The Legion of Mary is 100 Years Old Today!

Almost sixty years ago, when I was a young Anglo-Catholic Anglican, I ran across a copy of the Handbook of the Legion of Mary. I had, by the grace of God and Her prayers, developed a devotion to the Blessed Mother as a young protestant boy before I became an Anglo-Catholic. I was immediately enthralled by the idea of an apostolate dedicated to Her and to spreading the Faith.

I convinced a friend of mine that the Anglican Church needed something similar and I suggested the name the Legion of Our Lady of Walsingham.

We weren't aware of the Society of Our Lady of Walsingham (founded 1925), but we knew of the Society of Mary (founded 1935) to which we wrote promoting the idea of the Legion. They replied with the suggestion that we should just join their Society. They misunderstood what we were trying to do. Their objects are:

• to love and honour Mary.
• to spread devotion to her in reparation for past neglect and misunderstanding and in the cause of Christian Unity
• to take Mary as a model in purity, personal relationships, and family life.

Which is all very fine, but we were talking about an active apostolate dedicated to the spread of what we understood to be the Catholic Faith.

As a result, the Legion of Our Lady of Walsingham was stillborn with my friend and I the only two members.

Over the next decades, the idea of the Legion never left my mind, but after finally converting to the True Faith at 33 I never happened to end up in a Diocese with an active Legion presence, at least that I was aware of. I became a Carmelite Tertiary and I joined St Maximilian Mary Kolbe's Militia Immacultae, deepening my devotion to Our Lady. I made the Total Consecration according to the method of St Louis Marie de Montfort, which is a major devotion of the Legion of Mary, but I was still not a Legionary.

In 2017 I somehow became aware that the Legion was active in the Archdiocese of Omaha. I emailed their contact asking if they knew of an active Praesidium anywhere near me. They sent me the contact information for the Diocesan coordinator in the Diocese of Lincoln. She put me in touch with the nearest Praesidium which is in Lincoln.

The Legion has four grades of membership:

Active members regularly attend the weekly sessions of their Praesidium and pray daily the prayer of the Legion, the Catena Legionis, which consists essentially of the Magnificat and some shorter prayers. Their main role lies in active apostolate for the legion and the church. Active members under 18 are not allowed to give the "Legion promise" until that age. They are considered Juniors and may hold any office except President in their Praesidium. Above the level of the Praesidium, no Junior may serve as an officer.

Auxiliary members support the legion through their prayer. They pray the whole booklet of Legion prayers, the Tessera, every day. The Tessera consists of the Invocation, prayers to the Holy Spirit, the Rosary, the Catena, and the concluding prayers of the Tessera.

Praetorians, a higher grade of active membership, pray, in addition to their duties as active members, the Rosary, the Divine Office and go to Holy Mass daily.

Adjutorians, a higher grade of auxiliary membership, additionally pray the Divine Office and go to Holy Mass daily.

Praetorians and Adjutors do not have higher status or higher rank inside the legion system. The meaning of the grades is only a desire for a more devotional life, not for higher status. Entering the grade is done by registering with a list of Praetorians/Adjutors and by subsequently observing their duties.

Obviously, given my health problems and the lack of a Praesidium in my Parish, I couldn't be an active Legionary, so I ended up becoming an Auxiliary. After almost 60 years my dream of being a Legionary of Our Lady was finally realised!

And if you are not a Legionary, I strongly encourage you to contact the nearest Praesidium and become a Legionary of Our Lady! Here is the contact form for the Legion HQ in Dublin. If you send them an enquiry, they will forward it to the nearest Concilium, which can put you in contact with a nearby Praesidium.