The Spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort (Guest: Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM)

Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM is originally from the town of Jim Thorpe, a small mining and railroad town in the Pennsylvania Coal Region. Following his time at MIT to purse a degree in Physics, he moved to the Midwest to pursue PhD studies at the University of Wisconsin in the field of Materials Science. It was during this time of graduate studies that he was introduced to St. Louis de Montfort’s book, “The True Devotion to Mary.” This came at a time when he was seeking the ultimate direction of his life. Fr. Gillespie laid aside his doctoral studies after 5 years in the program to test the waters of a missionary vocation at the service of the Church. In 1993 he entered the U.S. Province of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary, a small community founded by Louis de Montfort himself. The years since have included thirteen mission trips to central Nicaragua, service as the parochial vicar at a bilingual parish, campus ministry, and mission and retreat preaching across the United States and in Mexico. Recently he also had the opportunity to offer a course on devotion to Our Lady and the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort to clergy in India and to offer a series of programs on devotion to Our Lady to Catholics at several parishes in the United Arab Emirates. Presently Father is serving as the managing editor for Montfort Publications and as the acting director of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Island in addition to his itinerant preaching commitments in the service of promoting the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort.