St. Louis de Montfort and the Saints of the End Times

These striking words were penned by this great Saint in 1712 in La Rochelle on the West Coast of France as part of the greatest book ever written about our Lady. Just four years later on this day in 1716 our Saint would pass to his eternal reward, he was just 43. He had been poisoned by Jansenists a few years earlier and never one to worry about his own health (for he was an incredibly strong and tough man) he never took a break and he continued his work preaching to the faithful throughout the countryside of southern France. He was one of those great Saints who burned themselves out early in life by their intense love for God.

Just 23 years before Montfort wrote True Devotion the King of France had refused the request of our Lord, given to him by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, to consecrate that great nation, the Eldest Daughter of the Church, to His Most Sacred Heart. One hundred years exactly from this refusal God would scourge France for this refusal by allowing it to be racked with the bloody and terrible French Revolution, from which France has never recovered.

The only part of France that did not succumb to the errors of the Revolution, and from which began the Catholic Counter-Revolution, was that very part of France preached to by today's Saint. We know this part of France as the Vendee.

The most intense period of persecution of Catholics, which was what the French Revolution principally was: a persecution of the Catholic Church, was the "Terror" (1793-94). And this was only ended when on July 17th 1794 sixteen Carmelite nuns offered their lives to end the slaughter. They were put to death simply for wearing their habits and professing the Catholic faith. Within two weeks the terror ended.

From the blood of these Blessed Martyrs it seems that an incredible flourishing of great Saints came about in France, and even elsewhere we began to see great Saints being raised up unlike anything that had been seen for many centuries and even back to the days of the apostles.

In 1830 in the Convent Chapel of the Daughters of Charity (founded by Saint Vincent de Paul) at Rue de Bac in Paris the ever Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a young nun named Catherine. She would give to her the Medal of the Immaculate Conception. This medal proved to be so powerful and produced so many miracles we known it today only as the "Miraculous Medal" and that young nun as Saint Catherine Laboure.

Even while this was going on incredible things were happening in the Diocese of Lyon in a little parish called Ars. It's pastor has become the most famous parish priest in the history of the Church: Saint Jean-Baptist Marie Vianney, the Cure of Ars.

In 1842, in a small trunk locked away and forgotten for 127 years, Montforts True Devotion manuscript was found. Almost immediately after being discovered it came before the reigning Pope at the time: Pope Gregory XVI, who just 4 years earlier on September 7th 1838 had declared Montfort Venerable, and he called for its immediate publication and promoted it without qualification. This was just as Montfort himself had prophesied in the very text itself:


Every Pope since it's discovery has promoted and practiced this devotion.

In 1846 our Lady appeared again. This time it was to two poor shepherd children in the mountains at La Salette France (just south-west of Lyon). She appeared weeping because of blasphemy, and told the children that the people of France must stop offending her Son, because His hand of judgement was becoming so heavy she was unable to hold it back much longer.

In 1854 Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother Saint Anne. And how fitting for this Pope who was practicing and promoting the True Devotion to Mary of Saint Louis Marie de Montfort.

Just four years later in 1858 our Lady appeared yet again to a young French girl in the very south of France. She said of herself there that: "I am the Immaculate Conception", and her message was simply: "Penance! Penance! Penance!". The site of the apparition has become one of the largest sites of pilgrimage in the world and the spring that began to flow during the apparitions has produced more documented miracles than any other single site in human history.

That young girl too is noteworthy even apart from everything that happened and has happened since at Lourdes. She would retreat from the world to a convent in Nevers (in central France) and there would become, in my opinion, one of the greatest Saints in the history of the Church. Heaven too seems to have highlighted her sanctity in a special way because little Saint Bernadette Soubirous body to this day remains entirely incorrupt.

Meanwhile three great Saints (two from neighboring countries) were spreading the gospel in missionary lands.

From France there was Saint Theophane Venard (the favorite Saint of Saint Therese of Lisieux) who labored in South-East Asia and would eventually suffer martyrdom in present day Vietnam. He was exemplary not because he produced many miracles or wrote any amazing works but because he was simply an eminently holy soul whose life is one we can all imitate. This is why Saint Therese loved him. And of course a deep devotion to Mary was part of his life, and it is very possible that he read True Devotion before he died at just 31.

From Belgium there was Saint Joseph de Vuester, who was just canonized in 2009, and who is better known as Father Damien of Molokai. He too had an intense devotion to Mary and knew French so it is not impossible that he came into contact with Montfort's work, though it is less likely. He, while still in minor orders, took the place of his older brother (then already a priest for the religious order they belonged to) on a mission to the Sandwich Islands (modern day Hawaii). There he would eventually offer himself for the incredibly difficult assignment of ministering to the leper colony on the island of Molokai. There he would labor without tiring until he had converted most of the island; inspired a lay Brother, several priests, and a community of nuns to join him there; and at last becoming a leper himself would die surrounded by his many spiritual children. Few Saints in the history of the Church have so perfectly imitated our Lord as the Saint Damien's Missionary Bishop put it:

The third and final Saint is without a doubt one of the Saints prophesied by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. He hailed from Spain and was so incredible he was called a "second Saint Vincent Ferrer", who himself was called a "second Saint Paul". We known him as Saint Anthony Mary Claret. He would eventually be sent as a missionary Bishop to the beleaguered missionary diocese of Cuba. In just six years he would clean up that diocese which was rife with corruption and sin. All during this time he performed miracle after miracle. There were no less than 17 attempts on his life by the Freemasons, all of which failed. Our Lady protected him. Most incredible to me, however, is the fact that for the last few years of his life the Blessed Sacrament remained present in him between communions so that he was literally a living tabernacle. This meant that for all that time he did not even commit an indeliberate venial sin. Apart from our Lady herself for those nine months of her pregnancy and maybe one or two other Saints this abiding presence of the actual Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord is a most singular occurrence. Whether or not he read Montforts book is not clear, but most assuredly he lived the devotion contained within it.

And what can be said that has not already been said here of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face who practiced the true devotion to Mary so perfectly.

And this is but a sampling of the fruit of Montfort in his own country and the surrounding lands in the early to mid-19th century.

The late 19th and into the 20th century would bring even more amazing things: Saint John Bosco, Saint Maria Goretti, Saint Gabriel of our Lady of Sorrows, Saint Gemma Galgani, Pope Saint Pius X, Blessed Jactina and Franciso Marto of Fatima, Saint Faustina, Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, and the great Saint Padre Pio. All of these and many other great saints were raised up and who were all eminently devoted to Mary and who loved a total consecration to Mary. Kolbe of course was the great promoter of a total consecration to Mary since Montfort himself and is another striking example of what Montfort prophesied.

Of course the 20th century was also the time of the greatest Marian apparition in history of our Lady at Fatima in 1917. ...

Who knows then where we are left today. Men have not stopped sinning, but have rather seem to have turned toward sin and are running headlong into hell with astonishing vigor. And the saints that Montfort spoke of for these days are around us. We have possibly met a few of these, and any contact with them must give us some comfort that in these dark and terrible days all is not lost, but we too may be lead to salvation along with these great saints.

Let us endeavor to become one of these great Saints ourselves by following this devotion whole heatedly. We will certainly be in good company if we do as Montfort explains:


And let us read then what these great Saints of the end times will look like: