Saint Louis de Montfort

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Psalm 116:15.

The following information about St. Louis de Montfort is taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, French priest and Catholic saint, was born on January 31, 1673 at Montfort and died at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre on April 28, 1716.

St. Louis was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1888 and canonized by Pius XII in 1947. The saint served as a missionary among the people of Brittany and the Vendee. His preaching in the Vendee contributed to it being the only region strongly resistant to the anti-clerical revolution of 1792.

St. Louis de Montfort was known for having directed the construction of a calvary among enthusiastic peasants. The King of France, however, under the influence of members of the Jansenist school, was later to order it destroyed. It is reported that upon receiving this disturbing news, he was not perturbed but only declared, "Blessed be God!" St. Louis' spirituality placed great emphasis on the value of obedience. However, he is best known for his promotion of Marian devotion.

Grignion de Montfort's approach of "total consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary" had a strong impact on Marian devotion both in popular piety and in the spirituality of religious orders.

The thought, writings, and example of St. Louis de Montfort, an example of the French school of spirituality, have been singled out in an encyclical by the late Pope John Paul II as a distinctive witness of Marian spirituality in the Catholic tradition; the pontiff also spoke of his reading the saint's work The True Devotion to Mary as a "turning point" in his life.
His popular book The Secret of the Rosary is approved by the Catholic church and is an easily readable, multi-perspective approach to the Holy Rosary that has been read by Catholics worldwide for over two centuries. "True Devotion to Mary" has been called the greatest Marian book of all time.