Treatise of the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin: A Great Discovery

The few priests who made up the nascent Company of Mary did all in their power to disseminate their Founder’s devotion. They lived it themselves, they preached it in all their missions and retreats. This activity, coupled with the widespread diffusion of devotion to Mary, drew down on the Montfort Fathers the hate and wrath of the Jansenists. In fact, so incensed were these heretics over the doctrine of Fr. de Montfort, which ran counter to their own preconceived ideas, that they influenced the Royal Court to refuse official approval of the Company of Mary, thus restricting these zealous priests in their heavenly endeavors.

Up until the French Revolution, therefore, it is quite certain that the Fathers of the Company of Mary did not publish Fr. de Montfort’s works, except perhaps in excerpts which they inserted in their own writings. So for seventy years, the followers of St. Louis Marie had kept his devotion alive in the hearts of those to whom they preached. Then came the terrible and dark days of 1789 and 1791. The French Revolution was beginning and for the next ten years France was to be dipped in the boiling caldron of turmoil and persecution.

The motherhouse of the Company of Mary, at St. Laurent-sur-Sévre, (known as a dangerous center of religious sentiment and fervor diametrically opposed to the so-called philosophy of the clique in power) was constantly being searched by the revolutionists who destroyed or took what they wanted. The Treatise and other works of St, Louis de Montfort were still in the house at this time, and perhaps, in one of their visits, the ignorant guardsmen had seen it and even carelessly ripped off the first few pages.

Realizing the possibility of complete destruction of the house with all its precious books, manuscripts and sacred relics, the Fathers gathered together their holy treasures and placed them in old trunks which were then entrusted to the care of certain farmers in the neighborhood. As the danger became more and more imminent, the farmers hid the coffers in the fields. Consequently, the Treatise of the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin was “ … at the moment of the Revolution, in 1793, hidden in a chest which was in an underground cavern, in the middle of a field of brambles, and was thus free from the fire and pillage of the revolutionists.”

Near the close of the eighteenth century, the terrorism abated somewhat. Once again people began to live in the simple ways of the peasant Frenchmen and the hidden objects were unearthed. Exactly at what date the trunks were returned to the motherhouse is not known. However, we can safely say that it was soon after the turn of the century. Fr. de Montfort’s manuscript was still among the other books and writings.

Although the Fathers most likely perused the works, they did not recognize their Founder’s masterpiece on the Mother of God. This was due to the fact that many of the Fathers who had known it previously, were now dead. Those whose duty it was to go through the newly unearthed books either did not notice the devotion, or had not been members of the Company of Mary before the Revolution and, consequently, had never heard of the manuscript.

At all events, it remained hidden in an old chest of books and manuscripts, in the community library, until that moment—forty years later—when Our Lady was to crush once again the serpent’s head, this time with the “heel” of Montfort’s powerful spiritual synthesis of Christian doctrine.

The time was now ripe for Divine Providence to reveal Fr. de Montfort’s Treatise to the world at large. So He led Father Peter Rautureau, one of Fr. de Montfort’s spiritual sons, to the “discovery” of the Treatise. It was April 22, 1842; A librarian, Father Rautureau often delved into the musty pile of books and manuscripts in the community library. Looking for sermon material, he came upon the precious manuscript. Later, he wrote to a friend: “After having read several pages, I took it, hoping to use it to write a sermon on the Blessed Virgin. I happened upon the spot where it speaks of the Company of Mary. Then I recognized the style and thoughts of your Venerable Founder’s ‘Allocution’ to his missionaries; from then on, I no longer doubted that this small book was composed by him. I brought it to our superior who recognized the handwriting perfectly.”

The superior to whom Father Rautureau gave the precious volume was Father Dalin, the Superior General of the Community. Father Dalin had just finished arranging all of Fr. de Montfort’s works and had already sent them to the Episcopal Curia of Lucon to be examined, in view of St. Louis’ beatification. Consequently, when the manuscript of the ”True Devotion” was shown to him he immediately recognized the handwriting as being exactly the same as that of the 291 other documents which he had already arranged and examined.

One of the first things which Father Dalin did after he was certain that St. Louis de Montfort was the author of the newly discovered document was to call the entire community together. Deeply moved, he said to them, ”We have found a treasure.” Then he cited the passage containing the prediction: ”I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in fury to tear with their diabolical teeth this little writing … or at least to smother it in the darkness and silence of a coffer that it may not appear.” “You have just heard,” continued the Superior General, “what Father de Montfort says; .he is here speaking of the manuscript containing the ‘True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.’ ” At this point Father Dalin brought out the old and tattered pages of the document and showed it to all present, reading passages at random.

And so the sons and daughters of St. Louis Mary de Montfort had found this precious heritage at the very moment when his cause for beatification was to begin at Rome. This discovery was to bring its tremendous weight towards a cause already richly endowed. It was to put another crown on the head of an already great saint. It was to give posterity an occasion to hail him, in the words of His Eminence, Cardinal Tedeschini, as “a doctor and theologian who has given us a Mariology such as no one before him had conceived. So deeply has he explored the roots of Marian devotion, so widely has he extended its horizons that he has become without question the announcer of all the modern, manifestations of Mary – from Lourdes to Fatima, from the definition of the Immaculate Conception to the Legion of Mary. He has constituted himself the herald of the coming of the reign of God through Mary, and the precursor of the: longed-for salvation which in the fullness of time the Virgin Mother of God will bring to the world by her Immaculate Heart.”