Louis de Montfort

Who they were

Louis-Marie Grignion was born on 31 January 1673 at Montfort-la-Cane in Brittany, second of eighteen children of a devout family. He studied at the Jesuit college in Rennes and in Paris at the Sorbonne and the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, and was ordained on Pentecost, 5 July 1700.

A tireless preacher of missions to the poor of western France, he founded the Daughters of Wisdom in 1703 and the Company of Mary in 1705. His Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, written in 1712, lay hidden in a chest for 150 years, was found in 1842 and is now read throughout the world. He died in 1716.

The miracles

St John Paul II added him to the general calendar in 1996 and took his papal motto, 'Totus tuus', from Montfort's spirituality. The miracles examined for his causes are not described in the sources we have used.

Why that counted as sanctity

Montfort taught that all perfection lies in being conformed to Jesus, and that the surest way is through Mary, the creature most like Him. He lived poor among the poor, preaching that total consecration.

Connected on this site

• John Paul II Saint
  “St John Paul II added him to the general calendar in 1996 and took his papal motto, 'Totus tuus', from Montfort's spirituality.” — this site's research
• Marie Louise Trichet Blessed
  “Marie Louise Trichet, also known as Marie-Louise de Jésus (1684–1759), was a French Catholic figure who, with Louis de Montfort, founded the Congregation of religious women called Daughters of Wisdom and since the age of seventeen devoted her life to caring for the poor and the sick.” — Wikipedia