Saint Francis de Sales

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B.

January 29

Saint Francis de Sales

Bishop and Doctor of the Church

The angelical Bishop Francis of Sales has a right to a distinguished position near the Crib of Jesus, on account of the sweetness of his virtues, the childlike simplicity of his heart, and the humility and tenderness of his love. He comes with the lustre of his glorious conquests upon him seventy-two thousand heretics converted to the Church by the ardour of his charity; an Order of holy servants of God, which he founded; and countless thousands of souls trained to piety by his prudent and persuasive words and writings.

God gave him to his Church at the very time that heresy was holding her out to the world as a wornout system, that had no influence over men’s minds. He raised up this true minister of the Gospel in the very country where the harsh doctrines of Calvin were most in vogue, that the ardent charity of Francis might counteract the sad influence of that heresy. If you want heretics to be convinced of their errors, said the learned Cardinal Du Perron, you may send them to me; but if you want them to be converted, send them to the Bishop of Geneva.

Francis of Sales was sent, then, as a living image of Jesus, opening his arms and calling sinners to repentance, the victims of heresy to truth, the just to perfection, and all men to confidence and love. The Holy Spirit had rested on him with all his divine power and sweetness. A few days back, we were meditating on the Baptism of Jesus, and how the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the shape of a dove. There is an incident in the life of Francis, which reminds us of this great Mystery. He was singing Mass on Whit Sunday, at Annecy. A dove, which had been let into the Cathedral, after flying for a long time round the building, at length came into the sanctuary, and rested on the Saint’s head. The people could not but be impressed with this circumstance, which they looked on as an appropriate symbol of Francis’ loving spirit; just as the globe of fire, which appeared above the head of St. Martin, when he was offering up the Holy Sacrifice, was interpreted as a sign of his apostolic zeal .

The same thing happened to our Saint, on another occasion. It was the Feast of our Lady’s Nativity, and Francis was officiating at Vespers, in the Collegiate Church, at Annecy. He was seated on a Throne, the carving of which represented the Tree of Jesse, which the Prophet Isaias tells us produced the virginal Branch, whence sprang the divine Flower, on which there rested the Spirit of love. They were singing the Psalms of the Feast, when a Dove flew into the Church, through an aperture in one of the windows of the Choir, on the epistle side of the Altar. It flew about for some moments, and then lighted first on the Bishop’s shoulder, then on his knee, where it was caught by one of the assistants. When the Vespers were over, the Saint mounted the pulpit, and ingeniously turned the incident that had occurred into an illustration which he hoped would distract the people from himself—he spoke to them of Mary, who, being full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, is called the Dove that is all fair, in whom there is no blemish. (Cant. 6:8; 4:7)

If we were asked, which of the Disciples of our Lord was the model on which this admirable Prelate formed his character, we should mention, without any hesitation, the Beloved Disciple, John. Francis of Sales is, like him, the Apostle of charity; and the simplicity of the great Evangelist caressing an innocent bird, is reflected with perfection in the heart of the Bishop of Geneva. A mere look from John, a single word of his, used to draw men to the love of Jesus; and the contemporaries of Francis were wont to say: If the Bishop of Geneva is so amiable, what, O Lord, must not thou be!

A circumstance in our Saint’s last illness again suggests to us the relation between himself and the Beloved Disciple. It was on the 27th of December, the Feast of St. John, that Francis, after celebrating Mass, and giving Communion to his dear Daughters of the Visitation, felt the first approach of the sickness which was to cause his death. As soon as it was known, the consternation was general—but the Saint has already his whole conversation in heaven, and on the following day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, his soul took its flight to its Creator, and the candour and simplicity of his spirit made him a worthy companion of those dear little ones of Bethlehem.

But on neither of these two days could the Church place his Feast, as they were already devoted to the memory of St. John and the Holy Innocents; but she has ordered it to be kept during the forty days consecrated to the Birth of our Lord, and this 29th of January is the day fixed for it.

St. Francis, then, the ardent lover of our new-born King, is to aid us, like all these other Christmas Saints, to know the charms of the Divine Babe. In his admirable Letters, we find him expressing, with all the freedom of friendly correspondence, the sweetness which used to fill his heart during this holy Season. Let us read a few passages from these confidential papers—they will teach us how to love our Jesus.

Towards the end of the Advent of 1619, he wrote to a Religious of the Visitation, instructing her how to prepare for Christmas.

My very dear Daughter, our sweet Infant Jesus is soon to be born in our remembrance, at the coming Feasts; and since he is born on purpose that he may visit us in the name of his Eternal Father, and is to be visited in his Crib by the Shepherds and the Kings, I look on him as both the Father and the Child of our Lady of the Visitation.

I beg of you to remember me affectionately to the dear Sisters, whom I look upon as simple shepherdesses keeping watch over their flocks, that is, their affections, and who, being warned by the Angel, are going to pay their homage to the Divine Babe, and offer him, as an earnest of their eternal loyalty, the fairest of their lambs, which is their love, unreserved and undivided.

On Christmas Eve, filled by anticipation with the joy of the sacred Night which is to give the world its Redeemer, Francis writes to St. Jane Frances de Chantal, and thus invites her to profit by the visit of the Divine Infant.

May the sweet Infant of Bethlehem ever be your happiness and your love, my very dear Mother. Oh I the loveliness of this Little Child! I imagine I see Solomon on his ivory throne, all beautifully gilded and carved, which, as the Scripture tells us, had no equal in all the kingdoms of the earth, neither was there any king that could be compared, for glory and magnificence, with the king that sat upon it. And yet, I would a hundred times rather see the dear Jesus in his Crib, than all the kings of the world on their thrones.

I beseech you to keep close to this Divine Babe, and rest near him as lovingly as you can—he will love you in return, even should your heart feel no tenderness or devotion. What sense had the poor ox and the ass ?—and yet he refuses not to let them breathe warmly upon him. And think you he will refuse the aspirations of our poor hearts, which, though just at present they feel no devotion, yet are sincerely and loyally his, and are ever offering themselves to be the faithful servants of his own divine self, and of his Holy Mother, and of his dear protector Joseph!

The sacred night is over, and has brought Peace to men of good will:—Francis again writes to the same Saint, and thus betrays to her the joy he has received from the contemplation of the great Mystery.

Oh! the sweetness of this Night! The Church has been singing these words—honey has dropped from the heavens. I thought to myself, that the Angels, not only come down on our earth to sing their admirable Gloria in excelsis, but to gaze also on this sweet Babe, this Honey of heaven resting on two beautiful Lilies, for sometimes he is in Mary’s arms, and sometimes it is Joseph that caresses him.

Returning home from celebrating these sacred mysteries, I rest awhile in thus sending you my Happy Christmas! for I dare say that the poor Shepherds took some little rest, after they had adored the Babe announced to them by the Angels. And as I thought of their sleep on that night, I said to myself: How sweetly must they not have slept, dreaming of the sacred melody wherewith the Angels told them the glad tidings, and of the dear Child and the Mother they had been to see!

We will close our quotations by the following passage of another of his Letters, to St. Jane Frances de Chantal, in which he speaks of the Most Holy Name of “Jesus” which the Divine Child of Mary received at his Circumcision.

O my Jesus! fill our hearts with the sacred balm of thy Holy Name, that so the sweetness of its fragrance may penetrate our senses, and perfume our every action. But, that our hearts may be capable of receiving this sweetness, they must be circumcised:—take, therefore, from them whatever could displease thy divine sight. O glorious Name I named by the heavenly Father from all eternity, be thou for ever written on our souls; that, as thou, Jesus, art our Saviour, so may our souls be eternally saved. And thou, O Holy Virgin I that wast the first among mortals to pronounce this saving Name, teach us to pronounce it as it behoveth us, that so we may merit the Salvation which thou didst bring into this world!

As long as balm is shut up in a well-sealed vase, no one knows its sweetness, save him who put it there: but, as soon as the vase is opened, and a few drops are sprinkled around, all who are present say: What sweet Balm! Thus it was, my dear Daughter, with our Jesus. He contained within himself the balm of salvation; but no one knew it until his divine Flesh was laid open by the fortunate wound of that cruel knife—and then people knew him to be the Balm of the world’s Salvation, and first Joseph and Mary, then the whole neighbourhood, began to cry out: Jesus! which means Saviour.

Let us now turn to the Office of the Church for this Feast, and read the life of our Saint.

Francis was born of godly and noble parents, in the town of Sales, from which his family take their name of de Sales, (upon the 21st day of August, in the year of our Lord 1567.) In his childish years his staid and godly demeanour gave promise of his future sanctity. He received a liberal education as he grew up, and afterwards studied Philosophy and Theology at Paris. In order to the complete furnishing of his mind, he took the degree of Doctor of Laws, both Civil and Ecclesiastical, at Padua, with much distinction. He visited the sanctuary of Loreto, where he renewed the vow, he had already taken in Paris, of perpetual virginity, in which holy resolution he continued till death, in spite of all the temptations of the devil, and all the allurements of the flesh.

After the death of Bishop Granier, who had procured his appointment as Coadjutor, he was consecrated Bishop, upon the 3rd day of December, 1602. In that office he was truly a burning and a shining light, showing all around a bright example of godliness, zeal for the discipline of the Church, ardent love of peace, tenderness to the poor, and, indeed, of all graces. For the greater ornament of God’s worship he established a new Order of Nuns, which is named from the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. These nuns follow the Rule of St Austin, but Francis added thereto several additional constitutions distinguished by wisdom, prudence, and tenderness. He enlightened the Church by writings full of heavenly teaching, and pointing out a safe and simple road to Christian perfection. In the 55th year of his age, while on his way from France to Annecy, after saying mass at Lyons on the Feast of St John the Evangelist, he was seized with fatal illness, and on the next day passed from earth to heaven, in the year of our Lord 1622. His body was carried to Annecy and honourably buried in the Church of the nuns of the Visitation, where it soon began to be distinguished for miracles. The truth of these having been proved, the Supreme Pontiff, Alexander VII, enrolled his name among those of the Saints, and appointed for his Feast-day the 29th of January. And the Supreme Pontiff, Pius IX, on the advice of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church.

COLLECT

Peaceful conqueror of souls! Pontiff beloved of God and man! we venerate thee as the perfect imitator of the sweetness and gentleness of our Jesus. Having learnt of him to be meek and humble of heart, thou didst, according to his promise, possess the land. (Matt. 5:4 Nothing could resist thee. Heretics, however obstinate; sinners, however hardened; tepid souls, however sluggish ;—all yielded to the powerful charm of thy word and example. We love to see thee standing near the Crib of our loving Jesus, and sharing in the glory of John and the Innocents, for thou wast an Apostle like John, and simple like the children of Rachel. Oh! that our hearts might be filled with the spirit of Bethlehem, and learn how sweet is the yoke, and how light the burden of our Emmanuel! (Matt. 11:30)

Pray for us to our Lord, that our charity may be ardent like thine; that the desire of perfection may be ever active within us; that we may gain that introduction to a devout Life which thou hast so admirably taught; that we may have that love of our neighbour, without which we cannot hope to love God; that we may be zealous for the salvation of souls; that we may be patient and forgive injuries, in order that we may love one another, not only in word and in tongue, but, as thy great model says, in deed and in truth. (I Jn 3:18) Bless the Church Militant, whose love for thee is as fresh as though thou hadst but just now left her; thou art venerated and loved throughout the whole world.

Hasten the conversion of the followers of Calvin. Thy prayers have already miraculously forwarded the great work, and the Holy Sacrifice has, long since, been publicly offered up in the very City of Geneva. Redouble those prayers, and then, even we may live to see the grand triumph of the Church. Root out too, the last remnants of that Jansenistic heresy, which was beginning to exercise its baneful influence at the close of thy earthly pilgrimage. Remove from us the dangerous maxims and prejudices, which have come down to us from those unhappy times, when this odious sect was at the height of its power.

Bless with all the affection of thy paternal heart the holy Order thou didst found, and which thou didst offer to Mary under the title of her Visitation. Maintain it in its present edifying fervour; give it increase in number and merit; and do thou thyself direct it, that so thy family may be ever animated by the spirit of its father.—Pray, also, for the venerable Episcopate, of which thou art the ornament and model: ask our Lord to bless his Church with Pastors endowed with thy spirit, inflamed with thy zeal, and imitators of thy sanctity.