From his childhood, he was devoted to prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament, and, when from his twelfth year he was sent as a day
pupil to the Jesuit college at Rennes, he never failed to visit the
church before and after class. He joined a society of young men who
during holidays ministered to the poor and to the incurables in the
hospitals, and read for them edifying books during their meals. At
the age of nineteen, he went on foot to Paris to follow the course in
theology, gave away on the journey all his money to the poor,
exchanged clothing with them, and made a vow to subsist
thenceforth only on alms. He was ordained priest at the age of
twenty-seven, and for some time fulfilled the duties of chaplain in a
hospital. In 1705, when he was thirty-two, he found his true
vocation, and thereafter devoted himself to preaching to the people.
For seventeen years he preached the Gospel in countless towns and
villages. As an orator he was highly gifted, his language being
simple but replete with fire and divine love. His whole life was
conspicuous for virtues difficult for modern degeneracy to
comprehend: constant prayer, love of the poor, poverty carried to an
unheard-of degree, joy in humiliations and persecutions.
A year before his death, Father de Montfort founded two
congregations — the Sisters of Wisdom, who were to devote
themselves to hospital work and the instruction of poor girls, and the
Company of Mary, composed of missionaries. He had long
cherished these projects but circumstances had hindered their
execution, and, humanly speaking, the work appeared to have failed
at his death, since these congregations numbered respectively only
four sisters and two priests with a few brothers. But the blessed
founder, who had on several occasions shown himself possessed of
the gift of prophecy, knew that the tree would grow. At the
beginning of the twentieth century the Sisters of Wisdom numbered
five thousand and were spread throughout every country; they
possessed forty-four houses and gave instruction to 60,000 children.
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