Montfort’s Marian Charism
Fr. Roger Charest, SMM
St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s Marian Charism was officially recognized by the Church when Pope Pius XII described our Saint, on July 20,1947 the day of his canonization, as “the guide who leads you to Mary and from Mary to Jesus.
Montfort
On December 8, 1948 on the occasion of the unveiling of the statue of St. Louis de Montfort, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Cardinal Tedeschini (the Cardinal Protector of the Montfort Communities), said in part, that besides being the founder of Religious Communities, Fr. de Montfort “is Doctor and Theologian who he 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 established himself the herald of the coming of the reign of God through Mary, and the precursor of that longed-for salvation which in the fulness of time the Virgin Mother of God will bring to the world by her Immaculate Heart.”
Blessed With A Love of Mary From His Youth
For anyone familiar with the life and writings of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, it will come as no surprise to learn that our Saint was endowed with a unique Marian charism from his very youth. One of his first biographers, a schoolmate and life-long friend, was Canon Jean-Baptiste Blain. He tells us that the young Louis-Marie would have taken his devotion to Mary from his contacts with Father Provost, the director of the Congregation for Seniors at the Jesuit College of Rennes, had he not already manifested it almost from his cradle days.
Because he was a close friend of Montfort during his college and seminary days, I think it best to let Canon Blain reveal to our readers what he himself remembered about our Saint’s unique relationship with the Mother of God.
“Love for Mary being like something Mr. Grignion was born with, we can say that the Blessed Virgin had chosen him as one of her favorite sons; that she had engraved in his youthful soul that singular tenderness. A tenderness which he always manifested toward her. And which has made him to be looked upon as one of the greatest devotees of the Mother of God the Church has ever known.
The artwork for this article as it appeared in the original Queen of All Hearts Magazine publication.
“Love for Mary being like something Mr. Grignion was born with, we can say that the Blessed Virgin had chosen him as one of her favorite sons; that she engraves in his youthful soul that singular tenderness which he always manifests toward her. And which many look upon him as one of the greatest devotees of the Mother of God . . .
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A Love For Divine Providence Through Mary
“From his very infancy, he was, to a lesser degree, if I may use the expression, what he was to become fully at a more advanced age, namely; the zealous panegyrist of the Blessed Virgin; the perpetual extoller of her privileges and her grandeurs; the untiring preacher of devotion to her. His greatest pleasure, as a child, was to speak about her or to hear about her; just as his greatest joy, as a grown-up, was to promote devotion to her and to increase the number of her servants.
“Whenever the young Grignion was in the presence of an image of Mary, he seemed oblivious of everyone around him. And, in a find of alienation of the senses, in a sort of ecstasy; with an air of intense concentration, he would remain motionless for hours on end, at the foot of the altar, praying to her, honoring her, asking for her protection, consecrating his innocence to her and begging her to protect it and dedicating himself to her service. This extremely tender devotion was not in him just a passing thing as in so many other children. It was a daily experience.
“Each day, going to and from school, he was seen paying a visit to his parish Church of St. Sauveur, where there was an ancient and miraculous image of the Mother of God. His uncle, (Father Alain Robert) testified that young Louis sometimes spent as much as an hour there at prayer.
Trust In Mary . . .
“Everyone knows that he only called her his mother, his good mother, his dear mother. But not everyone knows that from his very tender youth, he went to her with a childish simplicity. Asking her for all his temporal as well as spiritual needs. And that he felt assured, because of the great confidence he had in her goodness, that he would obtain what he asked for; and that nothing ever troubled him, neither doubt, nor worry nor perplexity.
“In his opinion, once he had prayed to his good mother, everything was taken care of and he no longer hesitated. Since his extreme love of poverty and the poor and his apostolical abandonment to Divine Providence left him in continual need of help, he needed such a tender and watchful mother like Mary to tend to those needs. But, by God! What did he ever lack, with the help of the Queen of Heaven?
. . . Brings One Closer To Jesus
“Those who have known Mr, Grignion well, as I have, know that the miracles of her maternal providence over him were a daily occurrence. And, if at times she seemed to abandon him for a few hours, it was only to strengthen his confidence in her and to train him in the practice of the most difficult virtues. So, like a good mother who enjoys hiding from her child, for a few moments, in order to make her presence sweeter and better appreciated, the divine Mary seemed at times to be forgetting the most zealous and the most tender of her devotees; but after having tested his virtue, she hastened to show forth her tender love for him by some new proof of her kindness.
“One would have to write a diary of his life, if one were to record in detail all the attentions that the Good Mother provided for him. It seems as if she led him by the hand in all his ways, like the Angel Raphael the young Tobias. It seems that he learned from her all that he had to do; even in the most difficult and perplexing decisions, such as a vocation to a particular state in life may be.”
