First Montfortian Spiritual Weekend in Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - At the edge of northern Europe, a group of Montfortian missionaries quietly carved a place in history. Their journey began in 1901, led by faith, endurance, and a willingness to serve.

The Montfortian mission to Denmark was marked by humble faithfulness, quiet service, and deep local impact. Catholic communities continue to pray, their legacy lives on in the hearts of the people they served, and in the soil of the cemetery of Roskilde where many now rest far from the country where they were born, but forever at home in the land they made their mission.

And today, Fr. Josip MAGDIĆ, SMM and Fr. Marco PASINATO, SMM has returned to Denmark, for Montfortian Spiritual Weekends. Their goal? To revive the spiritual animation rooted in the teachings of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort. The first weekend took place the first weekend of May 2025.

It was the same bishop Mons. Czeslaw KOZON, the only ordinary in Denmark, who blessed this initiative, born from his request for the return of the Montfortians to Denmark. In fact, on Friday, May 2, the two missionaries were welcomed and hosted by the Bishop, with whom they concelebrated the Eucharist presided over by the Nuncio Mgr. Julio MURAT in the cathedral in suffrage of the late Pope Francis.

The following day, Saturday, May 3, the first of two days of Montfortian spirituality entitled “Towards Christ, our hope through Mary” took place in the church of St. Anthony in Copenhagen, with the participation of 15 people, of 8 different nationalities. The following day the missionaries moved to Slagesle, welcomed by the Polish parish priest Michael BIENKOWSKI in what for many years was a parish run by the Dutch Montfortians and in whose church stands the reproduction of the “Queen of Hearts” of Via Romagna in Rome. Also, on this second day, Sunday, May 4, the same program with preaching, adoration, meditative rosary and renewal of baptismal promises with the Montfort method. Finally, on Monday, May 5, hosted by Fr. Stephen HOLM, a Danish priest who has been involved for years in assisting the association “Mary Queen of all Hearts”, the Feast of Montfort and Marie-Louise of Jesus was celebrated with the Montfort associates. The participants of this weekend have committed to spreading the initiative that will be repeated the first week of October.

For the record, the next day Fr. Josip went to Scandinavia to preach in a parish in Malmö to a group who had met him in Czestochowa.