St. Louis de Montfort foretold the fate of his now famous Treatise of the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

St. Louis de Montfort stated boldly: “I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in fury to tear with their diabolical teeth this little writing and him whom the Holy Ghost has made use of to write it—or at least to smother it in the darkness and silence of a coffer that it may not appear . .. They shall even attack and persecute those who shall read it and carry it out in practice . . .”

Was this holy author really inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the book which was to influence the lives of millions of souls? (...) Most probably St. Louis de Montfort composed his inspired Treatise during the summer or autumn of 1712, approximately four years before his death. From his early youth he had practiced this special devotion toward the Blessed Mother of God and eloquently preached it in all his missions throughout western France. So what he wrote in 1712 was the fruit of a lifetime of prayer, meditation and study. At his death in 1716, the holy missioner bequeathed this precious document to his successors, and from the very beginning his spiritual sons took it to their hearts….

Then came the terrible and dark days of 1789 and 1791. The French Revolution was beginning and for the next ten years France was to be dipped in the boiling caldron of turmoil and persecution. Consequently, the Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin was “at the moment of the Revolution, in 1793, hidden in a chest which was in an underground cavern, in the middle of a field of brambles, and was thus free from the fire and pillage of the revolutionists.” Even after it was returned to the community library, it remained hidden in an old chest of books and manuscripts, until that moment—forty years later—when Our Lady was to crush once again the serpent’s head, this time with the “heel” of Montfort’s powerful spiritual synthesis of Christian doctrine.

The time was now ripe for Divine Providence to reveal Fr. de Montfort’s Treatise to the world at large. So He led Father Peter Rautureau, one of Fr. de Montfort’s spiritual sons, to the “discovery” of the Treatise. It was April 22, 1842; A librarian, Father Rautureau often delved into the musty pile of books and manuscripts in the community library. Looking for sermon material, he came upon the precious manuscript. Later, he wrote to a friend: “After having read several pages, I took it, hoping to use it to write a sermon on the Blessed Virgin. I happened upon the spot where it speaks of the Company of Mary. Then I recognized the style and thoughts of your Venerable Founder’s ‘Allocution’ to his missionaries; from then on, I no longer doubted that this small book was composed by him. I brought it to our superior who recognized the handwriting perfectly.”

De Montfort's Treatise greatly influenced John Paul II’s pontificate. His encyclical Redemptoris Mater, to name just one, is imbued with De Montfort's "Marian way". Cardinal Wyszynski, one of the many "slaves of Mary" who left their mark on Poland, urged him "not to refuse the See of Peter for Mary". The influence of the Treatise on the Second Vatican Council also deserves to be underlined: in the evening of his life, Bishop Philips, author of a section of Lumen Gentium (1) devoted to Mary, confided: "I did not have the physical Treatise on my table, but I had it in my memory and in my heart, when I wrote this outline." 

The memory of Father de Montfort is not ready to die out. The Treatise, one of his major works, is one of those brilliant treasures of the faith which won to their saintly author the crown of Doctor of the Church. Therese of Lisieux and her Manuscripts are a shining example. According to Father François-Marie Léthel, a specialist in the theology of the saints, "the astonishing similarity between the Norman Carmelite, patroness of the missions, and the great Breton missionary, make us to hope that the latter will soon be counted among the Doctors. This would give his doctrine a new impetus, and to Mary an even greater place in the heart of the Church and the world.

So the time has not come to put the Treatise away in the box of pious outdated papers.

Sources: www.queenofallhearts.com

and https: famillechretienne.fr

(1) Lumen gentium, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church