Pope credits St. Louis de Montfort with clarifying Marian devotion

Published: 2004-01-13

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II said that at one point in his life he had worried that strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin could weaken devotion to Jesus Christ. The 83-year-old pope, whose private life and public ministry have been marked by a strong Marian devotion, said the concerns he had as a youth were assuaged by reading St. Louis de Montfort's book, "True Devotion to Mary." "In the years of my youth, I myself found great help in reading this book in which I found the answers to my questions that arose from the fear that devotion to Mary, if it became too great, might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ," the pope said. The pope made his comments in a letter to the religious orders that trace their founding to St. Louis de Montfort: the Company of Mary -- known as the Montfort Missionaries -- the Daughters of Wisdom and the Brothers of St. Gabriel.

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