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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 138

138 THE PATRONS OF THE LEGION CHAPTER 24
He loved the Church and every soul in it, and spent every
faculty in its service. He was apostle, evangelist, and had the
merit of martyr.
He was Mary’s priest: therefore, a special patron to the
legionary priest in his service of the organisation which aims
to be a living copy of Mary.
His feast occurs on 27 December.
“When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved
standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’
Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother’. And from that
hour the disciple took her into his own home.” (Jn 19:26-27)

3. ST. LOUIS-MARIE DE MONTFORT
“In view of other decisions as to the inadmissibility of
particular and local patrons, the inclusion of the name of
Blessed Grignion de Montfort would at first sight appear to be
debatable ground. It can, however, be safely asserted that no
saint has played a greater part in the development of the
Legion than he. The handbook is full of his spirit. The prayers
re-echo his very words. He is really the tutor of the Legion:
thus invocation is due to him by the Legion almost as a matter
of moral obligation.” (Decision of the Legion placing the name
of Blessed Grignion de Montfort in the list of invocations.)
He was canonised on 20 July, 1947, and his feast occurs on
28 April.
“Not only a founder, but missionary as well! And more than
missionary; for we see yet another aspect: He is doctor and
theologian, who has given us a mariology such as no one before him
had conceived. So deeply has he explored the roots of marian
devotion, so widely has he extended its horizons, that he has become
without question the announcer of all the modern manifestations of
Mary — from Lourdes to Fatima, from the definition of the
Immaculate Conception to the Legion of Mary. He has constituted
himself the herald of the coming of the reign of God through Mary,
and the precursor of that longed-for salvation which in the fullness of
time the Virgin Mother of God will bring to the world by her
Immaculate Heart.” (Federigo Cardinal Tedeschini, Archpriest of St.
Peter’s: Discourse at unveiling of statue of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort
in Saint Peter’s, 8 December, 1948)
“I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in fury to tear to
pieces with their diabolical teeth this little book and him whom the
Holy Spirit has used to write it, or at least to bury it in the darkness