Louise Stacpoole-Kenny - St. Francis De Sales: A Biography of the Gentle Saint

St. Francis De Sales

A Biography of the Gentle Saint

Louise M. Stacpoole-Kenny

Originally published by R. & T. Washbourne, Ltd., London, and Benziger Bros., New York, in 1909, as Francis de Sales: A Study of the Gentle Saint .

Reprinted in 2002 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc. Footnotes added by the Publisher, 2002.

ISBN 0-89555-709-6

Library of Congress Control No.: 2001-132397

Cover illustration: From a painting by an unknown 17th-century artist. Turin.

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

2002

Vive Jesus!

St. Francis de Sales
1567-1622
Doctor of the Church

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

IT has been said that St. Francis de Sales has no enemies. The author of this delightful little biography calls him "the Gentle Saint"; he is also commonly known as "the Gentleman Saint."

But St. Francis de Sales had brains as well as heart, and one must not allow his winning personality to obscure the fact that he was very intelligent and in fact one of the greatest men of his day. At the university he simultaneously pursued degrees in law and in theology. He was examined in both fields, yet the examiners declared they had never before met anyone so well prepared. St. Francis de Sales is in fact one of only thirty-three Doctors of the Church during nearly 2000 years.

St. Francis' reconversion of the Calvinists of the Chablais region of France is one of the great missionary stories in the history of the Church. Figures vary, but they reach as high as 72,000 Calvinists converted back to the True Faith in just 4 yearsalmost the entire Chablais. Yet these people and their leaders had previously been notably hostile to Catholicism, and St. Francis had been given no resources to work with, not even a roof over his head.

In addition, the Saint co-founded one of the great religious orders in the Churchthe nuns of the Visitationand he wrote a book that has become one of the three or four most popular Catholic classics: An Introduction to the Devout Life . One Pope expressed the hope that that volume might be read "by all." St. Francis' Treatise on the Love of God is also a spiritual classic and is built on the firm foundations of scholastic theology. Plus, The Catholic Controversy reveals on every page the author's great command of Church history, theology and biblical prophecy.

Perhaps the best assessment of our Saint comes from another Saint, his contemporary: St. Vincent de Paul stated that St. Francis de Sales was the best Christian he had ever met. This comes from a fellow Frenchman who was himself dubbed "the Father of his Country" because of his great accomplishments for war-torn 17th-century France. St. Vincent even stated that at one low point of serious illness in his own life, his most comforting thought was of how clearly God's infinite goodness was reflected in the Bishop of Geneva, St. Francis de Sales. "For if a man can be so good," he said to himself, "how good You must be, O my loving Creator, how sweet and how gracious!" It is the story of this good man that the present little volume sets out to tell.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

IN WILD SAVOY

O N Thursday, August 21, 1567, between nine and ten in the evening, Francis de Sales was born in the old Chteau de Sales, in a tiny room called "la chambre de St. Franois d'Assisi," on account of a picture of the seraphic Father that hung over a small altar.

Seven years previously his father, Franois, Seigneur de Nouvelles, had married the young daughter of Melchior de Sionnay, Seigneur de la Vallire, de la Thuile, and de Boisy. She was heiress to all these vast possessions; consequently, on her marriage she was given the broad lands of Boisy, her husband taking the title with the estate, so they were generally known as Monsieur and Madame de Boisy.

On a glorious afternoon in August I visited the old chteau; but, indeed, only the room in which our Saint was born remainsit is now a small chapel. Such a tiny room! I thought of that other birth-chamber far away in the town on the Avon, in leafy Warwickshire, where the greatest of poets and dramatists first saw the lighthe who was and is the poet of all time, and in whose marvellous plays all sorts and conditions of men can find that which best they love. Even so is Francis, the Saint of all time. Just as much can we, the children of this hurrying twentieth century, find balm and consolation in his writings as, in the sixteenth, did those zealous, ardent men and women to whom his wonderful letters were addressed, for whose instruction he penned the "Devout Life" and the "Love of God."

The brilliant August sunshine flooded the little chapel, as I pictured to myself, that day, centuries ago, when Francis de Sales, an infant only a few hours old, received the holy water of Baptism. The day was probably just as radiantly fine, and certainly the high mountains of Savoy looked as beautiful, and the trees as fresh and green as when M. de Boisy, with his first-born son in his arms, looked out through the narrow casement, and carried his precious burden carefully wrapped up down the long road to the little parish church of Thorens.

His sponsors were his grandmother, Mme. de la Flchereshe having, on the death of Mme. de Boisy's father, married againand her brother-in-law, Dom Francis de la Flchere, Prior of the Benedictine Monastery of Saligny.

The child received the name of Francis Bonaventure, but he was always called Francisnot only because it was his father's name, but in honour of his great patron and favourite Saint, the gentle seraph of Assisi.

Then, the ceremony over, how joyous is the home-coming! The newly - baptized baby is placed in his young mother's arms; she, in her pride and gladness, feels a strange, overmastering presentiment that her boy will one day be a Prince of the Church, a Saint, holy and learned beyond compare:

"And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Most High. To give knowledge of salvation to His people unto the remission of their sins. To enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. To direct our feet unto the way of peace."

Certainly "the child grew and was strengthened in spirit." Many writers tell us little anecdotes of his childhood and early youth, illustrating his gentleness and docility, his love of prayer and solitude, the rapidity with which he learned the Catechism, taught him by his devoted mother and the good M. Dage, a holy clergyman who, when he was quite a small boy, became his adviser and tutor, a position he retained until Francis had himself become a priest.

Yet we are rather pleased to learn that he was not quite angelicthere were little faults, little vanities, even a love of goodies. He would not have been a lovable, human boy if at so early an age he had not occasionally got into mischief; and, above all things, at all times he was decidedly human. There is a distinctly interesting story about a stolen visit to the kitchen and the devouring of hot cakes. They were scaldingly hot and burned his fingers horribly, but he grasped them firmly, and ate them all up with great relish. Afterwards he honestly confessed his disobedience, for he had been strictly forbidden to go into the cook's department.

At seven years of age he was sent to the College of La Roche, and two years later, M. de Boisy having, for political reasons, to leave the Chteau de Sales and go to reside at the Chteau de Brens in the Chablais, Francis was placed at the college at Annecy, the faithful M. Dage in attendance.