 Bl. Francis de Montmorency Laval
Name: Bl. Francis de Montmorency Laval
Date: 21 July
Blessed François de Laval was born at St. Martin de Montigny-sur-Avre, Normandy,France. He wanted to become a priest from his earliest childhood. When he was eight years old,his father placed him with the Jesuits, where he lived for fourteen years far from his family. François lost his father in 1636. His uncle, a bishop, appointed him a canon of Evreux toassist his family. He was ordained a priest on May 1, 1647. King Louis XIV chose him as thefirst Bishop of New France. On December 8, 1658, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, thethirty-eight year old prelate was consecrated a bishop. He left for Quebec on June 16, 1659, andimmediately began making pastoral visits throughout his immense diocese. Upon his arrival, he won everyone’s confidence with his charity, piety, discernment andimpartiality. His first concern consisted in advancing the organization of the Church in Canada. He contributed greatly towards both the civil and religious formation of the country. Even thoughhe had to face many difficulties, with his wise, firm action, he succeeded in implanting the Faith allover North America. Bishop de Laval first founded the Seminary of Quebec which gathered together acommunity of priests; in 1663 he entrusted the formation of his clergy to this seminary. Fiveyears later, a Minor Seminary was opened for the recruitment of his clergy. In conformity withholy practice in the early centuries of the Church, all the clerics and churchmen lived out of acommon fund. Blessed François de Laval had to fight with all his might against disorders that had beenintroduced into the country at the beginning of its colonization, chiefly the traffic of intoxicatingliquor. Saint Mary of the Incarnation wrote, “The bishop has had many conflicts in New Franceconcerning liquor given to the natives which almost led to the total ruin of this new Church.” Thanks to his apostolic zeal, this shameful commerce was absolutely forbidden. The secular powers raised serious opposition to his evangelizing activities, but Bishop deLaval never capitulated in the face of his adversaries’ odious proceedings. With firmness andperseverance, the holy bishop resisted all encroachments of civil authorities in Churchgovernment. He rose up with authority against anyone who wanted to hinder the implantation ofChristianity in the blessed land of New France. With supreme patience, he endured all the wickedactions that earthly magnates wrought against him, as well as two major fires that demolished hisseminary, for which he had labored so hard. This holy bishop, a pioneer of the Church in New France, lived in constant, heroicrenouncement. He wore a hair shirt and slept very little, so as to be able to pray all his offices androsaries. As for the brief rest he granted himself, he took it on a wretched mat laid on a bed ofboards, without even a sheet to cover himself. His great evangelical simplicity was also verypraiseworthy, for never did any man have a greater horror of showmanship and vanity, especiallywhen it presented itself under a cover of religion. This worthy, virtuous prelate wore old, patched garments. For twenty years he owned only twowinter cassocks. At his death one of them was still good; the other, threadbare and patched,attested to his wonderful spirit of poverty. Hard on himself, this admirable man of God wasprodigal to excess towards Christ’s poor. Every year he never failed to give the needy 1,500 to2,000 pounds. Blessed François de Laval endured the sufferings of his last years with great serenity andresignation to God’s will. During Holy Week in 1708 he contracted the illness that was to takehim to the grave. On May 6, 1708, he died in the company of his priests, reciting the Rosary andthe Litany of the Holy Family, which devotion he had propagated throughout Canada. |
