MISSIONARIES OF THE COMPANY OF MARY. — From the very beginning of his priesthood, St. Louis M. Grignion de Montfort (v.) had thought of establishing a company of missionaries who would preach to the abandoned populations of the countryside, and for many years he had kept in touch with the various diocesan companies then in existence, but none had wished to bind themselves permanently to him.
Thus in 1705 he decided to found his own Company of Mary, establishing its Rule and making contact with the Seminary of the Holy Spirit, founded in Paris by his contemporary Claude François Poullart des Places, in order to obtain subjects. Montfort was joined by priests such as René Mulot, Adrien Vatel, and lay brothers, who continued his work after his death. Later, other priests joined them, and in 1722, in St-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, in a poor house, they laid the foundations of the reconstituted Company of Mary, which on 27 September 1748 was orally approved by Benedict XIV. The definitive approval came on 25 November 1775, confirmed by a brief of 16 December of the same year. The characteristic spirit of the Institute, emphasized in Article 1 of the Constitutions approved by the Church, is the sanctification of oneself and of souls “per exercitium praenobilis et sancti mancipatus erga Jesum per Mariam, juxta methodum Fundatoris.”
Very much opposed by the Jansenists, even after the Letters Patent of Louis XV in 1773, though with few subjects, it always displayed great apostolic activity, especially after the French Revolution, which had claimed numerous victims among the fathers and brothers.
In 1816 it numbered only 16 priests and 4 lay brothers. It then grew with the flourishing of its apostolic schools, desired by Pius IX to strengthen recruitment, which Montfort had intended to draw only from already formed clergy. At present it has 1,420 members and is divided into 3 provinces (France, Holland, Canada) and 4 vice-provinces (England, United States, Italy, Colombia). It has also been entrusted with missions in Nyasaland, Madagascar, Iceland, the Belgian Congo, Denmark, Mozambique, Haiti, and Indonesia.