St. Louis de Montfort should be a doctor of the Church

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Years ago I did his consecration his secret of Mary has changed my life. Right after St. Pope John Paul ll passed they said he was close to being honored with the title. Pray that he gets it we need Mary’s intersection for the Catholic Church.
 
I think one of the problems in these matters (aside from the the general issue of Vatican bureaucracy which hangs over just about every pronouncement), is the “waiting line” if you will.

Full disclosure - I’m a fan of St. Louis de Montfort, and apparently so was JPII. I’ve done the consecration, have his collected writings, and have the DVD about his life. Only thing i haven’t done is pay a visit (of course Covid-time makes that much more difficult).

But if i recall correctly, the most recent Doctor of the Church to be granted that title is the Armenian Orthodox Saint Gregory of Narek…and God only knows how long he’s been waiting on that line 😉
 
I don’t think it’s really about “waiting in line”. St. Therese of Lisieux became a Doctor of the Church within 100 years of her death and less than 75 years after her canonization.

The requirement to be a Doctor of the Church is that you make a significant contribution to theology or doctrine; in other words, you contributed something new. It’s questionable whether St. Louis de Montfort’s contributions were new, or whether he was simply summarizing and passing on some established teachings. I believe at one point he acknowledged himself that he was doing that.

Of course, there are those who simply say he overemphasized Mary, so his cause for doctor will have to wait for another Marian Pope to come along and move the ball forward.
 
I don’t think it’s really about “waiting in line”. St. Therese of Lisieux became a Doctor of the Church within 100 years of her death and less than 75 years after her canonization.
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Doesn’t that speak more to the rather extraordinary nature of St. Therese of Lisieux? For a while, at least in the public Catholic consciousness, she loomed quite large in the way i suppose Padre Pio does today…

She’s one of the (very few) post-Schism Saints that our brothers and sister sin faith on the Eastern Orthodox and even Oriental Orthodox can appreciate (which puts her right up there with St. Francis i suppose - the Orthodox of either variety tend to favor mystics who can write).

Someone has to take up your cause, and age isn’t really a factor. St. Ephrem the Syrian, one of of the Church Fathers, born in 306 AD, only got the title of Doctor in 1920. And he’s a Church Father!

Incidentally - i was rooting for my gal Hildy (Hildergard of Bingen) for the better part of the late 90s-00s - and of course it takes a German Pope to do it, the same way it took a Polish one to canonize St. Faustina .
 
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My point is that there’s not X number of centuries that needs to elapse for someone to become a Doctor of the Church. Yes, there has to be an interest in the person’s cause as doctor, and they have to be perceived as having done something original, but it could happen right away or hundreds of years from now.
 
My point is that there’s not X number of centuries that needs to elapse for someone to become a Doctor of the Church.
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Ahh i see. The “line” for me is more a reference to the overwhelming number of applications that hit the Congregation of the Causes of the Saints. Ie: As i’m typing this, there are 1,000s of candidates on the docket - ranging from people attempting to get the lowest rung of “Servant of God” to those trying to get through the final steps toward the official recognition of sainthood.

Many of these “would-be” Saints, have had their causes championed for years. I think we spoke about the Scapular of Benediction and Protection recently right - the person behind that one was a whole organization to try and raise the status of Marie Julie Jahenny to at least “Servant of God” status although i don’t think its really gone anywhere.

A lot of that is Prioritization based on the current occupant of the Seat of Peter. Hence why i said, a German Pope is more likely to take notice of the causes of Sainthood emanating from his homeland the same way a Polish one is to his country.

What i will admit i find surprising about St. Louis de Montfort’s case is that i would have expected there to have been a much larger organization supporting his case.

I compare that to St. John Henry Newman (relatively recently canonized), whose got a well of support to name him a doctor of the church. I don’t think its going to happen anytime soon, but there’s at least and organization pressing the case to whomever sits on Peter’s throne.
 
In True Devotion, St. Louis claims his consecration surpasses previous ones in expectations/ form. I don’t have the reference, but I can find it if you’d like me to do so. Regardless, he claimed his devotion. was something new, but within the confines of a tradition that predates his.
 
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