The Wisdom Cross

The Wisdom Cross

S everal months after his ordination in 1700, Father Louis de Montfort accepted to be chaplain at the large poorhouse of the city of Poitiers, France. The disorder he encountered was far greater than he ever anticipated.

One of his principal means of reform was to organize a prayer group. The group had about twenty pious women of the institution.  All of them handicapped in one way or another. The young priest named the group, Wisdom. These destitute women met in a small corner of the poorhouse, a blind woman their leader. In the Wisdom meeting room, Saint Louis de Montfort placed in a prominent position a large cross which he designed. On it he inscribed in simple and forceful evangelical terms, the glory of suffering with Christ, the Crucified Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom. The cross has become known as the Wisdom Cross or the Cross of Poitiers.

At the invitation of Father de Montfort, a young girl from a well-known family of Poitiers joined the Wisdom group of handicapped paupers in her desire to serve them. This teenager, Marie Louise Trichet, became the co-foundress of Montfort’s Daughters of Wisdom. The original Wisdom Cross, venerated by Mother Marie Louise and a source of her strength, is preserved at the Generalate of the Daughters of Wisdom in Rome, Italy.

The Meaning of the Wisdom Cross

The mystery of the Cross, so central in the spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort, is boldly expressed through the Wisdom Cross. What is immediately striking is that Father de Montfort uses a cross to symbolize Wisdom. What is Wisdom in the thought of this great saint? He tells us clearly in his masterful Love of the Eternal Wisdom; “Supernatural wisdom is divided into substantial or uncreated Wisdom and accidental or created wisdom. Accidental or created wisdom is the communication that uncreated Wisdom makes of itself to humankind. In other words, it is the gift of wisdom. Substantial wisdom or uncreated Wisdom is the Son of God, the second person of the most Blessed Trinity. In other words, it is Eternal Wisdom in eternity or Jesus Christ in time. It is precisely about this Eternal Wisdom that we are going to speak” (#13).

Wisdom, then, in its fullest sense is Jesus Christ, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom of the Father. Yet Montfort depicts this Wisdom, Jesus the Lord, through the symbol of the cross. He gives us his reason: “Jesus has fixed his abode ln the cross so firmly that you will not find him anywhere in this world save in the cross. He has so truly incorporated and united himself with the cross that in all truth we can say: Wisdom is the Cross and the Cross is Wisdom” (#180). The Wisdom Cross reminds us, therefore, that Jesus redeems us IN and THROUGH the victorious cross. He could have chosen another way. His will, however, is clear: he gives us eternal life by dying on the cross. Jesus the savior is inseparable from the cross.

Eternal Wisdom

There is another reason why this work of Saint Louis de Montfort is called the Wisdom Cross. In the eyes of the world the cross and the message inscribed on it are sheer folly; yet they embody the deepest wisdom accessible to humankind. Only the truly gospel-wise can begin to grasp the truth manifested by the Wisdom Cross. It expresses the inspired teaching of Paul: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor 1:23-25).

The Symbols embedded in the Wisdom Cross

The cross is embedded with five prominent symbols. At the very top, the IHS surmounted by a small cross: the familiar Greek abbreviation for the Holy Name of Jesus. At the head of the crossbeam, the entwined M and A, a symbol of Mary. Half way down the cross are the expressions Long Live Jesus, Long Live his Cross (Vive Jesus, Vive sa Croix). The words encircle a flaming Sacred Heart of Jesus, crowned with a cross as large as the Heart itself. At the bottom of the cross are two symbols: the crown of thorns which encircle the three nails of the crucifixion and a star, symbolizing Mary.

The Meaning of the Symbols

These images are essential interpretations of the text Father de Mont- fort inscribed on the cross. The central symbol and the most pronounced is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the sign of Infinite Love Incarnate.

Saint Louis de Montfort’s intense love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus probably stems from his association with the Visitation Nuns. It was at their Paray-le-Monial monastery that Our Lord revealed his Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. Saint Louis’ collection of Hymns attest to his fervent devotion to the Heart of Christ, the great symbol of God’s infinite love for us: “The Heart of Christ loves us without ceasing to love for even a moment; the heart of Christ loves us as much as himself, with excess, infinitely”. (Hymn 40:12; cf Hymns 40-44).

It is the Sacred Heart which interprets Montfort’s writings on the mystery of the cross. The cross is the most powerful expression of the Heart of Christ for it is on Calvary that the Love of God for us is so manifest. The cross is always to be seen then as the victorious love of the Heart of Christ for humankind.

Yet there is another side to Saint Louis’ love for the Sacred Heart. It also is a call to repentance, to reparation, to suffering with Christ. Patience in bearing our crosses is the manifestation of our love for God, “it is the proof which God requires to show our love for him”! Love of the Eternal Wisdom, #176). The fact that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the most prominent aspect of the Wisdom Cross means that for Montfort, the cross is the great mystery of love: love of our God for us, and of our love for God.

The Symbols of Mary

The symbols of Our Lady are also essential in order to understand the meaning of the Wisdom Cross. Mary is the mother of the crucified Savior. She is the model of suffering with her Son. It is Mary who gifts us with the cross of Jesus, it is Mary who shares with us her bravery in bearing the triumphant cross, it is Mary, the guiding star who leads us safely to Jesus- Wisdom, our goal.

Inscription on the Cross

The inscriptions on the cross are all written ln capital letters. Some of the terms are so squeezed into the width of the cross that a few letters of the word are written in smaller print immediately alongside or above the word itself. The top portion of the cross and the crossbeam are inscribed with slightly adapted words from Sacred Scripture. Renounce oneself carry one’s cross in order to follow Jesus Christ is found at the head of the vertical beam. The cross beam carries in large letters the following.  If you are ashamed of the Cross of Jesus Christ He will be ashamed of you before his Father. The words of the Holy Spirit form the foundation for Saint Louis’ personal thoughts inscribed on the Wisdom Cross.

Immediately under the cross-beam, Saint Louis de Montfort begins his brief commentary on the scriptural words he wrote at the top of the cross. His Wisdom Cross “sermon” is divided into two sections. First, a list of some of the crosses experienced by the followers of Christ and more specifically, by the original Wisdom prayer group. The “sermon” is prefaced by two phrases; Love of the cross, desire for crosses.

If You Are Ashamed of the Cross

The world would interpret this as masochistic; not so a Christian. Jesus Christ our Head dies for us upon the victorious cross; those baptized into Christ are also immersed into the triumphant cross. It is through the cross that Jesus enters into his glory; it is only through the cross that we share in his glory. Bearing the cross is intrinsic to Christian life. Each one of us must become in our suffering, sacraments of Jesus Crucified. There is then a love for the cross which characterizes the follower of Christ. Not a sensual love, as the saint himself explains, but a love from the depths of the soul, springing from our desire to be totally conformed to our Head.

Love of the Cross

The expression desire for crosses repeats the divinely inspired thought of Paul: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world” (Gal 6:14); “that I may know him (Christ Jesus) and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10-11). Montfort, the man of the absolute, does not water down the radical demands of the gospel. His desire for crosses is a forceful way of manifesting the yearning to be totally conformed to Christ Jesus in his dying so that the world may share in his rising.

Loving Acceptance

The list of crosses which follows was easily recognizable by the destitute, sickly women who formed the first Wisdom community: contempt, pain, abuse, insults, disgrace, persecutions, humiliations, calumnies, illness, injuries. These crosses are also autobiographical. Saint Louis de Montfort’s first years of priesthood were a series of difficulties which well fit the list he enumerated on the Wisdom Cross. Some would consider Montfort’s list typical. However, he has not intended his naming of a variety of crosses to be universal. They fit him, they fit his Wisdom prayer group.

The Wisdom Cross asks us to fill in this section with a personal acknowledgment and loving acceptance of the crosses God asks us to carry. The list is rather fluid, for the specific sharing in Christ’s redemptive cross may vary from month to month, even day to day. And the recognition of our crosses never prevents us from crying out with Jesus: “Abba. Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me”, provided we continue with Jesus, “yet not what I will, but what thou wilt”. (Mk 14:36).

(End of Part One)

The second part of Montfort’s Wisdom Cross sermon, although addressed primarily to his Wisdom community, suits all Christians for it deals with the manner in which we should bear our crosses.