ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL : FOUNDRESS
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Born at Dijon, France, 28 January, 1572; died at
the Visitation Convent Moulins, 13 December, 1641.
Her father was president of the Parliament of
Burgundy, and leader of the royalist party during the League that brought
about the triumph of the cause of Henry IV. In 1592 she married Baron de
Chantal, and lived in the feudal castle of Bourbilly. She restored order in
the household, which was on the brink of ruin, and brought back prosperity.
During her husband's absence at the court, or with the army, when reproached
for her extremely sober manner of dressing, her reply was: "The eyes
which I must please are a hundred miles from here". She found more than
once that God blessed with miracles the care she gave the suffering members
of Christ. St. Francis de Sales' eulogy of her characterizes her life at
Bourbilly and everywhere else: "In Madame de Chantal I have found the
perfect woman, whom Solomon had difficulty in finding in Jerusalem".
Baron de Chantal was accidently killed by a harquebus while out shooting in
1601. Left a widow at twenty-eight, with four children, the broken-hearted
baroness took a vow of chastity. In all her prayers she besought God to send
her a guide and God, in a vision, showed her the spiritual director He held
in reserve for her. In order to safeguard her children's property, she was
obliged to go and live at Monthelon in the home of her father-in-law, who was
ruled over by an arrogant and wicked servant. This was real servitude, which
she bore patiently and gently for seven years. At last her virtue triumphed
over the ill will of the old man and house keeper.
During Lent, 1604, she visited her father at
Dijon, where St. Francis de Sales was preaching at the Sainte Chapelle. She
recognized in him the mysterious director who had been shown her, and placed
herself under his guidance. Then began an admirable correspondence between
the two saints. Unfortunately, the greater number of letters are no longer in
existence, as she destroyed them after the death of the holy bishop. When she
had assured the future security of children, and when she had provided the
education of Celse-Benigne, her fourteen year old son, whom she left to her
father and her brother, the Archbishop of Bourges, she started for Annecy,
where God was calling her to found the Congregation of the Visitation. She
took her two remaining daughters with her, the elder having recently married
the Baron of Thorens, a brother of St. Francis de Sales. Celse-Benigne,
impetous like those of her race, barred his mother's way by lying across the
threshold. Mme de Chantal stopped, overcome: " Can the tears of a child
shake her resolution? " said a holy and learned priest, the tutor of
Celse-Benigne. "Oh! no", replied the saint, "but after all I
am a mother!" And she stepped over child's body.
The Congregation of the Visitation was
canonically established at Annecy on Trinity Sunday, 6 June, 1610. Its aim
was to receive, with a view to their spiritual advancement, young girls and
even widows who had not the desire or strength to subject themselves to the
austere ascetical practices in force in all the religious orders at that
time. St. Francis de Sales was especially desirous of seeing the realization
of his cherished method of attaining perfection, which consisted in always
keeping one's will united to the Divine will, in taking so to speak one's
soul, heart, and longings into one's hands and giving them into God's
keeping, and in seeking always to do what is pleasing to Him. "I do
always the things that please him" (John, viii, 29). The two holy
founders saw their undertaking prosper. At the time of the death of St.
Francis de Sales in 1622, the order already counted thirteen houses; there
were eighty-six when St. Jane Frances died; and 164 when she was canonized.
The remainder of the saint's life was spent under
the protection of the cloister in the practice of the most admirable virtues.
If a gentle kindness, vivified and strengthened by a complete spirit of
renunciation, predominates in St. Francis de Sales, it is firmness and great
vigour which prevails in St. Jane Frances; she did not like to see her
daughters giving way to human weakness. Her trials were continuous and borne
bravely, and yet she was exceedingly sensitive. Celse-Benigne was an
incorrigible duellist. She prayed so fervently that he was given the grace to
die a Christian death on the battle-field, during the campaign against the
Isle of Re (1627). He left a daughter who became the famous Marquise de
Sevigne. To family troubles God added interior crosses which, particularly
during the last nine years of her life, kept her in agony of soul from which
she was not freed until three months before her death.
Her reputation for sanctity was widespread.
Queens, princes, and princesses flocked to the reception-room of the
Visitation. Wherever she went to establish foundations, the people gave her
ovations. "These people", she would say confused, "do not know
me; they are mistaken". Her body is venerated with that of St. Francis
de Sales in the church of the Visitation at Annecy. She was beatified in
1751, canonized in 1767, and 21 August was appointed as her feast day.
The life of the saint was written in the
seventeenth century, with inimitable charm, by her secretary, Mother de
Chaugy. Monsignor Bougaud, who died Bishop of Laval, published in 1863 a
"Histoire de Sainte Chantal" which had a great and well-deserved
success.
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