The Legion of Mary has had many exemplary members starting with its founder. Below is a description of the lives of the legionairies whose causes are being investigated for sainthood.
Servant of God: Frank Duff
Founder of the Legion of Mary
Frank Duff was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 7, 1889. He entered the Civil Service at the age of 18. In 1913 he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and was led to a deeper commitment to his Catholic faith. He gradually came to have a great love for the poor and underprivileged. In 1917 he came to know the Treatise of St. Louis Marie de Montfort on the True Devotion to Mary, a work which changed his life completely.
Along with a group of Catholic women and Father Michael Toher, he formed the first praesidium of the Legion of Mary on September 7, 1921. From that date until his death, he guided the world-wide extension of the Legion with heroic dedication.
In 1965 Pope Paul VI invited Frank Duff to attend the Second Vatican Council as a Lay Observer, an honor by which the Pope recognized and affirmed his enormous work for the lay apostolate.
On November 7, 1980, Frank Duff died and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. In July 1996 the Cause of his canonization was introduced by the Archbishop of Dublin.
Favors attributed to the intercession of Frank Duff should be reported to the Legion of Mary in Dublin, Ireland.
Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Frank Duff
God our Father,
You inspired your servant Frank Duff with a profound insight into the mystery of
your Church, the Body of Christ, and of the place of Mary the Mother of Jesus
in this mystery.
In his immense desire to share this insight with others and in filial dependence on
Mary he formed her Legion to be a sign of her maternal love for the world and a
means of enlisting all her children in the Church’s evangelizing work.
We thank you Father for the graces conferred on him and for the benefits accruing
to the Church from his courageous and shining faith.
With confidence we beg you that through his intercession you grant the petition we
lay before you…
We ask too that if it be in accordance with your will, the holiness of his life may be
acknowledged by the Church for the glory of your Name.
Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
With ecclesiastical approval
Venerable Edel Quinn
One day in 1937 a Dutch priest was driving an Irish girl to a Legion of Mary meeting some miles from his mission in Africa. They came to a river in such flood that the bridge across it could not even be seen. He was about to turn back when the girl cried out, “Oh Father, please go on. I’m sure Our Lady will protect us.” He was aghast but found he couldn’t resist such faith. Some men standing by formed a human chain to see if the bridge was still there. It was, so he drove on blindly. The water flooded the engine and plugs but the impetus carried the car across and up an incline at the far side. He dried the plugs and tried the starter. The car got going and they were in time for the meeting.
The girl was Edel Quinn and the incident typical of her story. In 1936 she had been sent from Dublin to establish the Legion in East and Central Africa. The difficulties were enormous but she met every challenge with unwavering faith and courage. When others faltered her invariable response was, “Why can’t we trust Our Lady?” or “Our Lady will see after things.”
For nearly eight years, her health steadily declining, she worked over the vast territories committed to her. Hundreds of Legion praesidia and many higher councils were set up on an enduring basis. As a result, thousands of Africans are engaged in the Church’s work of evangelization.
At the source of all Edel’s activity was her deep union with God, sustained by constant prayer. The Eucharist was the center of her life. Her devotion to Mary was marked by childlike trust and utter generosity. She said she could never refuse Our Lady anything she thought she wanted. Mary’s rosary seemed to be always in her hand.
Edel died in Nairobi on May 12, 1944. In 1957 the Archbishop of Nairobi initiated the process for her Beatification and many witnesses were examined, mostly in Africa and Ireland. Their evidence, published by the Holy See, points not only to outstanding holiness, but to holiness in its most attractive form. The words love, joy, peace appear in almost every testimony.
It is for the Holy See to pass judgment on her heroic sanctity. In the meantime, hundreds of Bishops have written to the Holy Father in support of the Cause, most of them, it is understood stressing its special relevance for the young people of our time.
On December 15, 1994 Pope John Paul II declared Edel Quinn “Venerable.”
One miracle attributed to her intercession is still required for her Beatification.
Prayer for the Beatification of the Venerable Edel Quinn
Eternal Father, I thank you for the grace you gave to your servant, Edel Quinn, of striving to live always in the joy of your presence, for the radiant charity infused into her heart by your Holy Spirit, and for the strength she drew from the Bread of Life to labour until death for the glory of your name, in loving dependence on Mary, Mother of the Church.
Confident, O Merciful Father, that her life was pleasing to you, I beg you to grant me, through her intercession, the special favour I now implore…, and to make known by miracles the glory she enjoys in Heaven, so that she may be glorified also by your Church on earth, through Christ Our Lord. Amen
With ecclesiastical approval
Favors attributed to her intercession should be notified in writing to the Legion of
Mary in Dublin, Ireland.
Servant of God: Alphonsus Lambe
Alphonsus Lambe, (known as Alfie) was born in Tullamore, Ireland on the feast of St. John the Baptist, Friday, 24th June 1932, during the international Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.
Like St. John he was a precursor – the precursor of the Legion of Mary, which Pope Paul VI described as “the greatest movement which has been established since the era of the great religious orders.”
After spending a period of his youth in the novitiate of the Irish Christian Brothers, he had to leave because of delicate health, but found his vocation in the Legion of Mary. He was appointed Envoy in 1953. With Seamus Grace, he left for Bogotá, Columbia on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16) of that year.
For almost six years he worked ceaselessly in promoting the Legion of Mary in Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil. After a short but grave illness he died in Buenos Aires on the feast of St. Agnes, January 21, 1959.
God had bestowed on him great natural gifts, a personality which attracted souls to the service and love of God, an infectious enthusiasm, and a facility for learning languages, which enabled him to rapidly attain fluency in Spanish and Portuguese.
During his years in South America he set up a great number of branches of the Legion of Mary, and trained a multitude in the apostolate of the Legion. His devotion to Mary was outstanding, and in contacts with Legionaries and others he explained and urged the practice of the True Devotion to Our Lady.
He is buried in the vault of the Irish Christian Brothers, in the Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Cause for his Beatification was introduced by the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires in 1978.
Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Alphonsus Lambe
O God, who by your infinite mercy inflamed the heart of your servant, Alphonsus Lambe with an ardent love for you and for Mary, our Mother; a love which revealed itself in a life of intense labour, prayer and sacrifice for the salvation of souls, grant, if it be your will, that we may obtain, by his intercession, what we cannot obtain by our own merits. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen
With ecclesiastical approval
Favors attributed to his intercession should be notified in writing to the Legion of
Mary in Dublin, Ireland.