Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Francis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva, a Doctor of the Church, and a master of the spiritual life. Together with Saint Jane Frances de Chantal he founded the Order of the Visitation. He taught that the way to holiness is open to everyone. He was born in 1567 in Savoy and died in 1622 in Lyon. The Church commemorates him on January 24.

He was born on August 21, 1567, at the Château de Sales near Thorens, into an old noble family. He studied in Annecy and then with the Jesuits in Paris. There, pondering the doctrine of predestination, he began to doubt his own salvation and for several weeks could hardly eat or sleep. He found peace again while praying in the church of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, when he resolved to love God whatever might await him. Afterward, in keeping with his father’s wishes, he studied law in Padua and earned a doctorate in both civil and canon law.

His father saw him as a lawyer, but Francis chose the priesthood. He was ordained on December 18, 1593, and in September of the following year he took on a mission in the Chablais, a region where Calvinism prevailed. Since hardly anyone would listen to his sermons, he set out the truths of the faith on sheets of paper that he posted up and slipped under the doors of houses. He relied on personal conversation and gentleness; in time the hostility faded, and many of the inhabitants returned to the Catholic Church.

In 1599 he became coadjutor to the Bishop of Geneva, and on December 8, 1602, he was ordained bishop. Geneva was then a stronghold of Calvinism, so the bishop resided in Annecy. He visited the parishes of his poor mountain diocese, preached, taught the catechism, and carried on a vast correspondence with people who sought his advice.

In 1604 in Dijon he met Jane Frances de Chantal, a widow who placed herself under his direction. In 1610 they founded in Annecy the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. Out of the advice he gave to Madame de Charmoisy grew the “Introduction to the Devout Life,” also known as “Philothea”: in it Francis argues that devotion is possible in marriage, at court, and in the workshop. In 1616 he published the “Treatise on the Love of God,” the source of the words: “God is God of the human heart.”

At the end of 1622, though in poor health, he set out at the request of the Duke of Savoy for Avignon to meet King Louis XIII. On the way back he stopped in Lyon, in the gardener’s lodge at the monastery of the Visitation. There he died on December 28, 1622, at the age of 55. His body was laid to rest in Annecy on January 24, 1623; hence the day of his memorial.

Alexander VII beatified him in 1662 and canonized him on April 19, 1665. In 1877 Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Church, and in 1923 Pius XI named him patron of Catholic writers and journalists. Saint John Bosco named his oratory, and later the congregation of the Salesians, after him. On the four hundredth anniversary of his death, Pope Francis issued the apostolic letter “Totum amoris est,” that is, “Everything pertains to love.”