Statue of Our Lady of Pontmain

The word “slavery” is a word that carries solely negative connotations in our time, to the point that it has become a dirty word. Primarily, this association is the result of the Classical Liberal belief that man’s “personal freedom” ought to be exercised in whatever way he may wish, so long as his path does not lead to a harming of others (especially the “underprivileged” or the “oppressed”) becoming accepted as one of the main doctrinal tenets of the post-Christian West. Moreover, there is the historical legacy of slavery in the New World, and the selective re-interpretation of that legacy by Marxist historiography. Yet, the term “slavery” was not always perceived in this way.

In Catholic circles, there is the idea of spiritual slavery to Jesus and to Mary, best expressed by the great St. Louis de Montfort in his work True Devotion to Mary. Though it is worth examining what the Marian Apostle has to say for himself, the statements of Aristotle on the subject in his highly influential book The Politics will help us modern readers to more easily understand what is meant by this concept. Aristotle, despite having lived before Christ, had many insights into the state of man and creation to the point that the Angelic Doctor saw fit to Christianize the philosophy of this pagan. In so doing, St. Thomas purified what was true and removed that which was false, building upon the foundations set down by the man whom Dante simply referred to as “The Philosopher”. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Aristotle was still upheld as one of the great intellectual authorities of Christendom. Thus, it takes no stretch of the imagination to assume that St. Louis studied at least some of his writings while in seminary.

Aristotle held that there were two divisions of slaves: one being termed natural slaves and the other being slaves of convention, meaning persons capable of freedom yet are made slaves by law. In the case of both categories, it is worth noting that the philosopher wishes to speak of the household slave, not the plantation or industrial slave. This, I believe, has some spiritual significance which I will later relate. Of the natural slave, he writes that these are “…anybody who by his nature is not his own man, but another’s, is by his nature a slave…”. Of the slave by convention or law, he writes that these are “…anybody who, being a man, is an article of property, is another’s man…” (10).¹ Furthermore, he states this about the very nature of slavery itself:

An ‘article of property’ is a term that is used in the same sense in which the term ‘part’ is also used. Now a part is not only a part of something other than itself: it also belongs to some other thing [and has no life or being than that of so belonging]. It is the same with an article of property as it is with a part. Accordingly, while the master is merely the master of the slave, and does not belong to him [having a life and being of his own beyond that of a master], the slave is not only the slave of his master; he also belongs entirely to him, [and has no life or being other than that of so belonging].

(10-11)

The slave according to Aristotle, therefore, is one who makes up a part of the household and belongs to their master in the same essential way that the heart belongs to the body. Without the body, the heart will die. Unlike this example, however, the master will survive without the slave. The master, existing without need of the slave, is similar in some respect to the relationship between God and man. God, being eternal and omnipotent, did not need to create man nor redeem the work of His hands; yet He, who “first hath loved us” (1 John 4:19) chose to do so in both cases out of this same immeasurable love.

St. Louis echoes this very definition in his True Devotion to Mary in the second chapter of that excellent book, wherein he relates that:

By slavery a man is entirely dependent on another during his whole life, and must serve his master without claiming any wages or reward, just as one of his beasts, over which he has the right of life and death.

(35)²

The status of slavery, as St. Louis notes, makes a man quite different from a mere servant, who “…does not give all he is…” to his master, from his very mortal life to his earthly possessions (Ibid). The saint also adds a third category to Aristotle’s definition, this being what he terms “slavery of will”. Here is the relevant passage in full, in which further application and adaptation of Aristotle’s thought is enumerated:

There are three sorts of slavery: a slavery of nature, a slavery of constraint and a slavery of will. All creatures are slaves of God in the first sense: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Ps. 23:1); the demons and the damned are slaves in the second sense; the just and the saints in the third. Because by slavery of the will we make choice of God and His service above all things, even though nature did not oblige us to do so, slavery of the will is most glorious to God, who beholds the heart (1 Kg. 16:7), claims the heart (Prov. 23:26), and calls Himself the God of the heart, that is, of the loving will.

(Ibid)

To further grasp these sound and edifying points, it is worth reflecting upon our own lives, and those of our fellow men. We were our born into this world with the stain of Original Sin, and thus entered into this vale of tears as slaves of the Devil, until our Baptism, when we were brought under the domain of Christ, who had purchased us “…at an infinitely dear price, the price of all His Blood” (34). Some have been faithful since that spiritual birthday and have preserved their innocence even into adulthood—thanks be to God for that! Sadly, this is not the experience of even most faithful Catholics, in our age or in the past. Most of us have been called out of the household of grave sin, where like the Prodigal Son we devoured our substance with harlots; despair hemmed in us to the point we wished to consume food meant for the swine. Some of us made the mistake of wandering into forbidden lands, and on account of our pride, did not heed the heavenly warnings given to us to avoid such places. These places may have been physical places, they could have been mental ones or even digital ones. Some of us firmly believed that we could do well without God, whether in principle, in practice, or even both. We excluded Him from our affairs in order to pursue our happiness, to the point of denying His existence, His rights, His laws. We tried to be our own men, “free”, yet became reprobate slaves of evil habits. How wrong were we!

Yet when we sought Him, God took pity on us and pardoned us, and took us into His abode. We were lifted from the slavery of Satan to the slavery of Jesus Christ, which makes all the difference; for He has said “my yoke is sweet and my burden light” (Matthew 11:30). By dedicating ourselves to Mary by becoming “slaves of the will”, we only further this allegiance to Christ and purify it. So numerous are the miracles and favors she has granted to those who serve her that they fill the pages of many spiritual books, chief among these being that wonderful tome, The Glories of Mary, written by St. Alphonsus Ligouri. Despite this, I protest that many more could be written still, for truly she has shown herself a Mother, in things little and great.

With these truths in mind, we ought to dwell in boundless gratitude towards our God, the most just Master there could possibly be—let us remove any thought that slavery to Him through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Immaculate Mother who bore Him involves the kind of squalor and vicious degradation we have come to associate with mere human slavery. Let us become willing slaves to Mary and live out this slavery faithfully. Though the world will accost us by forfeiting ourselves to her, let us be “fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Cor. 4:10). If we persevere, we shall gain all in the end.

1. All quotations from The Politics have been extracted from the edition reprinted in 1973 by Oxford University Press, translated and annotated by Ernest Baker.
2. All quotations from True Devotion to Mary are taken from the 2010 edition produced by TAN Books.