The True Devotion To The Blessed Virgin by Saint Louis-Marie De Montfort - Hardback

This edition has been re-typeset using the text of the 1947 edition originally published by The Father's of the Company of Mary, Colbury, Totton under the imprimatur of Johannes Henricus, Epus Portus Magni, 21st May 1947.

 

Material: Leather Hardback

 

The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is probably, with St Alphonsus Liguori’s The Glories of Mary, the most celebrated and highly regarded treatise ever written on Our Lady. Unpublished during the life of the saint, it has enjoyed the vigorous endorsement of the many outstanding popes the Church has been blessed with since its discovery in 1842; and, although it went into something of an eclipse in the irresponsible ecumenical frenzy which followed Vatican II (Mary being a stumbling block for Protestants), John Paul II was to prove an eloquent champion, crediting True Devotion with a turning-point in his spiritual life, adopting his motto, Totus tuus, from St. Louis, and admitting him to the Universal Calendar. So we can see that there has been something of a de Montfort revival of late. Nevertheless, it would be true to say that St. Louis has always been rather less appreciated, and even less known, than we should expect of a missionary, mystic and theologian of his stature. I suspect that this is not an accident, but rather mysteriously consistent with the hidden efficacy of his influence during his lifetime.

Louis Marie Grignon de la Bacheleraie was born at Montfort on 31 January, 1673. When he was twelve, he was sent to the Jesuit college at Rennes. At the age of nineteen, he decided to pursue his studies in Paris (at St. Sulpice), making the long journey on foot, and giving away all his money to the poor on the way. Ordained priest at twenty-seven, he found his true vocation as a missionary to his native Brittany and the neighbouring Vendée five years later. A magnificent orator and catechist, and a transparently holy man, he worked a revolution in the religious life of the locals. For this, he earned the unforgiving hostility of the Jansenists. The Catholic Encyclopaedia recounts the most famous episode of this contest:

Grignion’s extraordinary influence was especially apparent in the matter of the calvary at Pontchateau. When he announced his determination of building a monumental calvary on a neighbouring hill, the idea was enthusiastically received by the inhabitants. For fifteen months between two and four hundred peasants worked daily without recompense, and the task had just been completed, when the king commanded that the whole should be demolished, and the land restored to its former condition. The Jansenists had convinced the Governor of Brittany that a fortress capable of affording aid to persons in revolt was being erected, and for several months five hundred peasants, watched by a company of soldiers, were compelled to carry out the work of destruction. Father de Montfort was not disturbed on receiving this humiliating news, exclaiming only: “Blessed be God!”

St. Louis’ trust in God was amply vindicated, for not only was the calvary eventually rebuilt, but his mission territories – Brittany and the Vendée – were the only parts of France to resist the Revolution seventy-five years after his death, remaining Catholic strongholds well into the late twentieth century: St. Louis had done his work well.
The same is true of the two congregations St. Louis founded shortly before his death – the Sisters of Wisdom (devoted to hospital work and the instruction of poor girls), and the Company of Mary (missionaries). At his death, these congregations numbered respectively only four sisters and two priests with a few brothers: both were to grow into major congregations whose activities stretched across the globe.

And so we find the same pattern with True Devotion: it seems appropriate that his most famous book was unpublished in his lifetime. As for the contents of this work of spiritual genius, it is enough to point out here that the key to de Montfort’s Marian spirituality is that he considered Our Lady to be the infallible and chosen gate to the heart of Christ – To Jesus through Mary: it is Christ Himself Who is at the centre of True Devotion.

St. Louis Grignon de Montfort died at St. Laurent-sur-Sèvre, 28 April, 1716. He was beatified by Leo XIII in 1888, and canonized by Pius XII in 1947.

Robert Asch