WELCOME SITE PLAN LIFE OF LOVE THE WORKS THE LADY E-MAIL	THE OBLATE-PATRIOTS « DIEU PREMIER SERVI » Foundation The Army of Mary and the Family of the Sons and Daughters of Mary give great importance to the development of the spiritual life and to the means to be adopted in order to journey to the celestial homeland promised us.

The devotion to the Triple White – the Eucharist, Mary and the Pope – and love for the Church are the outstanding characteristics of any Knight of Mary who has understood his role in the Church.

Now, the family has another part to play in society, with a view to the terrestrial city: the country. The love of country, for each, will always remain a duty, as an extension of the love for family. To really become Man, Jesus did undergo the experience of having a country that He loved. That men are rooted in a terrestrial country they love prepares them better to live harmoniously with the Church and the structure of the State.

The first goal of the Army of Mary was the personal reform of its members. Then, with the founding of the Family and the Community of the Sons and Daughters of Mary, it was the human family, the basic cell of the Church and of society, which was approached and renewed.

A fourth Work has come to be grafted onto the first three, this one aimed at another important aspect of the human person, patriotism, in its right sense, uniting in one love the Church and the State.

So, in a spirit of personal, family and social reform, in dependence on Mary Mediatrix, it was at the International Center of the Army of Mary that the Oblate-Patriots were founded, August 15, 1986, the feast of the Assumption of Mary.

Gathered before the statue representing Mary Mediatrix, the first fifteen members promised to engage in their temporal, patriotic and spiritual activities in helping others, at the same time, to be open to supernatural goals, the better to perceive the fundamental demands of social justice.

Joan of Arc at the stake

Motto “Dieu premier servi” [“God the first served”]. Is this not a reminder of the motto of Saint Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, who had the king, Charles VII, consecrated at Reims whither she had borne his standard? Joan of Arc, the personification of the patriotism of the people of France, has remained the purest glory of France’s history. She was recognized for her courage in the face of death, which caused even the English to say, “We have burned a saint.” “God the first served”: there you have the password which was proposed, unwittingly, from the founding of the Army of Mary, recommending to the members, the giving of all to God, all their being, all their goods, spiritual and material.

May Mary Mediatrix, Patroness of the Oblate-Patriots, help them to truly live their motto: “God the first served”, so that in the evening of their life, in the joy of a fulfilled duty, they may say once again: “All for the glory of God and country.”

The Emblem of the Oblate-Patriots
The emblem of the Oblate-Patriots reflects both the spiritual and patriotic characteristics of this Work: the terrestrial globe topped by a cross, gold color, standing out on the white of a lily.

The terrestrial globe and the cross remind us of the apparition of Mary to Catherine Labouré. In her two hands, the Immaculate was carrying the globe topped by the cross, and she was offering it to the Father – a grace given in 1830 in the chapel of the Rue du Bac, in Paris.

The lily, already appearing on the flag of the Province of Quebec also appears on the royal French flag, that of France, our ancestor and Eldest Daughter of the Church.

The Choir Habit At solemn ceremonies of the Oblate-Patriots, the members of this Work don the black and white mantle adorned with the emblem: a terrestrial globe, a cross and a lily, fastened to the left shoulder, reminding them that everywhere they go they will have to bear witness to their love for their country, in the respect and in the interest of their nation, bearing in mind that the highest ideals stand at the level of the Church. They will thus be in the service of these two Causes so that the widening of the horizon of their devotedness will mean also greater brotherliness. Such will be the glory of the Oblate-Patriots en route towards the Kingdom.

April 27, 1991, Montmagny – Entrance procession of the Knights carrying their scepter.

The Mission of the Oblate-Patriots

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