de Montfort Receives the Last Sacraments

After his farewell sermons, de Montfort was obliged to admit the seriousness of his illness. He received the Last Sacraments, expressed the wish to die as he had lived—a slave of Jesus and Mary. Even at this moment he was not granted peace or privacy and the room in which he lay was soon crowded with people begging his blessing. It is typical of him that he cheerfully obliged, even adding a few words of consolation and trying heroically to join them in a song. The effort was too much and he lapsed into unconsciousness. His last words were the names of Jesus and Mary, an expression of his confidence in their power against the forces of evil, and the joyful announcement that he had “finished his course—it is over now, and I shall never sin again.”