Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor
Saint Francis de Sales was born in 1567
near Annecy, of noble and pious parents, and studied with brilliant
success at Paris and Padua. On his return from Italy he gave up the
grand career which his father had destined for him in the service of
the state, and became a priest.
When the duke of Savoy resolved to
restore the shattered Church in the Chablais, Francis offered himself
for the work and set out on foot with his Bible and breviary,
accompanied by one companion, his cousin Louis of Sales. It was a
work of toil, privation and danger. Every door and every heart was
closed against him. He was rejected with insult and threatened with
death, but nothing could daunt him or resist him indefinitely. And
before long the Church blossomed into a second spring. It is said
that he converted 72,000 Calvinists.
He was compelled by the Pope to become
Coadjutor Bishop of Geneva, and succeeded to that see in 1602. Saint
Vincent de Paul said of him, in praise of his gentleness, How good
God must be, since the bishop of Geneva, His minister, is so good! At
times the great meekness with which he received heretics and sinners
almost scandalized his friends, and they protested when he received
insults in silence. One of them said to him, Francis of Sales will go
to Paradise, of course; but I am not so sure about the Bishop of
Geneva: I am almost afraid his gentleness will play him a shrewd
turn! Ah, said the Saint, you would have me lose in one instant all
the meekness I have been able to acquire by twenty years of efforts?
I would rather account to God for too great gentleness than for too
great severity. God the Father is the Father of mercy; God the Son is
a Lamb; God the Holy Ghost is a Dove; are you wiser than God? When a
hostile visitor said to him one day, If I were to strike you on the
cheek, what would you do? Saint Francis answered, with his customary
humility, Ah! I know what I should do, but I cannot be sure of what I
would do.
With Saint Jane Frances of Chantal,
Saint Francis founded at Annecy the Order of the Visitation nuns,
which soon spread over Europe. Though poor, he refused provisions and
dignities, and even the great see of Paris. He died at Avignon in
1622.
Little Pictorial Lives of
the Saints, a compilation based on Butler's Lives of the
Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers:
New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by
Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 2Sermon: Saint Francis de Sales - The Saint of Meekness
Encyclical of Pope Pius XI: Rerum omnium perturbationem - on Saint Francis de Sales
Rerum omnium perturbationem
