St. Francis de Sales

Month of Saints - day . . . well what ever day it is, I seem to have missed a couple.

Today, in honor of the 12 Permanent Deacons ordained for the Diocese of Columbus yesterday, our Saint of the Day is the patron of the diocese.

St. Francis de Sales was born in 1567 into the noble Sales family of the Duchy of Savoy.  He was baptized Francis Bonaventure, after two great Franciscan Saints. His father wanted him, the first of his six sons, to attend the best schools in preparation for a career as a magistrate. To please his father, he took lessons in the gentlemanly pursuits of riding, dancing, and fencing. In 1584 Francis de Sales attended a theological discussion about predestination, convincing him of his damnation to hell. A personal crisis of despair resulted. This despair lasted for two years until he decided to consecrate himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary and dedicate his life to God with a vow of chastity. Sales ultimately concluded that God had good in store for him, because "God is love", as John's First Epistle attests. This faithful devotion to the God of love not only expelled his doubts but also influenced the rest of his life and his teachings.

Francis' father wanted him to become a magistrate and marry a wealthy heiress, but he finally gave in to his son becoming a priest when the Bishop of Geneva intervened and Francis signed  over his rights to the family succession to his younger brother.  Francis was ordained in 1593 and immediately received  promised appointment as provost of the cathedral chapter of Geneva. In his capacity as provost, Francis de Sales, engaged in enthusiastic campaigns of evangelism in an area that had become almost completely Calvinist.

This was during the time of the Protestant reformation and just over the mountains from where Francis lived was Switzerland -- Calvinist territory. Francis decided that he should lead an expedition to convert the 60,000 Calvinists back to Catholicism. But by the time he left his expedition consisted of himself and his cousin. His father refused to give him any aid for this crazy plan and the diocese was too poor to support him.

For three years, he trudged through the countryside, had doors slammed in his face and rocks thrown at him. In the bitter winters, his feet froze so badly they bled as he tramped through the snow. He slept in haylofts if he could, but once he slept in a tree to avoid wolves. He tied himself to a branch to keep from falling out and was so frozen the next morning he had to be cut down. And after three years, his cousin had left him alone and he had not made one convert.

Francis' unusual patience kept him working. No one would listen to him, no one would even open their door. So Francis found a way to get under the door. He wrote out his sermons, copied them by hand, and slipped them under the doors. This is the first record we have of religious tracts being used to communicate with people.

The parents wouldn't come to him out of fear. So Francis went to the children. When the parents saw how kind he was as he played with the children, they began to talk to him.

By the time, Francis left to go home he is said to have converted 40,000 people back to Catholicism.

In 1602, he was made Bishop of Geneva, which was in the midst of Calvinist territory, and therefore closed to him.  He  resided in Annecy (now in modern day France) and only set foot in the city of Geneva twice. In 1604, Francis saw a widow listening closely to his sermon -- a woman he had seen already in a dream. Jane de Chantal was a person on her own, as Francis was, but it was only when they became friends that they began to become saints. Along with Jane, he founded the women's Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.

Francis died of a stroke in 1622.  His feast day is January 24.