Brief history of St. Montfort:St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort was born on the 31 st of January 1673 in a small village in Britanny in Western France. His father was a nobleman and lawyer, but the large family was poor as 17 th century France was passing through a grave crisis, economic as well as social. Wars between European countries had depleted the national treasury. Poverty and disease became endemic. Added to this 95% of population was illiterate. The French Revolution that was to come almost a century later was already brewing.

It was in this atmosphere, charged with tension that St. Louis de Montfort founded the ‘Brother’ to impart education to an illiterate France. Not many were willing to follow this stern, austere and maverick Saint. When he died on the 28 th of April 1716, there were only five brothers. When the revolution broke out in the 1790s Montfortian institutions were only a handful and were discouraged. They decided to launch out side France to Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. In 1886, they crossed the Atlantic and established institution in Canada.

The Montfort saga in India began when on the 11 th of September 1903, three French Brothers landed in the French colony of Pondicherry. There was still no Montfortian institution in India. It was in the next year, 1904, that the first Montfortian institution was started at Tindivanam, now in Tamilnadu. This was a technical institution. It is still in existence and flourishing. It was not until the end of the First World War that the first English medium school, Montfort school, was started on the Shevroy Hills in Yercaud.

From 1918 to 2004, Montfortian institutions grew in India from one to nearly a 150 and are now spread over 18 states and Union territories, literally from North to South and East to West.

Montfortian institutions are spread over thirty-two countries, from Canada, Columbia, and Peru to Fiji and the Tonga islands in the Pacific.

St. Louis Montfort was and extremely versatile man. He was a philosopher, writer, poet, musician, artist, sculptor, choreographer, builder and social reformer. The Montfortian philosophy is, therefore, one of totality, globality and universality – terms that are very relevant in today’s world, which is in flux. The Montfortian system, therefore, aims at “total education” – the development of body, mind and spirit so that a Montfortian student can have “fullness” in life and be a useful citizen to the country, a faithful and loving person to his family and friends and a fulfilled and content human being.

May we be imbued by the Montfortian sprit and may we be successful montfortians.