Back to Index (Montfortian Religious)From very early on his priestly life, St Louis Marie de Montfort dreamt of "a small company of priests" who would be dedicated to the preaching of missions to the poor, under the banner of the Blessed Virgin. As the years went by, his efforts to secure some recruits who would work with him in this way were redoubled. This prayer, known in French as the "Prière Embrasée" (burning prayer), composed by him probably towards the end of his life, is a heart-felt cry to God to fulfill his dreams. It describes the sort of "apostles" he is seeking, who he foresees will be particularly necessary in what he calls in the True Devotion (nos. 35, 45-58), the "latter times".
This Prayer for Missionaries, together with The Rule of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary and A Letter to the Members of the Company of Mary, forms a kind of "triptych" which is the inspiration for the modern Rule and Constitutions of the Company of Mary.
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In 1705, having been released from his post as chaplain to the "General Hospital" in Poitiers, St Louis Marie began preaching missions in the town and suburbs of Poitiers. He began by concentrating on those districts, such as Montbernage, where the ordinary people lived. He immediately met with great success, but at the same time encountered serious opposition, especially from the Vicar-General. For the sake of peace, the Bishop chose to sacrifice Louis Marie, who was forced to leave the town at the beginning of Lent 1706. Before leaving Poitiers and making a pilgrimage to Rome to see the Pope, he wrote a circular letter to the people of the parishes where he had preached, now known as the Letter to the Inhabitants of Montbernage. In it he encourages them to be faithful to all that they had promised during his missions, and asks for their prayers at this particularly difficult moment for himself.
For more details on his life, see A Brief Life of St Louis Marie de Montfort.
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St Louis Marie's aim in all his missions was "to revive the Christian spirit through the renewal of the baptismal promises" (according to his earliest biographer, Joseph Grandet). Grandet adds: "And to help them to remember their undertakings, he had a formula of renewal printed, and those who could write were required to sign it" during a special ceremony which was the highlight of the mission. St Louis Marie speaks of the consecration which he proposes in his True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin as a "perfect renewal of the vows of Baptism".
Four printed copies of this Contract of Covenant with God have been preserved. Two of them, showing slight variations, are reproduced in God Alone - The Collected Writings of St Louis Marie de Montfort.
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On the eve of the death of St Louis Marie, a copy of the Dispositions for a Happy Death was found among the effects of the missionaries accompanying him. On a few blank pages of this little book, Fr. Mulot wrote the Last Will and Testament that the dying man had dictated to him. This explains why the copy of this little work, the only one now existing, has been preserved. It comprises five parts, the last three of which are certainly not the work of St Louis Marie, but rather of Fr. J. Nouet, S.J. The second part "Vast expanses of Paradise" appears also to be borrowed from someone else. The first part, however, on the remote, proximate and final dispositions for death, which are similar to drafts of sermons found in St Louis Marie's Book of Sermons, could well be his own work. In the final dispositions, we find exhortations to true devotion towards the Blessed Virgin, and to renew our Baptismal promises, themes very dear to St Louis Marie.
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In the original rules of the Daughters of Wisdom and the Company of Mary, St Louis Marie speaks of prayers that both Congregations must say, but he does not give any further details. We know however that he did write a manuscript version of the prescribed Morning and Evening Prayers, which was printed in 1859. The main part of the Morning Prayers is The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin, versions of which were popular in the 17th Century. The form of the Evening (or Night) Prayer was also commonly used at that time, but St Louis Marie's version contains some prayers (notably "O Jesus living in Mary" and prayers relating to the theme of rest and sleep) which are clearly drawn from the French School of Spirituality.
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This original rule of the Company of Mary was probably written about 1710, maybe even before any priests had yet joined St Louis Marie in his work. It is fairly typical of the sort of rule which was common for Religious Congregations about this time, except for some interesting details. For example, St Louis Marie speaks of only two vows, those of poverty and obedience, instead of the normal trilogy of poverty, chastity and obedience. It may be presumed that, as he expected any priests who joined the Company of Mary to be already ordained, they would already be bound to chastity; but it is probable that he insisted on poverty and obedience as being essential for the freedom and availability of which he speaks in the Burning Prayer for Missionaries. For the same reason, he insists that the members of the Company of Mary must hold no benefices, must not be "installed" in parishes, must have only two houses in France, etc. Their task was to travel to bring the good news to the poor, and a great part of the Rule is concerned with the Directives to be Followed during their Missions, Their Timetable during Missions and Rules for Catechetical Instruction.
This Rule, together with the Burning Prayer for Missionaries and the Letter to the Members of the Company of Mary, forms a triptych which has been accepted by the Holy See as part of the official Rule and Constitutions of the Company of Mary today, in the sense of their being the source of the modern Rule.
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Beginning with the words of Christ: Fear not, little flock, because it has pleased your Father to bestow a kingdom on you (Lk 12:32), St Louis Marie applies these words to his Company of Mary. This short letter is an exhortation to the members of the Company to be faithful to their spirit of evangelical poverty and trust in the Providence of God. When it was written, it is probable that there were as yet no priests belonging to the Company, and St Louis Marie seems to foresee that the Congregation would always remain relatively small, since he insists on their not being discouraged on account of their small numbers. He insists, too, on hope and joy in the knowledge that God will care for them in his Providence.
The end of the manuscript is missing, finishing in the middle of a sentence, but an ending was supplied (probably by Fr Gabriel Deshayes) in 1837.
This Letter, together with the Burning Prayer for Missionaries and the Rule of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary, forms a triptych which has been accepted by the Holy See as part of the official Rule and Constitutions of the Company of Mary today, in the sense of their being the source of the modern Rule.
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This original rule of the Daughters of Wisdom was almost certainly written in 1715, when Blessed Marie Louis Trichet and Sr Catherine Brunet arrived in La Rochelle to become the nucleus of the new Congregation. It is clearly inspired by M. Tronson, one-time Superior of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, but other influences seem to have been St Francis de Sales and St Vincent de Paul. Almost all its sections containing rules are followed by "Counsels" addressed personally to the Daughters of Wisdom by St Louis Marie himself. As with the Rule of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary, there are passages which are very practical descriptions of the work which St Louis Marie foresaw his Sisters undertaking: there is a whole section, for example, on Rules to be observed in the Charity Schools of the Daughters of Wisdom, which refer to the free schools for boys and girls which he set up in La Rochelle in collaboration with the Bishop.
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St Louis Marie inscribed on the "Wisdom Cross" of Poitiers a concise programme of the spiritual life. He enlarged upon this programme for the benefit of the Daughters of Wisdom and wrote this small book of maxims and lessons, which contains the same message as that given in chapter 12 of The Love of Eternal Wisdom which is entitled "Principal Oracles of Divine Wisdom". They are clearly intended to be maxims to which the Daughters of Wisdom should conform if they sincerely wish to acquire the spirit of true wisdom.
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St Louis Marie established a variety of "Associations" during the course of his missions, with the purpose of continuing the benefit gained by those who attended the missions faithfully. Some of these Associations (e.g. the Confraternity of the Rosary) already existed and had their own rules; others were apparently invented ( or adapted) by himself, and he wrote rules for these. Two of them were The Society of the Forty-four Virgins and The White Penitents. The Society of Virgins was formed to protect girls from the corrupting influence of the world and the temptations arising from attending dances, etc. It was restricted to 44 girls at any one time, who took a temporary "vow" of chastity for the time that they remained a member. The White Penitents was modelled on the confraternities of penitents which began in Italy, and was intended to deter men from giving way to drunkenness, immorality, swearing and slander. Apart from the general rules for the White Penitents, St Louis Marie also wrote a set of rules for the Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Saumur made by the Penitents to obtain from God good Missionaries, a pilgrimage made by the White Penitents of Saint-Pompain to the shrine of Notre Dame des Ardilliers in early 1716.
These three Rules can be found in God Alone - The Collected Writings of St Louis Marie de Montfort.
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When St Louis Marie was chaplain of the "General Hospital" (poorhouse) at Poitiers from 1701-1703, he formed a group of young girls who gathered together regularly in a house which he called "La Sagesse" (Wisdom). Soon afterwards, Marie Louise Trichet and Catherine Brunet, who were to become the first Daughters of Wisdom, joined them. St Louis Marie composed for them a programme of the spiritual life based on the words of Jesus Christ, Incarnate Wisdom: "We must renounce self and carry our cross after Jesus Christ, under Mary's guidance". He wrote this programme in a very simple way on a cross, which has been preserved by the community of the Daughters of Wisdom.
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St Louis Marie wrote a number of personal letters during the course of his life, only 34 of which (or fragments of them) have been preserved. They are written to 14 recipients, the principal ones being M. Leschassier (his confessor and spiritual director), his sister Guyonne Jeanne, and Sr Marie Louise of Jesus (Marie Louise Trichet). They help us to understand him as an author and what he wrote in his works. Some of them (especially Letters 5, 6, 8-11 and 15-16) throw a great deal of light on the early period of his priestly life, when he was struggling to find the Will of God for him.
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St Louis Marie believed in the people being involved at every level in his missions, and one of the ways he brought about that involvement was through singing. He was a copious writer of hymns, which he often set to the popular tunes of his day. In all 164 of these hyms have been preserved. Their intention is, as always with St Louis Marie, to teach and encourage the ordinary people. They are not, therefore, of any great poetic merit, but they contain many indications, not found elsewhere in his writings, of the completeness of the spirituality which he lived and taught. Often they are very long - they were sung during the processions and dramas which were a very effective part of the mission programme. An English translation of all the Hymns is being prepared; in the meantime, a few of them can be found in God Alone - The Collected Writings of St Louis Marie de Montfort.
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On the eve of his death at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, St Louis Marie dictated his last will and testament to Fr Mulot, whom he appointed his successor as Superior of the Company of Mary. He had very little to leave: a few books, some banners and other things which he used in his missions, and a little money. He also left instructions concerning some properties which had been offered to him for the Company of Mary. From his will, we also learn something more of the few Brothers who had accompanied him in his missions.
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This is a manuscript notebook, in which from time to time, probably beginning in his days as a seminarian, St Louis Marie wrote notes for sermons to be preached in missions. A few extracts from this notebook have been included in God Alone - The Collected Writings of St Louis Marie de Montfort.
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From the time when he was a seminarian, and off and on perhaps for the rest of his life, St Louis Marie made notes on what he had read, or at least on some of this; for his Notebook certainly does not reflect all that he read, particularly when he was librarian at Saint-Sulpice. It contains especially notes on the Blessed Virgin and on devotion to her, and from it we can see clearly some of the sources he used in writing his great Marian works: True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin and The Secret of Mary.
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