Vatican City, Jan 12, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Pope John Paul II marked the 160th anniversary of the publication of "True devotion to Our Lady" by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, the book he said inspired his Mariology.
The Holy Father wrote a letter to the religious men and women of the Montfort families on the Marian doctrine of their founder.
In the letter dated December 8, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Pope recalls that despite the fact that St. Louis-Marie wrote the treatise at the beginning of 1700, the manuscript was "virtually unknown for more than a century," until it was "discovered by chance in 1842 and published in 1843."
"I myself, in the years of my youth, received great help from the letter in this book in which I 'found the response to my questions' due to fear that devotion to Mary 'would end up compromising the supremacy of worship due to Christ'.