Pilgrimage: With One Who So Loved The Poor
Fr. Gendrot, SMM
Former Superior General, Montfort Missionaries
Note: The pictures are hazy. The are scanned copies of hazy pictures from the original publication, but are used in this article to capture the joy of the thousands who make the pilgrimage honoring Our Lady.
Pilgrimage
S ome saints we love at first sight; Saint Bernadette on her knees before the grotto, with the rosary in her hands; or Saint Therese of Lisieux reading her name in the stars. Others scare us: Saint Francis who throws his Sunday-best clothes at his father’s feet; or Saint Louis Marie de Montfort who, on leaving his home for the Seminary gives his new coat to the first beggar he meets, his money to the second, and his new suit to a third in exchange for the beggar’s rags.
Most people would say this man is an eccentric, a fool. But the poor have an insight of their own. They would say: “Montfort? He’s a saint”! Thus they proclaimed him at his death on April 28, 1716. To this day, they continue to speak of him, in certain areas of western France, as the “kind” Father de Montfort!
The fact is, this man felt at home everywhere and everyone felt comfortable in his company; children and young people, adults and the elderly, lay people as well as professed Religious, the prisoners of the City of Poitiers as well as the chimney-sweeps of Paris. One day, the poor of the City-hospital of Poitiers watched him pray in their Chapel, dressed more poorly than they were, and decided to take up a collection among themselves for him.
On the other hand, without the least embarrassment, he would accept to sit down at table with the invited guests at the castle of Mr. and Mrs. d’Orion at Villiers-en-Plaine. But on one condition, namely that he be allowed to bring along with him, every time, some poor beggar that he would have met that day on the street.
The Poor Was Always With Him
The Lady of the Castle testified to this under oath, in 1749, thirty-three years after Fr. de Montfort’s death. Here in part, is what she wrote: “We ate together almost every day – At every meal he had one or two poor men sitting at his side, which at times was somewhat disgusting. He would share with them everything we served him on his plate and he always gave them what he thought were the choicest morsels. He never drank without sharing it with them. And, once grace after meals had been said, he would embrace them and accompany them right out to the street, carrying his hat under his arm” .
The secret of this love for the poor is that, for him, the poor person is none other than Jesus Christ!
The Poor Person is None Other Than Jesus!
Montfort’s first biographer, Grandet, says simply: “His tender love for the poor, if I may say so, was really excessive. He looked upon them as a Sacrament containing Jesus Christ hidden behind their repulsive exterior appearance. A poor person, he would say, is a great mystery which one must learn to understand—” (p. 354). It is that which gives meaning to his famous cry: “Open to Jesus Christ” the night he carried on his shoulders, to the missionary residence, a sick man in rags who was lying in the gutter; and how he washed him, fed him and placed him in his own bed, while he spent the rest of the night in prayer.
One day he was seen on the street, with his hat under his arm, accompanying with great respect a person poorly dressed and obviously under great stress. When asked: ‘to was that person you seemed so concerned about?” Fr. de Montfort answered: “It was a poor man in distress. Jesus Christ on the Cross”.
“Imitate,” he said, “this poverty of the Apostles; strip yourselves of everything as they did; detach yourselves from all earthly things. Then all things will be possible for you because Jesus Christ will be in you as he was in them. Perhaps you will not work miracles, because they won’t be necessary. But you will accomplish marvels of grace; the hearts of people will be in your hands and you will change them at will”.
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But St. Louis de Montfort is not just talk. After the manner of Francis of Assisi, he has espoused Dame Poverty. We are familiar with Dante’s poetic account of the life of Francis which was later taken up by Giotto in his famous frescoes in the basilica of Assisi. One day, Francis meets up with “Dame Poverty” on a road in Umbria. She’s on her way back to heaven because no one offers her any hospitality. Then Francis espouses the lady in search of a lover . . . Montfort, like Francis, pays the price with the gift of his entire self. He lives with the poor. He lives the way they live.
Madam d’Orion, the lady of the Castle referred to above, went on to say; “He slept in a room where he had removed the soft bed-mattress and replaced it with heaps of vine branches which he covered over with two bed-sheets and one blanket. One time, when he was absent, I stole into his bedroom to see what his bed looked like and it was exactly as I have described it”.
With the Spirit of Poverty: Jesus Will Then Be In You!
No wonder that Montfort could make himself the spokesperson for the poor. In his hymn, No. 18, he wrote: “You are well dressed, you sleep in feather-beds; we are practically naked, and hunger stalks us every day. People give us nothing or they chase us away; they think they are doing a good thing when they harass and vilify us—”.
In quoting the Apostles, he recommends the spirit of poverty to the seminarians of Poulart des Places, in Paris, – the future “Holy Ghost Fathers”. These young men and their teachers were deeply impressed by his interpretation of the text of the Acts of the Apostles (3:6); “I have neither gold nor silver. But what I do have, I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk”! “Imitate,” he said, “this poverty of the Apostles; strip yourselves of everything as they did; detach yourselves from all earthly things. Then all things will be possible for you because Jesus Christ will be in you as he was in them. Perhaps you will not work miracles, because they won’t be necessary. But you will accomplish marvels of grace; the hearts of people will be in your hands and you will change them at will”.
A few months before his death, Father de Montfort confided to his friend, Canon Blain. “As far as he was concerned, he had no other choice than to follow the gospel. And to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and His Disciples”. There lies the ultimate reason for Montfort’s attitude as lover of the poor and lover of poverty.
Fr. Marcel Gendrot, S.M.M
Note from Editor: Translated from the French. This article first appeared in the LOURDES MAGAZINE, and later, the Queen of All Hearts Magazine.
