Who has ever invoked Mary in vain!

The union of 1848 between the Congregation of the Holy Spirit and the Society of the Holy Heart of Mary did not simply merge two institutions; it brought together two spiritual heritages deeply shaped by the maternal presence of Mary. To approach this feast is therefore to return to our origins: how did Mary form the spiritual experience of François Libermann, and how does her Holy Heart continue to inspire our way of living the Spiritan vocation today?

Mary in Libermann’s spiritual experience

Mary stands at the very threshold of Libermann’s faith. At the moment of his baptism, grace wrought in him a striking inner transformation: “When the water of baptism flowed over my Jewish head, in that instant I loved Mary, whom I had previously hated.” (See the note in ND I, 99) From that moment, Mary became inseparable from his love for Christ, his “All”. In contemplating her unique intimacy with the Incarnate Word and with the Holy Spirit, he discovered in her “God’s success” and “the perfect model of fidelity to all the inspirations of the Divine Spirit and of the interior practice of the virtues of the apostolic religious life.” (ND X, 568)

His Marian devotion remained simple, filial, and peaceful. Libermann nurtured a deep affection for the Heart of Mary—an affection strengthened during his time with the disciples of St. John Eudes, the Priests of the Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary. When he discovered the marvels attributed to this most holy and Holy Heart within the Archconfraternity, this devotion became one of the most constant sources of strength in his inner life. Drawn to this mother’s heart—wholly given, a heart of oblation in which he found refuge—he drew from it both his purpose and his prayer: “May Jesus live in us as he lived in Mary; may we be united to Mary as she was united to Jesus, in a union of desire, love, will and vision.” (ND II, 128–129)

The founding intuition of the Society of the Holy Heart of Mary and the Rule of 1840

Whilst he was drafting the Rule during his stay in Rome, and even before knowing the opinion of Propaganda Fide, Libermann struggled for months in a state of profound darkness. His companion Eugène Tisserant proposed dedicating the work to the Heart of Mary, but Libermann resisted, convinced that an apostolic work must be centred on the Cross. It is this initial resistance—and the spiritual breakthrough that followed—that he recounts here:

“In this work, to which I always attached the greatest importance, a singular thing happened to me, in which the good pleasure of the Most Holy Heart of our good Mother was quite manifest and still gives me great consolation today. Mr Tisserant alone was of the opinion that we should consecrate our work to the Most Holy Heart of Mary. Mr Le Vavasseur and I did not believe that an apostolic work ought to be consecrated to the Holy Heart of Mary, although all my trust lies in that Most Holy Heart. I thought that the Society should find in its consecration all its devotions and a perfect model of all the fundamental virtues of the apostolate; and I do not know why I did not even have the idea that we might find this perfectly in devotion to the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart. I fixed my attention on another object: the Cross. I took great pains to draw up the plan in question; unable to find even a single idea, I was in the deepest darkness. I visited the seven churches and, moreover, several churches dedicated to devotion to the Most Holy Virgin; and then, without being able to understand why, I found myself resolved to consecrate the work to the Most Holy Heart of Mary. I returned home and immediately set to work to begin the plan anew, and I saw so clearly that at a single glance I had a view of the whole in all its extent and in the full development of its detail. It was for me a joy and a consolation beyond words. In the course of this work, and in working out the details, difficulties sometimes arose; at times I could not see clearly. I would immediately go to visit one of my favourite churches (Saint Mary Major, Santa Maria in Trastevere, the Madonna del Parto in the Church of the Augustinians, and the Madonna della Pace), and I was assured that upon my return I need only take up my pen and the difficulties would be smoothed out and the uncertainty cleared up: this has never failed.”.” (Letter from Libermann to Fr Desgenettes, 9 February 1844: cf. ND VI, 40)

Inspired by this Marian grace, he later commented on the Rule of 1840 before his novices and underscored this distinctive feature:

“What distinguishes us from all other labourers working in the Lord’s vineyard is the very special consecration we make of our entire Society, of each of its members, and of all their works and undertakings, to the Most Holy Heart of Mary—a heart eminently apostolic and wholly inflamed with the desire for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. We shall regard it as the perfect model of the apostolic zeal with which we must be consumed, and as an abundant and ever‑flowing source from which we must draw.” (Gloss 18, in Provisional Rule of the Missionaries of the Holy Heart of Mary, Part 1, ch. 2, art. 3, text and commentary by Fr. Libermann, pro manuscripto, 17. ND II, 238)

Strengthened by this insight, Libermann celebrated the Mass of Foundation on 25 September 1841 at Notre-Dame des Victoires, together with Frédéric Le Vavasseur and Eugène Tisserant.

The Heart of Mary: apostolic model and refuge

For Libermann, this consecration is essential for the apostolate. Although Mary did not cross seas like Peter or Paul, her heart is profoundly missionary, wholly inflamed with the desire for the glory of God and the salvation of souls (ND X, 568). Since the essence of mission is to communicate the life of Christ, Mary—after the Word—is the creature most filled with the Holy Spirit. By uniting ourselves to her, it is this same Spirit who acts within us. Through her docility, she teaches us that mission is first a matter of being before doing.

For every son of Libermann, Mary is therefore:

• a perfect model of zeal and fidelity
• an abundant source of strength
• a light for discernment
• a refuge where “they will pour out their hearts, with childlike trust, in their weaknesses and temptations”. (ND X, 568)

Mary and the Spiritan vocation: the convergence of legacies

In 1848, the merger with the Congregation of the Holy Spirit—founded in 1703 by Poullart des Places—took place. Although the official title of Libermann’s society disappeared, its Marian spirituality remained intact and became embedded at the heart of the new entity. For Libermann, the Marian model did not vanish with the name; it became the inner driving force of the Spiritan missionary’s life.

He wrote in his Notice on the Congregation of the Holy Spirit:

“The Society of the Sacred Heart of Mary having passed through all manner of trials… it seemed that it was in God’s design that it should be united with the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, so as to perfect the various aspects of the work undertaken by the two societies and to form a complete whole.” (François Libermann, “Notice on the Congregation of the Holy Spirit and the Sacred Heart of Mary and its Works” (1850), unpublished text, reproduced in Paul Coulon and Paule Brasseur, Libermann (1802–1852). A Missionary Thought and Mysticism, Paris, Cerf, 1988, (661–666) 666.)

This union reveals a profound convergence between the two founders: a shared commitment to the “forsaken”, a shared docility to the Holy Spirit, and a shared view of Mary as the perfect model of self-giving.

To bring the mission to fulfilment, Libermann proposed this programme: “the life of Jesus in Mary and the life of Mary in Jesus.” Since Jesus is the One sent by the Father, what is essential for his apostles is that he live in them through his Spirit. Mary is the unsurpassable model of this mystical union. Faced with the immensity of the task, Libermann reminds us that the mission entrusted to the Spiritans is small compared to what was asked of Mary. She remains their indispensable guide in bearing witness to the Gospel.

As we approach the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and as we rejoice in the bicentenary of the new birth of our venerable second founder, we are invited not merely to commemorate the past but to celebrate the enduring relevance of our charism. In contemplating this eminently apostolic Heart, every Spiritan is called to draw from it renewed zeal and complete docility to the Holy Spirit in the service of the most neglected. May this celebration rekindle in our communities the fervour of our consecration and the certainty of that maternal presence which has never ceased to guide our steps along the paths of the world. Strengthened by our shared history and looking toward the future of the mission, let us make our own the cry of trust and gratitude inherited from our first fathers, which still resounds with undiminished force: “Who has ever invoked Mary in vain!”