Saints on the Road – Servant of God Frank Duff

Founder of the Legion of Mary, Frank Duff was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 7, 1889.

At 24 he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul where he was led to a deeper commitment to his Catholic faith and at the same time he acquired a great sensitivity to the needs of the poor and underprivileged.

In 1917, the same year that Our Lady appeared in Fatima and St. Maximilian founded the Militia Immaculatae, Frank Duff read St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. He had overheard a few men discussing the book and became interested in acquiring a copy himself. When he found a first edition of the English translation in a bookstore, he purchased it. At first, he did not understand the book due to its depth and lofty Marian expressions, but, after reading it half a dozen times, he finally got it.

This devotion set his soul aflame. He understood that Mary was not just another saint and member of the Church, but the greatest of all saints and the very heart of the mystery of Christianity. From this point on, he began to teach everyone that if they did not understand Mary, they were incapable of understanding Christianity.

As a result of his fervent devotion to Our Lady, he founded the Legion of Mary on September 7, 1921. Having been greatly influenced himself by the writings of St. Louis de Montfort, Duff established that the Legion was to be very Montfortian in its Marian devotion and piety. The purpose and goal of the Legion was to assist Mary, the Mediatrix of All Grace, in the spiritual combat perpetually waged between the Church and the powers of darkness. He named his organization the Legion of Mary

His profound insights into the role of the Blessed Virgin in the plan of Redemption, as also into the role of the lay faithful in the mission of the Church, are reflected in the Legion Handbook which is almost entirely his composition.

Along with a group of Catholic women and Fr. Michael Toher, Dublin Archdiocese, he formed the first praesidium of the Legion of Mary on September 7, 1921. From that date until his death, November 7, 1980, he guided the world-wide extension of the Legion with heroic dedication. He attended the Second Vatican Council as a lay observer.