Saint Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716)
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(Franciscan Media) Born in France at La-Cane Montfort, Louis from his childhood according to EWTN was tenaciously devoted to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament–When he was 12 Louis was sent as a day pupil to the Jesuit college at Rennes, he never failed to visit the Church before and after class.
When Louis was just 19 yrs old he walked 130 miles to Paris to study theology and gave everything that he had to the poor that he met along the way and made a vow to only live on alms. While Louis was in school, he joined a society of young men who ministered to the poor and sick on school holiday’s.
By the time Louis was just 27 he was Ordained a Priest and soon began ministering in parish missions throughout Western France and as a hospital Chaplain.
In 1705 Fr. Louis found his true calling and thereafter devoted himself with Evangelism. Fr. Louis’ ministry attracted thousands of people back to Christianity but he did meet some resistance, especially from the ‘Jansenists’ (a heretical movement) within the Church that believed in absolute predestination, in which only a chosen few are saved and the rest damned. Much of France was influenced by ‘Jansenism’ including many Bishop’s who forbid Fr. Louis from ministering in their dioceses–Fr. Louis was even poisoned by the ‘Jamsenists’ in La Rochelle but survived, though he suffered ill-health after that.
While Fr. Louis was recuperating from the effects of the poisoning, he wrote the masterpiece ‘True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin’ (available on Amazon) which he became a classic explanation of Maria devotion.
Fr. Louis founded the ‘Missionaries of the Company of Mary’ (for Priests and Brothers) and the ‘Daughters of Wisdom’ who cared especially for the sick.
In 1716 Fr. Louis died at the age of 43 in France at Saint Lauent-sur-Sevre, he was Beatified in 1888 by Pope Leo XIII and Canonized in 1946 by Pope Pius XII
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