“TOTAL EDUCATION’ WHICH IMPLIES A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO EDUCATION AND WHICH IS CONCERNED WITH THE TOTAL DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL AS A PERSON, IS THE QUINTESSENCE OF MONTFORTIAN EDUCATION. IT AIMS AT DEVELOPING THE BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT TO THE GREAT EXTENT “.
Society of Montfort Brothers of St. Garbiel, who manage these institutions were found by St. Louis Marie De Montfort in France in 1705. Since then, it has spread to thirty countries and is engaged in the mission of education. ‘Education’ a very wide connection. The organization therefore caters to the educational needs of not only children and youth in normal academic school but also imparts technical education, educational of deaf, the dumb and the blind, the physically and mentally handicapped and engages in village uplift and social works especially among the down trodden and the marginalized. Montfortian education chooses for the total development of the young. They are helped to discover their God given talents and work towards their fullest development in order to place them at the service of the society. It seeks to enable the young to search for the truth by training them to analyse reality, from critical judgements, search for solutions and work out a synthesis.
History: Louis was born on January 31st, 1673, in BRITTANY, in a small town called Montfort situated in Northern part of France. He was baptised the following day and wisely entrusted for 2 years to a wet nurse known as Mother Andre. Meanwhile the whole family had shifted to a new property not far away.He spent the next ten years there. He proved helpful to his younger brothers and sisters and a comfort to his mother.From his early childhood he was attracted towards Mary the Mother of Jesus. Aged 12, he was sent to Rennes to study at a college run by Jesuits. Studious and intelligent, he topped all his classes. He did not blend well with his fellow students, his ways and life-styles being entirely different from them. He suffered much at their hands but he was in the good books of his professors.
Louis was 18 when he felt God was calling him to be a priest. He then took to the study of theology. At 19, help was promised towards his admission to St. Sulpice Seminary, in Paris. He bade farewell to his people and chose to walk the whole distance- 350 Km. On his way, he gave to one beggar whatever money he had; to another his clothing and then knelt down vowing never to own anything in this world for himself. He reached Paris exhausted and in rags. Times were hard in every respect and trials countless. Only his trust in God’s Providence enabled him to overcome them all. He was not understood by his superiors who tested the genuineness of his vocation harshly. Nevertheless, at the age of 27 he was ordained a priest on June 5th, 1700. During the next 16 years of his life, Louis(we shall now call him Montfort) preached a large number of missions in many parishes and dioceses. He was never a parish priest and only for short periods was he attached himself to a group or Institutions such as hospitals. He was strong, tall, daring, extremely zealous.
Shared his life, food, shelter with the poor,the sick and the beggars, ever at their service, taking at all times the whole Gospel both literally and in spirit. When invited for a dinner by his parents, he reached there with the beggars and poor people of the town. He insisted that he will sit at the banquet only with them.He would carry a dying man late at night and knock at the door of a missionary home and shout “Open to Jesus Christ.”