Francis was born on August 21, 1567 in the family castle of Sales, Thorens, in the duchy of upper Savoy. He was the firstborn child of Françoise de Sionnaz and Françoise de Boisy. His father was forty-four, and his mother fifteen. There were twelve children born to the family, five of whom died soon after their birth. Francis' studies were lengthy and were accomplished in three stages: college studies at la Roche and Annecy (where his priestly vocation was born); then at the Jesuit college in Paris; and finally at Padua, where in 1591 he obtained his doctorate in civil and canon law. During these years he also studied theology. He was a gifted young man: of brilliant intellect, persevering, purposeful, serene, affable, irresistibly charming, and above all, consumed with the love of God.
He was ordained priest on December 18, 1593. His early years of priesthood in the Calvinistic district of Chablais were largely coloured by extraordinary missionary zeal. He preached with courage, and his method of gentle and patient dialogue and prayer was to prove a determining factor in the return of Thonon and Chablais to the Catholic faith.
On March 24, 1599 he was appointed coadjutor bishop at the age of thirty-one. In 1602, he journeyed to Paris to organise the restoration of Catholic worship in the Gex area, part of his diocese and now reverted to French jurisdiction. Francis accomplished this task in nine months
Francis was ordained bishop on December 8, 1602 and became the good shepherd among his people. He was tireless in visiting his 450 parishes. He organised the further formation of his clergy, proclaiming that learning was the eighth sacrament for a priest. He concerned himself with the reform of monasteries, and the catechesis of the young. He spent hours in the confessional, dialogued with the Calvinists, preached the Advent and Lenten homilies in many cities in Savoy and France, undertook spiritual direction both viva voce and in correspondence, took part in theological discussions, and with his friend Senator Antonio Favre founded the Florimontane Academy. In the midst of this multitude of activities he found time to publish in 1608 his Introduction to the devout Life (Philothea) and in 1616 his Treatise on the Love of God (Theotimus)
At Dijon in 1604 he met the Baroness Jane Frémyot de Chantal, aged thirty-two, and a widow with four children. Between these two saintly people there developed a strong spiritual friendship. In 1607, Francis suggested to her an important project: the founding of a new kind of Order of Contemplative Sisters that would include the care of girls and widows, and be permitted to leave the convent to visit the sick and the poor. The Order was founded on June 6, 1610.
Duke Charles Emanuel I of Savoy sent Francis to Paris to press for the marriage of the hereditary prince Victor Amadeus with Christine of France, the sister of the young King Louis XIII. Francis spent some ten months in the Capital. Despite being assailed by a mess of intrigues he engaged in an intense missionary programme: tireless preaching, meetings with Vincent de Paul, Mother Angelica Arnaud and Richelieu. He also founded a convent of his Visitation nuns, and declined to become the coadjutor of the Cardinal Archbishop.
In 1622, he was obliged to undertake another painful journey: to go to Avignon to the members of the royal family of France, and accompany them via Rodano to Lyons. He was a guest at the Bellecour convent of the Visitation Sisters at Lyons and there met the Reverend Mother Jane de Chantal for the last time. Francis died of a stroke on December 28, 1622. His funeral was solemnised at Annecy on January 24, 1623 and his remains transferred to the Visitation Convent. He was canonised on April 19, 1665 by Alexander VII. Many years later in 1877, Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Church. Such is the resumé of the life of our patron, a life full of extraordinary splendour and benevolence. He was really a good shepeherd, a great missionary, a prolific writer and journalist, a saint of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a Lover of the Compassionate Mother of God.
Francis: A Good Shepherd
In him we find a marvellous fusion of two characteristics that are rarely seen together: astute thought and intense activity, all inspired by a spiritual life of extraordinary distinction. The brief summary of Francis' life above shows clearly what was dominant in his life as pastor, priest and bishop. He died at a relatively young age: 55 years. He had been ordained priest at 26, after long and toilsome years of study at Paris and Padua. There were left to him only 28 years of ministerial activities: five as a priest, four as a missionary in the Chablais, and twenty as Prince-bishop of Geneva.
It should be realised that his service was intense and animated by the fact that he lived in a time fraught with complexities. His apostolic life was closely bound up in the policy of his prince, Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who wished to eliminate the religious dissensions rampant in his Duchy. However, in 1601, the Treaty of Lyons restored a part of the diocese of Annecy (Gex) to France, and this obliged consultation also with the French Government. Francis had to negotiate with political authorities (Henry IV and his courtiers), and religious authorities (the bishops); he also had dealings with some of the spiritual giants of the day (the extraordinary mystic Mme Acarie, Pierre de Bérulle, Vincent de Paul). Twice he was offered the archbishopric of Paris and he refused to accept it with humility.
Besides all this, he was the bishop of Geneva, but exiled in Annecy. He thus found himself at the centre of divergences between Catholics and Protestants, and the controversies raised by the Reformation. He laboured ceaselessly for reconciliation, for the spiritual return to unity of the faith in his episcopal city. The Council of Trent had concluded in 1563, four years before Francis was born, but even by 1600 the Catholic Counter-Reformation had not influenced many of the ambitious and ignorant members of the clergy. The monasteries were still in spiritual decline. Moreover, Francis lived in the age when the fruits of the Renaissance were readily available - that imposing era that made such forceful demands on the bettering and perfecting of forms and structures bequeathed by medieval and feudal times. Francis was a ‘modern’ of his day, and seized on these new aspirations. They were, however, difficult times for Francis to carry out his pastoral duties, and to lead his flock along the path of holiness.
The Gospel call to perfection of love and holiness is one and universal, and equal for everyone. However, in practice, individual vocations vary from each other, and each person must respond to individual talents according to particular ability. There are different reasons for this: the diversity of natural aptitudes, character, education, environment, relationships. Such differences occur because of the greater or lesser degree of generosity with which human liberty reacts. Each individual soul needs to be instructed, encouraged, educated according to personal needs. A pastor of souls is well aware that he cannot expect the same result from everyone, and that some have need of more particular attention.
Francis: A Great Missionary
Already from the year 1534 the city of Geneva had become the bastion of Protestantism, and Calvin had conquered the whole region. The Catholic faith was suppressed with raids, pillaging and massacres; churches were destroyed, worship forbidden, priests exiled or done to death. In Francis' day the Chablais had been gripped in the jaws of Calvinism. Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor, reigned supreme. In obedience to Pope Clement VIII he had three meetings with Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor. Peaceful advances proved uncertain, nay, futile. Catholics in Upper Savoy lived in discouragement and dejection.
Francis arrived in Chablais with few belongings - among them his Breviary, Bellarmine's Catechism for his homilies, a Bible for reference and explanation. The young missionary had to face distrust and inflexibility - he was even threatened with menaces and execution for his audacity. However, in his initial efforts Francis set out to gain the goodwill of the simple and humble folk. His first sermon boasted a congregation of one old lady, to whom he remarked that one single soul was worth a whole diocese.
Then came the moment of God even for the most intractable of his listeners. Whilst his first public discussions had invited head-on clashes, his individual chats on a one-to-one basis were able to overcome distrust and lead to a gradual openness of heart and mind. Even the militant fanatics yielded to Francis’ gentle and persuasive preaching. He instructed them with conviction and they were won over by his teaching - secretly at first, but eventually quite openly. Francis humbly recognised the change, and did not hesitate to write to Clement VIII that when he arrived in the Chablais he had found only 100 Catholics; now only 100 Protestants could be found.
Francis: A Prolific Writer and Journalist
Francis expressed the best of his teaching in three remarkable spiritual books: Introduction to the Devout Life (or Philothea, 1608, definitive edition 1619); Treatise on the Love of God (or Theotimus 1616); and the posthumous Spiritual Conferences. He had no wish to be considered a litterateur. His preaching and writing were the result of inspiration, duty to his episcopal office, and demanded by his pressing and urgent apostolate and pastoral experience.
The Introduction to the Devout Life belongs to the Savoy period of his episcopate. It reveals Francis de Sales as a director of souls, an educator dedicated to the spiritual good of men and women desirous to live an authentic Christian life within the hurly-burly of their mundane tasks. The Treatise on the Love of God is a summation of Francis' convictions and the fruit of his intense episcopal activity (1607-1616). These were years of direct contact with bishops in Savoy, Rome and France, with priests, with devout souls, with parishioners of the city and of the mountains; and six years of spiritual direction given to the Visitation Sisters. In these ten years Francis’ thinking matured and clarified. Writing had become for him a relief from his intense activities, a means of harvesting the fruits of his experience and of communicating them to others. Finally, the Spiritual Conferences (1629), published and edited by Saint Jane de Chantal, consists of the question-and-answer discussions in the fairly frequent meetings Francis had with the Visitation Sisters from 1611 to 1622.
One of Francis' first Masses celebrated in mission territory was in honour of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, it was during this ceremony that a brilliant idea occurred to him. `If my opponents will not lend me their ears, then I must win over their eyes to read what I write.' He then composed the so-called `leaflets', the actual forerunners of modern advertisement placards and propaganda circulars. Francis' pamphlets proved a rapid way of spreading his message - a resumé of the truths of the faith - catechesis in a nutshell. The youngsters he had befriended were overjoyed at being part of the plot, and were his willing couriers. Leaflets were slipped under front doors and were furtively read by the inmates and discussed with animation.
Francis: A Saint after the Sacred Heart of Jesus
For every human being it is the `heart' that matters: and our hearts were made for God. The spiritual teaching of Francis de Sales can be summed up in two remarks found in the Treatise on the love of God: “Man is the perfection of the Universe, the spirit is the perfection of man; love is the perfection of the spirit, and charity is the perfection of love. This is why the love of God is the goal, the perfection and the excellence of the universe.” And again: “If our thoughts contain some reference to God, we immediately sense a certain congenial emotion of the heart, which shows that God is the God of the human heart.”
The heart that loves God loves him totally and always. The heart is the actual person making private and profound choices. If the heart chooses God and lives united to one, love will of necessity permeate one’s whole being and enliven its manifold richness; and all one's practical living will be imbued with the supernatural. In particular, Francis exalted human sensitivity. Left to its own resources it is in danger, but in expressing true love it becomes invaluable. If the totality of human is one’s heart created for God, then the totality of Jesus Christ is his pierced Heart from which issues the blood of our redemption and the living water of life eternal. Remember, the great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was renewed in the Church in a monastery of one of the daughters of St Francis de Sales at Paray-le-Monial, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun.
Francis: A Lover of the Compassionate Mother of God
Francis was inspired by the compassion of Mary. According to Francis, although several loving souls were present at Jesus’ death, it was his gentle Mother who was most deeply transfixed by the sword of sorrow. The sorrow of her Son pierced her own heart because of the intimate union between Jesus and Mary. She was so compassionate that she suffered with him, and that she always longed to die from love of Jesus. “Several loving souls were present at our Lord’s death. Those who knew the most love experienced the deepest sorrow, for them love melted into sorrow, sorrow into love. Passionately fond of their Saviour, they were also in love with his sorrowful passion. But it was his gentle Mother, whose love was greater than all the others, who was most deeply transfixed by the sword of sorrow. The sorrow her Son was experiencing pierced through into his Mother’s heart, so perfect was the intimate union between their two hearts; nothing could pierce one without sorely wounding the other. That Mother’s heart, then, was wounded by love; and not only did she refrain from seeking a cure for it, but she preferred the wound to any cure, lovingly cherishing all the shafts of sorrow she received, shafts leveled at her heart by love” (Cf. Saint Francis de Sales, The Love of God: A Treatise, Tr. Vincent Kerns, Westminister: The Newman Press, 1962, pp. 308-309).