Saint Louis de Montfort, the warrior of Jesus and Mary

Take a look at a map of France. Now notice something about its shape. See how one part sticks way out almost as if it were running away from the rest of the landmass, ready to dive off into the Celtic Sea? That jutting arm in the northwest of the country is called "Brittany," and that's where Saint Louis de Montfort grew up.

There's something special about Brittany that seems to have had an influence on Saint Louis: its Celtic roots. Brittany is considered one of the six Celtic nations, where the Celtic language and culture still survive. … And one part of Celtic culture seems to have seeped deeply into the heart of St Louis: the high-spiritedness of its warriors…

Saint Louis's father, Jean Grignion, must have descended from these wild warriors, for nobody wanted to mess with him either. In fact, he was known for having the fieriest temper in all of Brittany. As one author puts it, "He was a frequently erupting volcano." Saint Louis, on the other hand, was as gentle as a lamb, right? Wrong. He confessed that his temper was just as bad as his father's. But Louis channeled his fiery passion not to threats and violence but to laboring for the greater Glory of God. Well, except for the time he knocked out a couple of drunks who wouldn't stop heckling him while he preached. We can get a better sense of Louis's remarkable zeal if we reflect on his short but incredibly productive priestly life.

When he died in 1716, Saint Louis was just 43 years old, having been a priest for only 16 years. Tireless labors to bring souls to Jesus through Mary, especially by his preaching an endless succession of parish missions, brought about his early death. As if these life-sapping labors weren't suffering enough, Louis had to bear vicious persecution from the clergy and Jansenist heretics, even to the point of being physically attacked and poisoned by them. Despite all this, our indomitable warrior kept advancing on the battlefield, continuously preaching his trademark path to Jesus through Mary. In fact, when leaders in the Church in France thought they had put an end to his work, Louis walked the thousand-mile journey to Rome and asked the Pope for his wisdom and counsel. The Pope not only told him to go back to France and continue preaching but awarded him the title "Apostolic Missionary." Obediently and joyfully, our saint returned to France where he continued to preach, write, and patiently bear his many sufferings out of love for Jesus, Mary, and souls.

Saint Louis's passion and zeal lit a fire in young Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope Saint John Paul II. A few years before his death, the pope was able to realize a lifelong dream and visit de Montfort's tomb. He said on that occasion, "I am happy to begin my pilgrimage in France under the sign of this great figure. You know that I owe much to this saint, and to his True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin."

Adapted from One Hail Mary