Saint Louis de Montfort’s Esteem for Blessed Marie Louise of Jesus

A t the age of 66, Mother Marie Louise of Jesus made a four month tour of her convents, and on horseback! Strange, isn’t it, that’s the one point that some people always remember about her life. However, there are many other aspects of her life which are far more important!

Before her beatification, eight theologians were appointed by Rome to verify that she lived heroic holiness. They unanimously agreed that her humble obedience is at the root of all her virtues and the story of her obedience should be stressed above all else. Others would speak of her patience and in particular with Father de Montfort. Some would summarize her life as her total dedication to Jesus’ Wisdom through her solid devotion to Our Lady. Many would highlight her love for the poor, or her tender yet firm role as the co-foundress of the Daughters of Wisdom.

Yet there is another aspect of her life and a very important one which has not been stressed enough: Saint Louis de Montfort’s profound veneration for her. We are sometimes erroneously given the impression that the relationship between Louis Marie and Marie Louise was a one way street – he was her director and counselor. However, the truth is that Saint Louis de Montfort considered her an extra-ordinary saint and did not hesitate to seek her advice. The Vatican commission preparing for her beatification picked this up and used Montfort’s letters to her as the primary testimony that even during her lifetime, Marie Louise of Jesus was regarded as a woman of extraordinary holiness.

We have to remember that Saint Louis de Montfort does not have a reputation for being overly generous in canonizing people. He calls people to holiness, but he firmly believes that only a few chosen souls enter into that third and climactic step of permanent transformation into Jesus (cf. TD 119). But Marie Louise is, in his eyes, a primary example of those few.

After having known her for only a little over a year, he is so impressed by her holiness that he writes these words to her from Paris: “Nothing can resist your prayers. Even God Himself cannot resist your prayers. Fortunately for us, God has shown that He can be moved by a lively faith and a firm hope.” And so convinced is he that Mary Louise is a brilliant example of lively faith and firm hope that he continues: “So pray, entreat God, plead for me to obtain Wisdom.” Testifying to her power before God, he wrote to her: “You – Marie Louise – will obtain Divine Wisdom fully for me, of this I am convinced.” As far as we know, there is nothing like this phrase elsewhere in Montfort’s correspondence or in his known sayings. Marie Louise is so pleasing to God that Louis de Montfort pleads for her prayers and believes that the full gift of Divine Wisdom Jesus Crucified, – the greatest gift that the Father can bestow upon us – will be granted to him through her prayers.

Picture in your minds the mighty, transforming parish missions preached by Louis de Montfort, his booming voice so filled with the Spirit of Jesus the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom. If you look more closely at the image, you will be able to make out in the background, a servant of the poor, a strong, humble woman powerful with God. Marie Louise is prostrate on the ground before the Blessed Sacrament, begging the Lord to send Wisdom from her mighty throne into the heart of the missionary.

And Montfort acknowledges the power of her intercession. “I believe strongly in the efficacy of your prayers,” he writes to her. “In fact, I know from what I am experiencing, even more than from your letters that you are continuing to pray to Jesus your Spouse for me, a wretched sinner. I can only show you my thanks by praying for you in return … keep on praying for me.” Louis Marie is an extraordinary saint; let’s not forget that one of the reasons is that he encountered another extraordinary saint who constantly interceded for him, Marie Louise of Jesus. Marie Louise was, in his judgment, and as he told her himself, “one chosen from among many,” “the disciple of Divine Wisdom.”

The admiration for her holiness, moved Montfort to challenge her in ways he would never dare use for others. For about ten years she lived in the Poitiers poor house, patiently waiting a sign from God that the hour for the foundation of the Daughters of Wisdom had come. “Wait patiently for God’s time and stay at the hospital,” Montfort wrote her. And then the short exuberant note, “Leave Poitiers as soon as possible, my daughter, for the day of the founding of the Daughters of Wisdom has at last arrived. I only wish you were already at La Rochelle where I am at the moment,” Father de Montfort knew that he had been asked by God to direct an extraordinary saint. So without hesitation, he told her to pull up stakes from her hometown at Poitiers, leave her family behind, quit the General Hospital where she was doing excellent work and go quickly to La Rochelle to undertake anew apostolate of teaching. He told Marie Louise and her companion, Sister Conception, not to hesitate ’(or if you do not take a risk for God you will never do anything great for Him.”

But his challenge is tempered by his loving care for Marie Louise; he closes his note with a phrase quite out of character for him: “I know you will have many difficulties to overcome. I will send you Brother John with some money and a horse, to accompany you. Travel as best as you can, like a coach or hire a horse. If you have no money, we will try to cover the expense.”

But there is an even greater proof of Montfort’s esteem for Marie Louise’s great sanctity. It is always said that he was the director of Marie Louise and rightly so. But his appreciation for her wisdom, her judgment and in particular for her holiness prompted him to ask her advice. Should he leave his post as chaplain at the Poitiers poor house? He asked the opinion of Marie Louise and only after she encouraged him to do so, did he move on. When caught up in loneliness, in a vocation crisis while chaplain of an immense Paris poorhouse, he wrote a beautiful letter to Marie Louise. “Everyone has abandoned me,” he told her. Yet he wrote to her, for even though some were already calling Louis de Montfort “that bid fool.” He knew that she the disciple of Wisdom would understand, she would support him. Louis Marie entrusted himself to Marie Louise whom God had entrusted to him.

So highly does he respect her that near the end of his short life, Father de Montfort tells the community of the Daughters of Wisdom, “Open your hearts to your Mother Superior.” It is rare that such a phrase would have ever been written in the religious atmosphere of France of 300 years ago. To name a Mother Superior of a religious community as equivalently the spiritual director to her sisters was definitely not customary at that time. But no one knew better than Montfort that Marie Louise was not just a Mother Superior. She was extraordinary. She was an expert in the ways of the Lord. She was the icon of Jesus-Wisdom, a living resemblance of Christ crucified.