On the occasion of our Congress, Sept. 4-6, 2004, we will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the death of the founder of our Movement, Louis Even, who died on September 27, 1974, at the age of 89. He came across Social Credit at the age of 50, but it was since his childhood that his life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his brethren.
At this very hour, when, according to the words of the late Pope Pius XI, “today's mighty”, by their usurped power, control our lives and keep the world in suspense, facing a monstrous economical crisis that would throw all the families in an unheard-of misery, and an atomic war that would destroy most of the planet, Louis Even's great Work turns out to be more important and urgent than ever.
And, we dare say, in the face of those who apply their intelligence and their prestige at destroying this Work as the apostles are building it, that history will recognize Louis Even as one of the forerunners of the coming era of justice and peace that will be granted to the nations if people choose to convert as requested by Our Lady at Fatima.
May these lines written in honor of Louis Even draw minds and hearts to come and find enlightenment at the source of the great master's writings.
Here then follows, for the edification of everyone, part of the biography of Louis Even, the super-apostle of justice, the illustrious founder of the “Michael” Journal and of the Pilgrims of Saint Michael.
To him belongs the glory of having founded in our country the “Pilgrims of Saint Michael”, this army of apostles wearing white berets, to whom he has taught how to pray, how to pull away from modern comfort, and how to become beggars even to the point of knocking at the doors, with the weapon of the Rosary in one hand, and with the sword of truth, the “Michael” Journal, in the other, so as to return into the hands of Christ the King the politics and economics of our country, that is to say, to establish in it Christ's principles for the greater happiness of the families and nations.
We can see therefore that the apostles of Louis Marie Even, who was formed at the school of his patron saint, Louis Marie de Montfort, are a copy of the “Friends of the Cross” as foreseen by de Montfort, who used to say that the “Friends of the Cross” would be like so many soldiers crucified to fight against the world, who would not run away like priests, brothers and nuns would for fear of being beaten, but be like valiant and brave warriors on the battlefield, without giving an inch of ground and without ever turning their backs.
To build such an army, a captain of great value was needed, and God sent him.
One can divide Louis Even's life into four parts. In seeing the different parts of such a filled life, you will, like us, be amazed in realizing how God led him by the hand in all the actions of his life, so as to form him solidly in view of the political mission he was to fulfill in our country, and in extending this mission thereafter to the whole world.
He was born under the sign of the “Ave Maria”, on March 23, 1885, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the time of the Angelus — the prayer of the Annunciation. This time is entered on his birth certificate. He was baptized on the next day, the eve of the great Feast of the Annunciation.
The Annunciation is the main Feast of the “Slaves of Mary”, the day chosen by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. In fact, the Treaty of True Devotion tells us: “This Feast reminds us of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to us through Mary, and who wished to be submitted to His Mother.”
It is therefore God's Will that any great Movement should receive its very origin in Mary, for it is Her and Her alone who has received from God the mission and the power of crushing Satan's head. It is not surprising therefore that Louis Even, this child who was to have the mission of working to remove Satan from politics, be marked with the seal of Mary, right from the time of his birth. Without the powerful intervention of Mary, no use trying to subdue the powers of High Finance driven by the Luciferian armies.
 St. Louis de Montfort |
Louis Even was born in the beautiful Brittany of our heroic French ancestors, at Montfort-sur-Meu, the birthplace of his patron saint, Louis Marie Grignion, the fiery herald of the true devotion to Mary and the promoter of the holy slavery of love of Jesus through Mary.
The young Even was christened Louis Pierre Marie — Louis Marie in honor of the saint, and Pierre in honor of his father, Pierre Even. Louis Marie Even was thus raised in the midst of the souvenirs of the devotion to Louis Marie Grignion. All the families professed at that time a cult for the great saint who was their countryman, and they had adopted his great devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
At the time of St. Louis Grignion's Baptism in 1673, the parish church was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, patron saint of the French Canadians. Today, the church is dedicated to Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. This latter one burnt with the desire of coming to Canada, but the Holy Father kept him in France who had a great need for missionaries in those days.
Two centuries later, seeing the needs of Canada, it seems that Saint Louis Marie and Saint John the Baptist must have consulted each other in Heaven, to send Louis Even de Montfort to our country.
Finally, when one goes back nine months from Louis Even's birthdate, it can be understood that Saint John the Baptist patronized his creation, on June 23, 1884. It was the eve of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, so brilliantly celebrated in France and among French Canadians.
Saint John the Baptist was one of the patrons that suited best Louis Even's political vocation. Like John the Baptist, Louis Even will not fear, at the risk of having his head cut off, to tell the mighty of the time: “You have not the right.”
Pierre Even and Marguerite Vitre, father and mother of Louis Even, gave God 16 children. Four died at birth. The twelve others were baptized under the names of: Pierre, Aimee-Marie, Joseph, Marie-Sainte, Francois, Philomene, Emile, Francoise, Marie, Marie-Louise, and Leon.
The good parents did so well in raising their children in the love of God that it soon became a household of saints. Seven of the children entered religious life (four of them in the Company of Mary, founded by St. Louis de Montfort), and the others became exemplary fathers of families with a strong Faith.
Of the seven religious, six were called by Heaven between the ages of 20 and 26. They had hardly just consecrated themselves to God by their profession or their perpetual vows that the Divine Ravisher would take hold of those fresh roses to embellish His Paradise of Glory. Did he want to protect them from the religious persecution that was going on in France in 1900, or did he take them as victims, so that from above they would, with divine means, support their brother Louis in his special and difficult mission?
In the beginnings of the foundation of the Milicia of the Immaculate by Saint Maximilian Kolbe, one of the first members died. The founder rejoiced because one of them, he would say, must be up there with his heavenly powers to help in the development of the Work.
Louis Marie was filled with a great affection for his parents. He would say with admiration that his mother could not stand for any sins to be committed in the house. Notwithstanding her goodness, the mother knew how to make use of firmness to form the characters, to correct the faults. She did not hesitate to use a small willow branch to drive her little Marie Louise, who was very hard-headed and who did not want to go to school. Thus Marie Louise became one of the six religious in the family. She became a Sister of Wisdom under the name of Sister Bartholomew.
Louis Even always kept a pious memory of his heroic mother. In his last agony, notwithstanding the 65 years that had separated him from her, he had a word of thanks towards the one to whom he owed his early formation: “I think of my mother. I thank her for having made me a Christian.”
The Even family grew up on the Poulaniere farm, in one of those ancestral stone houses made of one room for the family, of an unfinished attic, and of two rooms for the animals. The room for the family was situated between the two rooms for the animals. Louis Marie slept under the stairway that led to the attic. He enjoyed to relate that to change clothes, one had to go between two cows in the animals' quarters.
Notwithstanding this poverty, Louis Marie was no sad child. He liked to laugh and to tease his sisters. One day, he was playing with his little brother Leon, close to his sister Philomene who was knitting. He took the freedom of hiding one of her knitting-needles. Philomene, saddened, began praying to Saint Anthony of Padua to find her knitting-needle. Her brother Louis, the guilty one, feigned to have found the needle, and handed it to his sister. Both of them thanked Saint Anthony, but Louis Marie kept, during his whole life, a little remorse for having thus lied to Saint Anthony, so he thought.
Louis Marie was eleven years old. A Brother of Christian Instruction looking for vocations came to the Poulaniere farm. Pointing in young Louis' direction, he said to his father: “This one is old enough for the juvenate.” The father agreed, and the child left the paternal roof definitely to return only once, at the age of 15. It was to assist at his dear mother's last days, next to whom he remained during whole nights with other family members, awaiting her departure for Heaven.
Louis Marie entered the Livré juvenate on August 4, 1896, on the feast day of Saint Dominic of the Rosary. He was severely tested during the following months. On September 5, of that same year, 1896, at St. Laurent-sur-Sèvre, his sister Marie Sainte, Sister of Wisdom under the name of Athenais of Jesus, died at the age of 23. According to the notes of Louis Even's niece, Sister Saint Bartholomew, herself a sister of Wisdom at Saint-Laurent, Marie Sainte was considered as the saint of the family. And she appeared at the time of her death in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre to her father who was returning from Mass at Montfort on that Sunday. She gave him a secret that he never wished to reveal. When we learn that the good father, Pierre Even, died in 1897, the following year, one can easily guess the contents of the secret. The mother was to follow her husband and Marie Sainte on the way to Heaven three years later, in 1900.
The young juvenist suffered with an infirmity that was unknown to all. He was deaf. One day, the teacher, thinking him to be stubborn because he did not act upon an order, gave him a good kick that made him jump. The poor child complained of not having heard. This is how they found out about his deafness. This placed his vocation in question; deafness was a serious handicap for a teaching brother. There was talk of sending him back. This gave him much sorrow. But since he was a very bright student and of an exemplary piety, they undertook a novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague to obtain his cure. By the end of the novena, there was sufficient improvement, and the superiors decided to keep him. One can understand how it is that Louis Even kept a lifelong devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague, keeping in mind the promise: “The more you honor Me, the more I will gratify you.”
To continue to follow Louis Even's steps during this period, let us read the testimony of Brother Rene Maurice, now living at Josselin, France, who was one of the classmates of Louis Even at the juvenate, during the noviciate, and at the Rocky Mountains:
“As for Louis Even, I first met him in the summer of 1898 when I entered the Postulate of La Guerche (Department of Ile et Vilaine). Louis Even was already there. Had he spent some time at the Livré Juvenate? I can't recall. Most of the recruits, fairly young (12-13), spent a few months there before being directed towards La Guerche where the studies were more advanced. In any case Louis Even and I were in the same class in the fall of 1898, at La Guerche. At the beginning of 1899 (January or February), the best from Brittany's postulates were creamed off to form a special course at Ploërmel. Louis Even was part of the La Guerche group. I caught up with him at Ploërmel, that summer...
“I have kept of Louis Even the souvenir of a friendly companion, quiet and pious. It was possibly during these years of youth spent at La Guerche that he acquired his striking devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Rosary. There, it was highly encouraged by word and example by our Director, Brother Constant. Devotion to the Holy Infant of Prague was also favored” (Brother Rene Maurice, February 13, 1980).
On February 2, 1901, on the Feast of Mary's Purification, Louis Marie Even entered Ploërmel's noviciate. He received the religious costume and the name of Brother Amaury Joseph. He pronounced his first vows on February 2, 1902.
But the storm that had for a long time darkened the political horizon of France had just broken out with violence, destroying or scattering in one blow all the religious congregations. The Communities, under the menace of the Combes Law of July 1st, 1901 concerning the contract of association, had seen the government reject all their demands for association. In 1903, the Rev. Brother Abel of the Brothers of Christian Instruction received official notification of the dissolution of the Institute.
Brothers were from then on forbidden to teach and to wear the religious habit in France. Those who resisted were chased away, and their houses destroyed or looted. For many of the Brothers this meant secularization. Louis Even's young brother, Leon, was also at Ploërmel at this time. Since he was very young (14 years old), he was sent back to his family.
But for those who were more advanced in the religious life, and for those more fervent who wanted to remain religious, came the exile. Seeing the coming of the storm before the total collapse, the Brothers decided to send their best subjects into missions.
Louis Even, who had the soul of an apostle, wished he would be sent to the African missions. But since he had a disposition to learn English, he was sent to the United States' Indian Missions.
If Louis Even never made it to Africa himself, he went with his mind; he would follow with great interest what the annals would relate concerning his dear Africans, in such a way that he knew Africa as well if not better as any of the missionaries who have been there. And thus it was that later, when he had a bit of money notwithstanding his poor financial means, he paid from his own pocket for the education of a young African boy who wished to become a priest. This young man, Sebastiano Kangombe, had the joy of being ordained on Whit Sunday, June 2, 1963. (And now we are sending millions of leaflets to Africa, and even our own Pilgrims of St. Michael, like in Madagascar, for example.)
But let us go back to the relation of Brother Rene Maurice, who is the last survivor of this Rocky Mountains' Mission in the United States, where Louis Even was sent:
“Louis Even had just completed his studies when Father de la Motte, the Jesuits' Provincial at the Rocky Mountains Mission, paid a visit to Ploërmel in August of 1902. He wished to obtain Brothers for the Indian tribes' schools in the United States' North West. The law forbidding the religious communities to teach had just been voted by the French Parliament in July. The Brothers, now chased out of France, would be available for the foreign countries. A first group of six volunteers was formed. Louis Even was part of it.”
 Founders of the Rocky Mountains Mission Standing, left: Louis Even at age 18 |
Louis Even left his dear France for America in February of 1903, to return only 65 years later. He was only 17 years old. The boat trips were difficult in those days; they lasted close to a month. There were no commodities.
Here, we cannot stop ourselves from showing the analogy between this trip of the Brothers chased out of France by the Herods of the day, who wanted to make Christ disappear from their country, and the escape to Egypt of the Holy Family that also took place in February, for the same reasons, so as to protect the Saviour against the prototype of the Herods who wanted to get rid of Him.
Brother Rene Maurice goes on
“It is at the Coeur d'Alene Mission, at De Smet (Idaho) that the Brothers perfected their English, under the direction of Father Athuis (a Jesuit), and ended the 1902-1903 school year.
“Louis Even had an outstanding memory, and he liked flowers. He sometimes forgot himself in the growing of flowers instead of studying that day's lesson (a page of a text to be recited in English). One day, Father Arthuis came in for his lesson. Louis Even, being late, was reading the day's page rapidly. Without waiting, the Father asked him to recite it... He declaimed a part, then stopped cold, saying: `Excuse me, Father, I did not have time to read further...'
“Louis Even was designated as a teacher for the tribe of the Big Bellies, St. Paul's Mission, Montana. He got there at the end of July, i.e. upon my arrival at St. Ignatius, in the Flat Head tribe... It is at St. Ignatius that he spent the 1904-1905 school year (as a teacher)...” (Brother Rene Maurice, February 13, 1980).
We find in a brief relation on the Brothers of the Christian Instruction this note concerning the valiant Brothers of the Rocky Mountains: “During the month of July 1904, Rev. Father Abel made the trip through the Rocky Mountains to visit a group of our valiant missionaries who had, at the request of the Jesuit Fathers, accepted to sacrifice their youth, their talents, even their lives, to the service of the poor Indians of these far-away reservations. The sight of their simple and heroic self-devotion touched his saddened heart, and he himself shed abundantly upon them the overflow of his apostolic ardour.”
Brother Pacome of Laprairie insists that all of the Brothers who were sent to the Rockies have become people of great influence in society, “in the way that Louis Even has marked the Province of Quebec on his way.”
Sixty-nine years later, on October 11, 1973, Louis Even wrote with his own hand about St. Ignatius, Montana:
“It is a place very dear to my memory, since I lived there from 1904 to 1906 as a school teacher of that Indian mission.”
In another letter written the same day, Louis Even relates good memories to one of his former Indian students, Mr. Joe Inias:
“I am your teacher of 1905 at the St. Ignatius mission, and you, Joseph Ignatius (Joe Inias), at that time, you were one of my most brilliant students. My name was then Brother Amaury, and now it is Louis Even, co-founder of Vers Demain...
“I am now 88 years of age. The Vers Demain Journal, of which a copy is being sent to you by our office, was founded in 1939... I hope you will enjoy reading it and that you will pass it on.
“Our Full-Time Pilgrim says that you like the Blessed Virgin Mary and that you recite Her Rosary on your chaplet. I am happy to hear that. He has also told me that you remembered how I used to place flowers at Mary's feet during the month of May. We had a beautiful picture of the Blessed Virgin in our classroom. It was a picture that was painted by an Italian Jesuit Brother. I had found it, placed it aside in the attic of the building, in a corner under the roof. This picture pleased me greatly, and the artist who had painted it, who was then at St. Ignatius, had the goodness to refreshen it.
“These are good-old memories, dear Joe, and I am happy to have the occasion to bring them to my memory and to yours. Here, we like to pray to Mary. We recite the whole Rosary (3 times the 50 Aves) each day. Today, October 11, it is a Feast of Our Lady of Her Divine Motherhood, and I said the Rosary for your own special intention, you, one of my beloved students of the Indian Mission of St. Ignatius. If you please, do say a `Hail Mary' for your old teacher...”
Two important facts are to be outlined in this stage of Louis Even's life that show clearly Providence's action in directing him in a marvelous way: his study of English and his formation as a teacher. To teach the American Indians, he had to learn English. He mastered it so well that later he was able to understand perfectly Major C.H. Douglas' economical theories, written in the words of an engineer, in a difficult English. Being a teacher, he will be capable of translating them and to explain them in an easy language, accessible to all. A retired French civil servant of political economics would say of him, in 1978: “I have met many a teacher in my lifetime, but I have never met a teacher who could explain things as clearly as Louis Even could.”
Major Douglas would say of Louis Even, that he was one of the few who had really understood him.
Another marvel of Providence we found in the notes, drawn from the archives of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, that were given to us by Brother Pacome, on February 15, 1980: Louis Even, returning from the Rocky Mountains, United States, arrived in Canada on June, 24 1906, the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, the Feast of the patron saint of French Canadians. We knew in our hearts that Louis Even's fate was tied to that of Saint John the Baptist. Later, to stimulate them in their fight, Louis Even would remind his Pilgrims of Saint Michael of the virtues of the patron saint of the French Canadians, “of the one, he would say, who prefered to have his head cut off rather than to keep the truth under silence.”
In August of 1906, Brother Amaury Joseph received his assignment under obedience to teach at Grand Mere, Quebec.
From 1907 to 1911, he taught at St. Francis School, in the Immaculate Conception Parish on Rachel Street in Montreal.
But his deafness increased during these years, and there were then no hearing aids to help him. It became impossible for him to direct students. This was a great trial as he got so much pleasure from developing the children's intelligence and from cultivating in them his great devotion to Mary. He had to submit himself to this; his teaching career was sadly coming to an end. But the Will of God was thus expressing Itself.
He was sent back to the Mother House at Laprairie, and in September of 1911, he was given the charge of the printing shop... The superiors were not in a position to guess that he would one day be the famous editor and redactor of Vers Demain and Michael, and that this training in the trade would become highly useful to him.
The following notes are from Brother Pacome who was the accountant of the printing shop during Louis Even's time. His blood brother, Brother Clement Marie, was Louis Even's great collaborator at the printing shop. Brother Clement died in November of 1979. He remained in contact with Louis Even, through letters, until the death of the latter. But let us listen to Brother Pacome:
“Upon arrival at Laprairie, he was sent to the printing shop. We had a very elementary printing facility. Composition was made letter by letter with the use of plyers. The lines, the pages were composed by hand, one letter at a time. This is where my brother and Louis Even spent a long time working together.
“Mr. Even was very intelligent, very brilliant. He insisted on the superiors buying a Lynotype. It is a big piece of machinery, very complicated, mostly at a time when we had no notion of these machines.
“Mr. Even applied himself, I can say, day and night at learning to handle the instrument, then to compose. Somewhere around that time, we got a printing contract for all of the English textbooks that were to be used in the schools of the Province: “La classe en Anglais”. It was another Brother who was the procuror, Brother Henri, who had written the method, and it was approved in Quebec City by the Department of Education in those days.
“It is Mr. Even that worked, I assure you day and night, to produce those English books, and to print them with the primitive printing machines. This was a tremendous work that asked a lot of him; resistance to work, intelligence to understand the functioning of the machine, and to put that work out on the market...
“We had his old printing shop and an old dormitory where I myself slept while he worked downstairs with a steam engine. All night long we heard the steam engine, we were in the dormitory above; we couldn't sleep. We would complain about Brother Amaury. It was not his fault. We had no other means; we had no electricity, there was no gas engine, he had to go on. He tried to kill the noise by drilling a well and by sending the exhaust into it; the situation was then better.
“I told you he had an extraordinary intelligence, because to be able to make out in his work, he had to learn alone by reading books. Without a teacher, he learned Latin and German. He knew French, he knew English, he learned Latin and German here by working day and night.
“He then went to work at Harpell's. He knew a lot about printing. It was he who did everything here, who set up our printing shop. It has progressed. Then, we got a little more money. We were poor in Louis Even's days; we lived with what we could. He then did a lot for our printing shop.
“He had an extraordinary devotion to the Blessed Virgin. I was very young, 12 years old then, when I began to know him; each time we had a celebration in the community, he would come to recite a beautiful poem to the Blessed Virgin, a poem he had himself written or that he had found in some books. Always about the Blessed Virgin. Always very edifying. At the chapel, it was the same thing; he prayed with us with a great piety.”
Brother Pacome goes on to say:
“Brother Clement could tell you, were he still here, how Louis Even spent his nights, because at that time we were poor. We slept in a dormitory. Brother Clement and Mr. Even slept side by side. They finally got a room and were both placed in the same room. Mr. Even, you know him in his great devotion, in all he undertook, he sought perfection. Many a night, he spent on the ground...”
Here we recognize the ascetic who scourges the flesh to give ascendance to the soul and mind. Today's big eaters will be astonished, and will not understand any of this, they who do not come even to Louis Even's ankle. Those who stand on the lower level do not understand those who are on the upper level. They do not have the same sight. But we who have the Faith know that all the great masters of spirituality taught the practice of these mortifications of the body to give strength to the soul, virility to the mind to make us reach the upper spheres where man begins to see clearly.
Pope John Paul II says that intelligence is the fruit of Faith. This is confirmed in Louis Even, in Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and in the Pope himself.
We continue Brother Pacome's relation on Louis Even: “In his piety as in his work, he wanted to give all he had.”
Another episode of his biography that is worth mentioning concerning the devotion to the Blessed Virgin is that he had worked with Brother Clement and Brother Benjamin at building a grotto to the Blessed Virgin, at Laprairie.
“The statue of the Blessed Virgin that is now in the garden, dates back to 1915. It was not there in those days; it was at the end of the property. Mr. Even, Brother Clement, and Brother Benjamin gathered all of the stones they could find in the surrounding area, and they built a beautiful grotto of Lourdes. They had this statue come from Belgium during the war. The first specimen had been moulded by the Germans. Belgium sent us another one. We received it, and they installed it in the grotto. And Louis Even, in his extraordinary devotion, would take his shoes off completely, in mid-winter, and would walk all the way to the grotto, in knee-deep snow, barefooted. This was his devotion, this was his mortification. He had extraordinary virtues” (Brother Pacome, February 15, 1980).
 Louis Even around 1925 |
Brother Amaury Joseph pronounced his perpetual vows on Augsut 24, 1912, on the feast of Saint Bartholomew, and the birthday of his brother Emile, Brother Bartholomew in religious life, who died at the age of 24 in odor of sanctity. The feast of St. Bartholomew became a great feast in the Even family; Emile and Marie Louise, Louis Even's brother and sister, and three nephews and nieces took this name in religion.
Louis Marie Even consecrated himself solemnly as a slave of love of Jesus through Mary that same year, 1912. For our readers' edification, here are some excerpts of letters that Brother Clement Marie, Louis Even's companion at the printing shop, in the dormitory, and of Marian devotion, wrote in an exchange of letters between 1969 and 1974 (in 1969, Mr. Even was 84, and Brother Clement Marie, 78):
November 8, 1969: “If you knew the pleasure I have from receiving your so very interesting letters! I know that to interest me, you sacrifice precious time; but I know your great heart. I exploited it many a time when you would compose my letters and gave me English lessons. You are nevertheless solid at your age to make so long and tiring journeys. When there is a question of God's glory and of Mary's triumph over the devil, nothing can stop you. And it is thanks to your efforts that the devotion to Mary will be returned to its place in the world...
October 18, 1970: “You at least, you have vocations. And you take the good and true means to obtain vocations: the devotion to Mary... Each time I write I forget to thank you for your charitable gift of the Vers Demain Journal. I receive it regularly... All the articles of this journal interest me as well as the other Brothers. After having read it, I place it at the service of the community. Many thanks once more... I close in wishing you much success and numerous vocations.”
August 30, 1973: “I am profoundly edified by what you tell me in your long and interesting letter. You do not fear death. Of that I am sure, with so many saints who are waiting and praying for you in Heaven. I congratulate you for having been born in such a large and saintly family. To your very selves you make a community of religious Brothers and Sisters. Your charity for the poor and your great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, your great zeal at spreading the recitation of the Rosary, are as many proofs of an eternal beatitude that awaits you in Heaven. Now that I am done with teaching, I recite at least 5 chaplets a day. I get up at 5:15 and I have time to recite a Rosary before the prayers of the community...”
In this relation of Louis Even's life, two characteristics retain our attention: his endless love of work, and his endless devotion to the Immaculate. At the age of 80, during a serious illness that was to be the last according to the doctors, and which kept him in bed during long months, Louis Even did not wish to die for two reasons: “Because I am not going to go and rest in Heaven when so many souls are on the way to hell”, and “I have loved the Blessed Virgin very much during my life, but I have not made Her loved enough by others.” The humility of a saint who has never done enough for the Sovereign Queen, when during the whole 90 years of his life as we have just seen, he knew how to impregnate upon his companions and those under his care his fiery devotion to Mary.
After acquiring this extraordinary formation at home, then at the Brothers' by his mortifications, his prayers (his deafness being his cloister), and also by the different tasks he fulfilled, Louis Marie Even, with this strong soul, a vigilant mind, invulnerable to the corruption of the political world, is ready to undertake in the world the mission for which God has prepared him so well.
He was relieved of his vows by Rome on November 20, 1920, and he left his community on November 24. This was indisputably God's plan.
Oh, one must not make the comparison with all of these Brothers and Sisters and even these Priests, why under the blow of moral degeneracy due to the teaching in our communities, our seminaries of false theology from Hans Kung and his likes, have gotten rid of their cassocks, of their vows, of their mortifications, to enjoy the pleasures of the world.
No, Louis Even was not among these. We understand that on the road of his life, in God's plan, his joining the Brothers was not his final vocation but the preparation to the founding of a great Work to “Build the Kingdom of the Immaculate”.
Is this not what happened to Our Lady also, who after having consecrated Herself at the Temple, had to leave it to accomplish the greatest of missions: that of becoming the Mother of God?
God brings up his saints according to the mission they have to fulfill. He made a warrior out of little Joan of Arc: an astounding mission, but one that served France well.
With Louis Even, He made a super-apostle of justice.
To accomplish his mission, Louis Even had to work with the common folk; this is what he did while at Garden City Press. And he had to carry the burden of a family, his wife and four children, so as to suffer also with this inexpressible misery against which fought almost every family of the country and of the world during the days of the Depression from 1929 to 1939, and from which a large number still suffer today because of a deficient economic system that is both archaic and fraudulent.
From the day when he understood the solution to these grave problems, in his fiery charity that enflamed the whole universe, he set everything in motion for the triumph of the brilliant ideas of Social Credit as pronounced by Major C.H. Douglas of Scotland. These propositions are in total conformity with the social doctrine of the Church and, once applied, would annihilate all the social injustices that are so strongly denounced by our Pope John Paul II and by his predecessors since Leo XIII.
But, in the midst of this corrupt political world that wanted to bribe Louis Even with millions of dollars, he remained the “true lily of the fields” mentioned by Saint Anthony, who keeps all the sweetness of holy life and the perfection of charity.
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