Who Are We?
Until such time as we are granted official recognition by the Church, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are a de facto private association of the faithful whose members take private vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, and live a community life in accordance with the Rule of Saint Augustine and our own Constitutions. We profess, in addition, a Fourth Vow to make the Doctrinal Crusade of Saint Benedict Center “the first interest of our lives.”
Our Vows
The purpose of the Vows of Religion is to detach our hearts from the three greatest forces capable of distracting them from a total focus on God: earthly possessions, physical pleasure, and self-will. Therefore, after the discernment periods of aspirancy, postulancy, and novitiate, we Sisters take these three Vows:
- Poverty. We relinquish the right to private ownership, agreeing to receive all we need by way of material sustenance through the hands of our Mother Prioress. We freely give to the Community whatever goods we have or those funds which may be acquired through our industry as members of the Community. This frees us from all the distractions and cares that come with owning material possessions.
- Chastity. We sacrifice the joys of raising children of our own to the higher ideal of imitating Our Lady in the state of holy virginity. We thereby open our hearts to the joy of being spiritual mothers to all other members of Christ’s Mystical Body.
- Obedience. We surrender the freedom to make our own decisions apart from the approval of a superior. By so doing, we more freely unite our wills with God’s holy will.
These holy renouncements help draw down the graces necessary for us to persevere in our vocation to teach the Faith without compromise.
Our Doctrinal Crusade
Of all the unpopular doctrines of Catholicism, none is so detested by the liberals and modernists of our age as Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus — Outside the Church there is No Salvation. We Slaves are committed to the defense of this sacred, thrice-defined dogma. Because of our position on this precise teaching — and its equally challenging counterpart, no salvation without personal submission to the Holy Father — we have been persecuted and marginalized from the earliest days of our Order even to the present time.
Our identity as spiritual soldiers in a Crusade (a truly “holy war”) to defend the perennial teachings of the Church is what gives life and form to all our specific apostolates: online publishing, print publications, Immaculate Heart of Mary School, audio presentations, and especially our door-to-door missionary work.
Our Charism
In addition to being Augustinian in our approach to religious life and the study of history, liturgical in our loyalty to the traditional Roman Rite of the Mass, doctrinal in our work to restore the authentic dogmas of the Faith, and Roman in our filial love and reverence for the currently reigning successor of St. Peter, the spirit of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is intensely Marian and Theresian. According to our Constitutions:
The Congregation’s spirit is Marian. Its very name, The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Mancipia Immaculati Cordis Mariae, or MICM) is inspired by two realities: (1) the revelations made by Our Lady of Fatima concerning God’s will to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, and (2) the devotion of holy slavery to Jesus through Mary as articulated by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. At Fatima, the Blessed Virgin said to the innocent little visionaries, “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” More specifically, She also said, speaking of the devotion: “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.”
The practice of the five first Saturdays, clearly among the more significant directives given by Our Lady, is integral to the devotional life of the MICM. This devotion to the Immaculate Heart is joined to a Montfortian spirit, as the members practice true devotion to the Blessed Virgin according to the spiritual doctrine of Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. Living the total consecration to Jesus through Mary, each member strives to renounce his own dispositions and to take upon himself Mary’s dispositions in all his acts. The ideal towards which the Congregation labors is that each act of the common life and apostolate be performed “by Mary, with Mary, in Mary, and for Mary; so that we may do them all the more perfectly by Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus, and for Jesus.” Saint Louis Marie de Montfort calls this true devotion to Mary a “slavery of love.” The Marian sacramentals of the Dominican Rosary, the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the Miraculous Medal are devotions common to all members of the Congregation.
The Congregation’s spirit is Theresian. The spiritual doctrine of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the “Little Way,” also informs the Congregation’s spirituality. The “Little Way” consists not only in doing well one’s daily duty for the love of God — a very common maxim of sanctity — but especially in adopting interiorly the manner of thinking and acting as a little child, behaving in all things with regard to our Heavenly Father as a good child behaves in relation to a loving earthly father. Everything is done in the spirit of faith, a disposition of mind which makes the soul recognize the value of little things and the importance of immolating willfulness and disordered self-love in all matters. Characteristic of the Little Way is also a spirit of openness, trust, confidence, docility, and complete abandonment to God’s Providence.
Our School of Thought
Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M., the founder of our house of Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary here in Richmond, New Hampshire, believed strongly that our Crusade should be fostered by studies done in common. In these studies traditional theology, the queen of the sciences, bolstered by the principles of philosophia perennis, was to have pride of place.The study of history, the “laboratory of wisdom,” was likewise to be of paramount importance.
We have, furthermore, a core set of “memory items” which the Brothers, Sisters, and Third Order Members learn together. These include such essential gems of Catholic erudition as the seventy-two books of the Bible, the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, the Doctors of the Church, twenty-four key dates of history, etc. Together we defend a specific philosophical platform, which we promulgate in the Saint Augustine Institute of Wisdom, our four-year program geared to the formation of strong and zealous lay apostles.
Our Two Key Apostolates: Teaching and Missionary Work
One fundamental aspect of our charism is that we are missionaries to the United States of America. To this end, we employ a powerful form of street evangelization, by means of which, since our Community’s founding in 1949, we have personally met and spoken with millions of people of every religion, in every walk of life, and from all over the world. We have answered their questions, comforted or encouraged them, made available to them the truths of the Faith by means of Catholic publications, and given them free blessed rosaries, Miraculous Medals, and scapularsto aid them in their journey Heavenwards.
Another of our main apostolates is teaching. Immaculate Heart of Mary School, averaging between thirty and fifty students each year, is a private, K-6 institution approved by the New Hampshire State Department of Education. Our students receive an excellent education in not only religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also those classes falling out of vogue in modern education, such as penmanship and Latin. Our students wear modest uniforms and do not use personal electronics in the classroom. The entire student body prays a decade of the Rosary together every single day.
Do You Feel Called?
Do you feel in yourself a deep love of the traditional Catholic Faith and a readiness to defend it even at the cost of comfort and convenience? Do you feel drawn to the idea of fighting for the Church and the salvation of souls at the very heart of the battle — on a theological and philosophical front? Do you long for a way to consecrate your entire life to the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary and spread abroad devotion to Her Immaculate Heart in accordance with the message of Fatima? It could be that God is calling you here. Please visit our website and contact Sr. Mary Peter ([email protected]) to find out more about our Community and arrange a visit.
Nos cum prole pia benedicat Virgo Maria!
