The 160th anniversary of the publication of “True Devotion to Mary” has given John Paul II the chance to recall the doctrine of its author, St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. It is to the saint that the Pope owes his episcopal motto, “Totus Tuus,” an expression of his total belonging to Jesus through Mary. In his youth, Karol Wojtyla received “a great help” from the work.

“I found the answer to my perplexities due to the fear that the devotion to Mary, if excessive, might end by compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ,” the Pope said in his message to the religious of the Montfort family, which the Vatican press office published today. “Under the wise guidance of St. Louis-Marie, I understood that, if one lives the mystery of Mary in Christ, such a risk does not exist,” the Pope said in his letter dated Dec. 8, solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.