Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, a Missionary, lived in France, at the beginning of 18th Century. From the very beginning of his evangelizing work among the people, he felt called by the Holy Spirit to surround himself with disciples who should live the Gospel like him “in the footsteps of the Apostles”. To join him in his apostolate, he gathered a few Brothers and asked them to share his way of life, “by the ties of obedience and poverty”. (Montfort’s Will)

At the age of seventeen, Marie-Louise Trichet (Marie-Louise de Jésus) met Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort who had just been appointed chaplain of the hospital of Poitiers. His reputation as a preacher and confessor was already widespread among the youth of this region of Poitiers.

To realize his idea of parish missions, as a means of revitalizing the faith in the most marginalized suburbs and countryside areas, Louis-Marie Grignion, while still a young priest, wanted to gather priests around himself for preaching and giving the sacraments, as well as some lay brothers to organise and animate meetings, celebrations, processions and to teach catechism to the poor and to children.