“The Good Father from Montfort”
350th Anniversary of the Birth of Saint Louis de Montfort
Louis Marie Grignion was born January 31, 1673, in France, in the Breton village of Montfort. All through his childhood and seminary days, he was keenly aware of the love of Jesus for Mary and Mary for Jesus, as well as the presence of the Lord himself in the poor and little ones. Once ordained a priest in 1700, he sought to preach the Gospel to the poor and abandoned, in word and in deed. He became the live-in chaplain of a Hospital-Poor House in Poitiers, striving to heal bodies and souls. In 1701 he met Marie-Louise Trichet, a young woman of Poitiers who dared to follow his example and come and live with the handicapped and castaways. Among the poor, they would seek the Wisdom of Love, the Eternal Wisdom of God made flesh in Jesus, dwelling with the little ones even as Divine Wisdom held together all creation by her power and beauty.
Montfort renounced his family name to be known instead by the name of the village where he was baptized: Montfort. For Saint Louis, the heart of his preaching in parish missions all over Western France was Baptism. His goal was to awaken the ordinary people to their completely extraordinary call to become the sons and daughters of God by Baptism, to live lives powered by the Holy Spirit, moving away from their own sinfulness and selfishness toward a loving service of those around them. To solemnly renew their baptismal vows at the end of a parish mission was a free and total commitment to follow this Lord Jesus by word and deed all the days of one’s life. And his preaching had incredible results: simple peasants and farmers, soldiers, townsfolk, and nobles turned their lives completely around to follow the Lord Jesus, and not just in words or quiet prayers. In every town where he preached, he established and left behind lay groups and associations that continued to provide health care and housing for the sick and the poor, established simple schools for the children, and set ordinary people on a path to genuine, profound holiness of life.
Montfort had discovered that the great and fruitful secret to real holiness, to becoming completely transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ, was Mary. Mary, the perfect disciple, Mary the perfect teacher, Mary the mold of God. By consecrating oneself entirely to Jesus Christ, Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, through the hands of Mary, one could renew the vows of Baptism and dive to the deepest levels of holiness and love. This is the core of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Such an arduous and challenging missionary life weakened Montfort’s health, and he died while still preaching a parish mission, at 43 years of age, in 1716. With Blessed Marie Louise Trichet, he saw the beginnings of the religious congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom to care for the sick and educate the poor. He dreamt of priests and brothers who would continue the task of preaching the renewal of the Gospel: the Missionaries of the Company of Mary. The simple people lovingly called him “The Good Father from Montfort.” The epitaph on his tomb reads: “Traveler, what do you see? A light quenched. A man consumed by the fire of charity…” In 1947, Pope Pius XII canonized him a saint.
Fr. Bill Considine, SMM
Fr. William (Bill) Considine, SMM
Fr. William Considine is a Montfort Missionary currently ministering at the Shrine of Lourdes in Litchfield, Ct. Fr. Considine formerly served in Rome as Superior General of his Congregation.
This article was adapted from one written for the bulletin at St. Louis de Montfort Parish in Litchfield,Connecticut. In 2017 Archbishop Leonard Blair announced that the Churches of Litchfield, Goshen, and Bantam would become one Parish and chose as its new name Saint Louis de Montfort. At that time, the Montfort Missionaries and Daughters of Wisdom had worked in Litchfield County and Waterbury for some 76 years. Fr. Bill Considine wrote, “This came as an unexpected and highly cherished honor.”
Designed in remembrance and honor of his 350th birthday, below is the bulletin cover of St. Louis de Montfort Parish in Litchfield, CT.
