Q&A: Why do you not quote Mary of Agreda’s visions when you speak about Mary? This holy woman whom Montfort venerated explains many truths about Our Lady not even mentioned in the Gospels.
Father J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
The more things change, the more they remain the same! Shortly before receiving your letter, I was thumbing through a volume containing copies of a French Montfort review dating back to the early 1920’s and the gist of your question is found in one of the issues! To be more precise, the question asked almost one hundred years ago was a statement of a reader, convinced that the co-redemption of Mary is proven by the visions of Mary of Agreda. The comment given by a Montfort missionary long since gone to his reward, is the same as the one we give today; private revelations, visions, locutions, cannot be used as theological proof. For example, the truth of the Immaculate Conception is not deduced from the apparitions of Mary to Bernadette at Lourdes. All truths of our faith are founded upon the solid rock of Scripture as it is lived, prayed and authentically taught by the magisterium of the Church. True, many accounts of approved apparitions and locutions may make for edifying and instructive readings. However, Catholics do not base their faith on them.
This is especially true concerning the so-called apparitions which deal with the “end of the world.” For example, some publications containing reported locutions of Mary on the end-times are so intertwined with preposterous new-age thinking (e.g., Mary claims to have been reincarnated several times) that they are to be completely ignored. Likewise, meetings of the faithful where “locutions” are read and discussed as if they were on a par with the Bible cause much harm.
That is not to say that authentic, approved apparitions are to be simply ignored. They may serve as a salutary reminder of what is already in the deposit of the faith. But they must be interpreted and critiqued in the light of Scripture/Tradition and not vice-versa.
As for Saint Louis de Montfort’s veneration of this “holy nun of the last century”—an implicit reference to Mary of Agreda in TD 206—it can well be supposed. Notice, however, that Saint Louis de Montfort does not base his doctrine on any revelation she may have received; however, he does use Mary of Agreda’s statement as a support for what is already clear from the Word of God as lived, prayed and taught by the Church.
