Mary’s Company of Mary: Part II
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Montfort’s Company of Mary
With the death of Father de Montfort, most thought that the small company would disband. Without residence, influence or natural resources, it was believed incredible that it might continue.
But God had plans for this tiny congregation. Slowly, it took root at St. Laurent, near the tomb of its founder. A few additional diocesan priests joined the community and the work of preaching parish missions, renewals, retreats, went forward. The spirit and work of this vagabond saint remained alive!
As early as 1719, the Holy Father sent a letter of blessing and congratulations to the successors of Father de Montfort, so efficacious was their preaching in western France! For the following sixty years the history of the community is the never-ending narrative of one parish mission (some lasting several months) after another.
Never during this period did the Montfort Missionaries number more than twelve priests. For King Louis XIV had limited them to this number by royal decree. The preaching of the Montforts was considered too powerful!
Slowly Taking Root
And such was the state of the congregation when the godless Revolution struck France. Time after time the small community of Montforts was formally denounced by the revolutionary forces; “They exercise an enormous influence on the people by their constant missions”. In 1792 the anti-God National Assembly suspended all religious communities and the Montforts were singularly honored when their name was mentioned in the first article of the decree as a religious community to be destroyed!
When the fighting began, the anti-Catholic forces found western France unshakable in its faith. One of the revolutionary generals gave the reason; “There is at St. Laurent a group of missionaries . . . it is to their indefatigable preaching that we can attribute the belief of most of the people”. The bishop of Poitiers himself declared; “We owe the preservation of the Catholic faith to the Fathers of St. Laurent,” the Montfort Missionaries.
In all these countries, the Montforts, true to their founder’s deep spirituality, live a life of total surrender to Jesus in Mary. They express this total surrender by serving side-by-side with the people, whatever the local needs might be. Whether renewing dioceses and parishes in a developed nation through a variety of missions and retreats; in the third world, the Montforts identify with the local culture and legitimate yearnings for justice, proclaiming with boldness the healing and liberating Gospel of Jesus, the Son of Mary.
Return to The Queen: Articles
Martyrs …
But the community paid dearly for its zeal in defending the Church. The majority of the seventeen Fathers and Brothers were martyred. Some were shot . . . a few stabbed . . . others impaled on trees around the motherhouse at St. Laurent . . . the rest cut to pieces on the dock at La Rochelle. The Motherhouse itself was burned twice by the revolutionaries in their determination to wipe out any trace of Montfort’s community of roving missionaries. Even though they did not succeed, there were only a few brothers and priests who escaped the massacre of the revolution. Again, it appeared that the community would disband . . . disappear. But God had other plans! Providence had a great future for the Company of Mary.
In the attempt to re-organize after the devastation or the revolution, the Montforts invited Father Gabriel Deshayes, the Vicar General of the diocese of Vannes, to become their leader. It seemed incredible that so famous a man who had founded five congregations of brothers and sisters would relinquish his position to become the Superior of what appeared so insignificant a group. But God had chosen him to be the successor of Saint Louis de Montfort. He – to the surprise of all – accepted the post of Superior General and held it until his death 21 years later. Under his leadership, the cause of Father de Montfort’s beatification was introduced at Rome and the congregation was at last granted the Laudatory Brief by Pope Leo XII, officially recognizing it as a religious congregation. When Father Deshayes died in 1841 the Montfort Family included 40 Brothers, 18 priests and over 800 Sisters.
Slowly, the little Company was beginning to grow.
True Devotion Discovered . . .
Tremendous impetus was given to the community when in 1842, one of the Fathers found an old manuscript hidden in a trunk in the library. He had accidentally discovered a lost work of Saint Louis de Montfort. It was missing the first 90 pages, and written in his own script. It was his manuscript on The Reign of Jesus Christ through the Reign of Mary. Montforts explanation of total consecration to Jesus through Mary which he touched upon in his major work, The Love of Eternal Wisdom. With a sense of awe and mystery, the Fathers read the following words which now form number 114 of the manuscript, rather erroneously called by its first publishers, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in furry to tear to pieces with their diabolical teeth this little book and the one whom the Holy Spirit made use of to write it, or they will cause it at least to be hidden in the darkness and silence of a trunk and so prevent it from seeing the light of day. They will even attack and persecute those who read it and put into practice what it contains.
The book began to receive wide circulation.
Countless people experience the depth of understanding that Father de Montfort had of the role of Mary in salvation history and in the formation of every Christian into the likeness of Jesus. Pope John Paul is an ardent admirer of Saint Louis de Montfort. He is among many who have called this writing a “turning point” in their lives.
Recognized By Rome
As Saint Louis de Montfort’s works were published and his spirituality became better known, more recruits requested entry into the Montfort Family. The number of missionaries rose and in 1853 the Missionaries of the Company of Mary was recognized by Rome as a Pontifical Congregation. In 1871 the community opened its first foreign mission, Haiti. A year later a minor seminary was opened in France; in 1889 a novitiate was built in Holland and soon a major seminary.
The spread of the community was also helped by the anti-clerical government of France. The laws against religious orders from 1880 to 1905 resulted in the expulsion of many congregations. The missionaries profited from this harsh blow by moving out into new territories. The Montforts arrived in Holland in 1889, in Canada in 1883. Shortly afterward, they spread to England, Belgium, Denmark, and Colombia, South America.
Additional mission fields were opened in Africa and Iceland. In all these countries, the Montforts, true to their founder’s deep spirituality, live a life of total surrender to Jesus in Mary. They express this total surrender by serving side-by-side with the people, whatever the local needs might be. Whether renewing dioceses and parishes in a developed nation through a variety of missions and retreats; in the third world, the Montforts identify with the local culture and legitimate yearnings for justice, proclaiming with boldness the healing and liberating Gospel of Jesus, the Son of Mary.
Montforts In The USA . . .
The Montfort Missionaries came to the United States in 1903. As early as 1835, they had been invited by the pioneer Bishop Flaget of Kentucky to come to the US. But it was impossible to send anyone at that time. When the community arrived over sixty years later, it was to New York that they came. Several parishes in various dioceses were founded by the Montforts; faithful to the missionary spirit of their founder, as the parishes developed into stable Christian communities, the missionaries gave the parishes to the diocesan clergy and moved on.
