignion dismissed curtly, rudely and as the saint himself would add, unjustly, by his former seminary professors? The reason is not hard to discover. Within the first year or two of priesthood, Father Louis Marie Grignion had broken the expected conduct for alumni of St. Sulpice Seminary of Paris.
Before entering Little St. Sulpice in 1695 (which differed from Great St. Sulpice only in cheaper rates and poorer accommodations), Louis Grignion had spent two years at Father de la Barmondiere’s residence for poor seminarians and one year at a home for destitute students run by Father Boucher. He had as his spiritual directors, first Father de la Barmondiere, and then Father Bayun, two Sulpicians known for their mystical ways. Both not only admired the seminarian from Montfort but gave some leeway for his yearning for long hours of meditation and intense mortifications. Louis Grignion’s entry into Little St. Sulpice was a transfer to another galaxy. He chose the balanced, saintly, and almost anti-mystical superior of Great St. Sulpice as his spiritual director, the renowned Father Leschassier. It is implied by Father Charles Besnard, one of the earliest biographers of Louis de Montfort, that it was only as a last resort since no else felt equal to the task – that Father Leschassier took it upon himself the charge of this “most singular” seminarian.
Blain describes Father Leschassier as quite different from the more understanding previous directors of Louis Grignion: “Father Leschassier is the most moderate man in the world and the farthest removed from any excess”. He is described as a dedicated spiritual director who seemed emotionless, ordinarily refusing any requests for special permissions. Possible indications of mystical union with the Lord were severely challenged. Could it be nothing more than expressions of a lively imagination? Not that the able Sulpician was unacquainted with the higher realms of spiritual life. He had written the first biography of the founder of the Sulpicians, Father J.J. Olier, a mystic, whose actions Father Leschassier also found extraordinary. However, to write the life of a mystic and to direct a young priest who enjoyed mystical graces (perhaps!) are two radically different tasks. Father Leschassier could do the first; he himself acknowledged that he was not good at the second.
Saint Sulpice was the West Point of the clergy of the day and Father Leschassier was justifiably proud of its magnificent reputation. Its rules had succeeded. The insistence that “one size fits all” was inflexible. The seminarian from Brittany [Louis Marie], could not be an exception. Blaine, who studied with Montfort at St. Sulpice, tells us that at the seminary, “singularity was persecuted as a great vice.” Especially true under the rule of Father Leschassier.
Montfort’s intense and often out of the ordinary acts of mortification, prayer, service to the poor had to be regulated so Father Leschassier firmly believed, or else this young man would fly out of bounds in his desire to live the Gospel. And still fresh in the minds of the directors was a former student whose apparent mysticism was openly revealed as nothing more than a fraud. The “strange” seminarian from Montfort spent hours on his knees in silent prayer, who several times seemed to be in ecstasy even in the dining room, who yearned for severe penances: he could not have chosen a more trying time to be a seminarian at St. Sulpice. Even more so, since the superior of Great St. Sulpice and the young man’s spiritual director was the “absolute enemy” of singularity, Father Leschassier.
Since Father Leschassier was weighed down with the duties as superior of Great St. Sulpice, he asked Father Brenier, the director of Little St. Sulpice where Montfort resided to take charge of the young seminarian spiritual direction for several months. Blain tells us that Brenier carried out the task by humiliating the young seminarian, “fully, at great length, and publicly.” Precisely as Father Leschassier’s method required.
As a student of St. Sulpice, the rather detailed scheduled – whether written or unwritten – forced Louis Grignion to spend a clearly allocated space of time, no more, and no less, in recreation. It demanded sufficient rest, forbade a seminarian to spend hours and hours on end in the chapel, insisted on “moderate” mortifications, etc. For all seminarians, this is considered a necessary structure for their growth into holy, balanced, parish priests. However, Louis Grignion found these rules stifling. He felt he was not given enough air to breath and grow, to be the person who God wanted him to be. It was impossible to squeeze him into the customary mold of future priests. Yet he was known for his meticulous obedience, to the rules and to Father Leschassier, his spiritual director.
Louis Marie apparently appreciated these regulations which taught him how to walk the path of “the good priest” from the seminary Saint Sulpice, even if he chafed under some of them. They were extraordinary means of mortification since as Blain describes him, he was a raging fire that was not allowed to burn. However, he well knew that his predominant fault, according to the seminary system, was a desire to go beyond the “proper limit” in his spiritual life. Who better than Father Leschassier to stomp out any ember of this yearning?
And yet, Montfort as a seminarian was greatly appreciated by the Sulpician faculty since he did obey them even though it was so difficult. Biographers state that some Sulpicians wanted him to stay in Paris and join the seminary team. However, the newly ordained priest knew that there was no way that he could accept that offer; he yearned for the open road seeking out the poor and telling them in a very simple way the good news of Jesus. How he longed to explode in his intense love for Jesus and Mary, in his desire to serve the poorest of the poor.
To be Continued
