Causes for Canonisation

Asking Heaven for a Miracle through Frank Duff

Our praesidium has taken up the duty of praying for miracles through the intercession of the Legion’s founder — and Heaven answered before we had even asked publicly.

Queen of Peace Praesidium · · Feast of the Assumption

Following a report given in Episode 3 of our podcast, we decided as a praesidium to take seriously a duty we had long left to others: to pray, and to ask God for miracles through the intercession of the Legion heroes who made such a mark on the world — so that their causes may advance towards canonisation, and legionaries may one day be declared saints by the Church.

The first we named was the Servant of God Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary. It was agreed by all our members at a praesidium meeting a fortnight ago, and we resolved to put the proposal publicly to our social media and to this website, so that many more people might join us in asking God for miracles through his intercession.

Colour portrait of the Servant of God Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary
The Servant of God Frank Duff (1889–1980), who founded the Legion of Mary in Dublin on 7 September 1921.

A day later, an answer

A day after that meeting, I was contacted by a lady in County Mayo. She told us she had been in touch with someone who used to cut Frank Duff’s hair, and that she has made it her apostolate to send his hair — kept on the shirt he was wearing — to people throughout Ireland and abroad.

She had no way of knowing what we had agreed in our meeting the day before. That is why this reached us with such force: not as a coincidence, but as an answer from Heaven, and an invitation to spread devotion to Frank Duff’s holiness more widely than we had planned on our own.

A laminated holy card of the Servant of God Frank Duff, inscribed by hand ‘Relic of Frank Duff’s hair on his shirt’
The card as it arrived, inscribed by hand: “Frank Duff’s hair on his shirt.”
Close detail of the fine strands of hair laid on the shirt in the photograph on the card
The strands themselves, laid on the shirt in the photograph.

A word of clarity

No object of this kind may properly be called a relic until the Church has formally recognised a canonisation and declared the person a saint. Until that day comes, it remains an object of private devotion — nothing more, and nothing less. We say this plainly so that nobody is misled, and so that our prayer stays where it belongs: with God, who alone works the miracle.

Three things we ask of you

  1. Share this appeal. Pass it on to the legionaries and friends you know, and share our post on Instagram or Facebook, so that it reaches more people.
  2. Take Frank Duff as your intercessor. Bring him the petition you are carrying, ask Heaven for a miracle through his aid, and say the prayer for his canonisation below.
  3. Tell us if a favour is granted. If you receive a miracle — a supernatural intervention that cannot be explained by natural causes — please contact us and send what evidence you have, so that it can be put before the Church in support of his cause.

Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Frank Duff

God our Father, you inspired your servant Frank Duff with a profound insight into the mystery of your Church, the Body of Christ, and of the place of Mary the Mother of Jesus in this mystery.

In his immense desire to share this insight with others and in filial dependence on Mary he formed her Legion to be a sign of her maternal love for the world and a means of enlisting all her children in the Church’s evangelising work.

We thank you Father for the graces conferred on him and for the benefits accruing to the Church from his courageous and shining faith.

With confidence we beg you that through his intercession you grant the petition we lay before you…

We ask too that if it be in accordance with your will, the holiness of his life may be acknowledged by the Church for the glory of your Name,

through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

With ecclesiastical approval

The printed prayer card for the beatification of the Servant of God Frank Duff, held in the hand
The prayer card that came with it — the same prayer, carried in the pocket and said each day.

Where favours should be reported

Alongside letting us know, any favour attributed to the intercession of Frank Duff should also be reported to the Legion’s headquarters in Dublin, which gathers them for his cause:

Favours attributed to the intercession of Frank Duff should be reported to:

Legion of Mary
De Montfort House
Morning Star Avenue
Brunswick Street
Dublin 7, Ireland
An open leaflet telling the life of Frank Duff, from his birth in Dublin in 1889 to the opening of his cause in 1996
The life in brief: born in Dublin in 1889, founder of the Legion in 1921, a lay observer at the Second Vatican Council in 1965, died on 7 November 1980, his cause opened by Archbishop Desmond Connell in July 1996.

If you would like to know him better before you pray, his life is told on our page for his cause, and his own writing is gathered in the Frank Duff essays. Edel Quinn and Alfie Lambe, whose causes we will also take up, are on the Causes for Beatification page.

God bless you, and Hail Mary Immaculate!

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