True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort

Editor’s Note: A quarter of a century ago, I began writing articles for Catholic magazines, starting with Queen of All Hearts magazine published by the St. Louis de Montfort community. The magazine, like many other Catholic publications, has ceased to exist. The latest was Lourdes magazine, which went online entirely.

My own mother, Viola Elizabeth McGivern, who died on April 28, the feast day of St. Louis de Montfort, had a very strong devotion to Mary. I’m quite sure that she never read St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort’s treatise on “True Devotion to Mary.” America Needs Fatima organization recently published a commemorative edition of it on the 150th anniversary of the death in 1863 of Fr. Frederick William Faber who translated the saint’s work from the original French to English.

At the time of the French Revolution, many religious manuscripts such as St. Louis de Montfort’s treatise written by hand were hidden on farms, buried in dust for years. St. Louis de Montfort had predicted his manuscript would be lost for years, then found. It was found in 1842 by a priest, and it had been turned over to a library of missionaries.

“After I had read a few pages,” said a priest who found it in the library, “I took it, hoping to find it useful for making a sermon on Our Lady. I read by chance the place where he speaks of his Company of Mary. I recognized the style and thoughts of our venerable founder, and his way of addressing his missionaries, and after that, I had no doubt the manuscript was his. I took it to our superior, who identified the handwriting.”

At the time, de Montfort was only venerable. Pope Pius XI canonized the “Apostle of Mary” in 1917. The cause for his declaration as a Doctor of the Church is now in progress.

This synopsis of “True Devotion to Mary” is dedicated to my late mother who spoke of Mary as her friend. Everyone should obtain a copy of the book from America Needs Fatima (ANF@ANF.org) or other publisher or bookstore. The only update I have used is to change Holy Ghost to Holy Spirit, wherever used by St. Louis de Montfort.

A Treatise on True Devotion to Mary

Just as, in the natural and corporal generation of children there is a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there is a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father, and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father. This is the reason why the reprobate, such as heretics, schismatics, and others, who hate our Blessed Lady, or regard her with contempt and indifference, have not God for their Father, however much they boast of it, simply because they have not Mary for their Mother. For if they had her for their Mother, they would love and honour her as a true and good child naturally loves and honours the mother who has given him life.

St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most Holy Virgin; where they are guarded, nourished, brought up, and made to grow by that good Mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just. O mystery of grace, unknown to the reprobate, and but little known even to the predestinate!

The formation and education of the great Saints, who shall come at the end of the world, are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Spirit, singular and extraordinary things.

It is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the Holy Virgin; while on the other hand it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.

“To be devout to you, O Holy Virgin,” says St. John Damascene, “is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”

The Most High has made her the sole treasurer of His treasures, and the sole dispenser of His graces, to ennoble, to exalt, and to enrich whom she wishes; to give the entry to whom she wills to the narrow way of heaven; to pass whom she wills and in spite of all obstacles, through the straight gate of life; and to give the throne, the scepter, and the crown of the King to whom she wills. Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable tree, who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother, who produces it.

So great was Mary's humility that she desired nothing more
than to remain unknown to herself and to others,
and to be known only to God.
Mary is called Alma Mater, Mother hidden and unknown.

According to the explanation of St. Bernard, all the rich (to make use of an expression of the Holy Spirit) among the people shall supplicate thy face from age to age, and particularly at the end of the world, and indeed presently, because the Most High with His Holy Mother has to form for Himself great Saints, who shall surpass most of the other saints in sanctity.

These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, nourished by her milk, led by her spirit, supported by her arm, and sheltered under her protection, so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they shall fight, overthrow, and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries, and the sinners with their impieties. With the other hand they shall build the temple of the true Solomon, and the mystical city of God; that is to say, the most Holy Virgin, called by the Holy Fathers the temple of Solomon and the city of God. By their words and their examples they shall bend the whole world to true devotion to Mary. This shall bring upon them many enemies; but it shall also bring many victories and much glory for God alone.

In the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary has to be made known and revealed by the Holy Spirit, in order that by her Jesus Christ may be known, loved and served. The reasons which moved the Holy Spirit to hide His Spouse during her life, and to reveal her but very little since the preaching of the Gospel, subsist no longer.

God then wishes to reveal and discover Mary, the masterpiece of His hands, in these latter times, being the sure means and the straight and immaculate way to go to Jesus Christ, and to find Him perfectly, it is by her that the holy souls, who are to shine forth especially in sanctity, have to find our Lord. He who shall find Mary shall find life; that is, Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. But no one can find Mary who does not seek her; and no one can seek her, who does not know her: for we cannot seek or desire an unknown object. It is necessary, then, for the greater knowledge and glory of the Most Holy Trinity, that Mary should be more known than ever.

Mary must shine forth more than ever in mercy, in might, and in grace, in these latter times: in mercy, to bring back and lovingly receive the poor strayed sinners who shall be converted and shall return to the Catholic Church; in might, against the enemies of God, idolaters, schismatics, Mahometans, Jews, and souls hardened in impiety, who shall rise in terrible revolt against God to seduce all those who shall be contrary to them, and to make them fall by promises and threats; and, finally, she must shine forth in grace, in order to animate and sustain the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of Jesus Christ, who shall do battle for His interests.

And, lastly, Mary must be terrible to the devil and his crew, as an army ranged in battle, principally in these latter times, because the devil, knowing that he has but little time, and now less than ever, to destroy souls, will every day redouble his efforts and his combats. He will presently raise up new persecutions, and will put terrible snares before the faithful servants and true children of Mary, whom it gives him more trouble to surmount that it does to conquer others.

It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the terrestrial Paradise against the servant. It is to our purpose to explain this here, for the glory of the most Holy Virgin, for the salvation of her children, and for the confusion of the devil.

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”

The power of Mary over all the devils will especially break out in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel; that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all, like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their animated zeal, and leaning so strongly on the divine succor, that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil, and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.

This no doubt will take place, if the predestinate enter, with the grace and light of the Holy Spirit, into the interior and perfect practice which I will disclose to them shortly. Then they will see clearly, as far as faith allows, that beautiful Star of the Sea. They will arrive happily in harbor, following its guidance, in spite of the tempests and the pirates. They will know the grandeurs of the Queen, and will consecrate themselves entirely to her service, as subjects and slaves of love. They will experience her sweetness and her maternal goodnesses, and they will love her tenderly like well-beloved children. They will know the mercies of which she is full and the need they have of her succor; and they will have recourse to her in all things, as to their dear advocate and mediatrix with Jesus Christ. They will know what is the most sure, the most easy, the most short, and the most perfect means by which to go to Jesus Christ; and they will deliver themselves to Mary, body and soul, without reserve, that they may thus be all for Jesus Christ.

They shall be the true apostles of the latter times to whom the Lord of Hosts shall give the word and the might to work marvels, and to carry off the glory of the spoils of His enemies. They shall sleep without gold or silver, and what is more, without care, in the middle of the other priests, ecclesiastics and clerks; and yet they shall have the silvered wings of the dove, to go, with the pure intention of the glory of God and the salvation of souls, wheresoever the Holy Spirit shall call them.

We know that they shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ, who, marching in the footsteps of His poverty, humility, contempt of the world, and charity, shall teach the strait way of God in the pure truth, according to the Holy Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world, without putting themselves in pain about things, or accepting persons, without sparing, fearing, or listening to any mortal, however influential he may be.

They shall have in their mouths the two-edged sword of the Word of God. They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the cross, the crucifix in their right hand and the rosary in their left, the sacred names of Jesus and Mary on their hearts, and the modesty and mortification of Jesus Christ in their own behaviour. These are the great men who shall come. But Mary shall be there by the order of the Most High, to extend His empire over that of the impious, the idolaters and the Mahometans. But when and how shall this be? God alone knows. It is for us to hold our tongues, to pray, to sigh, and to wait, “expecting I have expected.”

Editor’s Note: This is the end of the synopsis of Chapter 1 of St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion to Mary” book available everywhere in bookstores including America Needs Fatima at ANF@ANG.org and 1-888-317-5571.

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