In the Footsteps of St. Louis Marie de Montfort
"Footsteps Online"
Summer 1997 (Volume 2, Issue 3)
50 Years On
July 20th this year marked the 50th anniversary of the canonisation, by Pope Pius XII in 1947, of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. In itself, it might seem that this anniversary is of little importance; but, taken together with other recent and still-unfolding events, it assumes a special interest.
At
the very start of his visit to France in September last year,
Pope John Paul II made a "private" visit to the tomb
of St. Louis Marie in the little town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre
in the Vendée region. During a homily he preached there
he made clear his reason for going: "I am happy to begin
my pilgrimage on French soil under the patronage of this outstanding
saint. You know that I am very indebted to him and to his Treatise
on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Today because my pastoral
visit has for the most part as its theme the sacrament of baptism,
I would like to highlight the fact that, in the mind of St. Louis,
the whole spiritual life flows directly from the sacrament
of holy baptism as is shown by an important passage of the
Act of Consecration to Jesus by the hands of Mary, written in
his own precise wording."
As a further mark of his esteem for St. Louis Marie, the Pope decreed last year that the Saint's feast should be inserted into the Church's universal calendar, as an optional memorial to be celebrated on 28th April, the anniversary of his death in 1716.
This was not the first time that the Pope had acknowledged his indebtedness to St. Louis Marie: he did so also in Crossing the Threshold of Hope (Jonathan Cape, London, 1994), where he says, "Thanks to Saint Louis of Montfort, I came to understand that true devotion to the Mother of God is actually Christocentric, indeed it is very profoundly rooted in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, and the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption. And so, I rediscovered Marian piety, this time with a deeper understanding." He goes on to say that this more mature form of Marian devotion bore fruit in his 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater.
Pope John Paul wrote this encyclical, Redemptoris Mater, as a beginning of the preparation he believed the Church should make for the coming Millennium: "The circumstance which now moves me to take up this subject once more is the prospect of the year 2000, now drawing near, in which the Bimillennial Jubilee of the birth of Jesus Christ at the same time directs our gaze towards his Mother… With good reason… at the end of this Millennium, we Christians who know that the providential plan of the Most Holy Trinity is the central reality of Revelation and of faith feel the need to emphasise the unique presence of the Mother of Christ in history, especially during these last years leading up to the year 2000." (Red. Mat. 3).
The teaching of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, with its emphasis on baptism, our response to this "central reality of Revelation and of faith", and its well-known Marian dimension, is particularly relevant, therefore, during this period of preparation in a Christian manner for the celebration of the Millennium. This, and not the mere fact of 50 years having passed since his canonisation, is the reason why a special pilgrimage to Walsingham was held on 7th June this year, to commemorate this anniversary. A further celebration will be a special pilgrimage to St. Louis Marie's tomb in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre and on to Lourdes, organised for 24th April to 1st May next year, 1998, in conjunction with pilgrims from all over Europe. At the same time, a commemorative magazine has been produced: Montfort, Teacher and Guide, which reflects on the relevance of his teaching for today's world.
In this issue of "FOOTSTEPS", we publish the text of a letter which Pope John Paul II has written to the Montfortian family on this occasion of the 50th anniversary of St. Louis Marie's canonisation. It is a wonderfully encouraging letter for all of us.
