The Missionaries of the Company of Mary is a Roman Catholic missionary community founded by Saint Louis de Montfort in 1705 with the recruitment of his first missionary disciple, Mathurin Rangeard. As early as 1700 Montfort had conceived the idea of founding a society of missionaries. Five months after his ordination, in November 1700, he wrote: "I am continually asking in my prayers for a poor and small company of good priests to preach missions and retreats under the standard and protection of the Blessed Virgin".