Salesian Corner | Mermier | MSFS | Spirituality

SALESIAN LITERATURE

SFS Sage & Saint

Author: André Ravier S.J.

Title of the French Original:

Un Sage et un Saint: François de Sales,

Translated by Joseph D. Bowler, OSFS,

The saints are such a rich source of inspiration and guidance that the Catholic Church has always looked to them as the best interpreters of God’s work for the age in which they live. But like Scripture itself, the lives of the saints have to be reread and reinterpreted in every age. St. Francis de Sales was a saint who clearly had a message for the 20th century and for those trying to live up to the challenges of the Second Vatican Council. He saw that the laity especially had a vocation specifically theirs and that the piety of the cloister or the sacristy was an encouragement but not a model for the layman. Every age – but especially our own – should get to know the saintly author of Introduction to the Devout Life and Treatise on the Love of God. He has the appeal of his namesake from Assisi but a message which approaches that of the Little Flower’s Little Way: something for all of us.

“Doctor of both civil and canon law, a priest and bishop of a diocese torn by Calvin's schism and ravaged by Genevans; a diplomat, a pastor, a director of souls, and a spiritual writer of Savoy and France... how does one encompass in a brief biography a personality of such diverse aspects? Francis de Sales lived during an era that marked a turning point in history: the former European Catholicism versus the recent fragmentation of Protestantism, the Renaissance versus classicism, the Church of the Middle Ages versus the Church of the Council of Trent.... What a welter of events and adventures in his lifetime!”

- André Ravier, S.J.

André Ravier, S.J., is a widely respected spiritual writer and Church historian in Europe. He has written other works on lives of the saints and on spirituality, his most recent being Ignatius Loyola and the Founding of the Society of Jesus.

Table of Contents

1. “I am in every way a Savoyard, both by birth and by obligation”: 1567-1578

Birth and Ancestry

Baptism in the Church in Thorens

From 1569 to 1573, Did the Boisy Family Settle at Brens?

The Education of a Future Lord of Sales

1573-1575: The Schoolboy at La Roche-sur-Foron

1575-1576: Francis at the Chappuisien College in Annecy

Two Great Events in Francis' Religious Life

Francis de Sales Leaves the Chappuisien College for Paris

2. The Humanistic and Mystical Student at Paris and Padua: 1578-1591

1. PARIS: 1578-1588

Francis' Scholarly Progress

At the Jesuits' School

On the High Seas of the World

"I Wish to See... Sacred Theology"

The Crisis

The Mystical Character of This Crisis

Francis Leaves Paris

2. PADUA: 1588-1591

The City and Its University

Father Possevin

Law Studies

Theology Studies

Francis' Student Life at Padua

The Doctorate in Law: September 5, 1591

Portrait of a Young Doctor

The Return to Savoy

3. A Priesthood Dearly Acquired: February 1592-December 1593

Family Welcome

Francis' Great Perplexity

What Happened in the Sionnaz Woods on That Return Trip?

Francis Refuses the Title of Senator

"Father, May It Please You to Permit Me to Enter the Church"

Francis de Sales "Takes the Habit of Saint Peter"

Francis the Provost "in Solitude" at the Château de Sales

Holy Orders

The "Installation" of the Provost of Geneva

A Priest of the Country

4. Missionary at the Risk of His Life: 1594-1598

The Chablais

Bishop de Granier's Choice

Francis Leaves for the Chablais

Strategy

The Controversies

Francis Settles in Thonon

First Yield

Interruption at Thorens and Annecy

Return to the Chablais

Lassitude and Bursts of Hope

1596-1597: The Time of the Great Confrontations

The Abjuration of Antoine de Saint-Michel, Seigneur d'Avully

The Silences and Promises of the Duke of Savoy

The Three Christmas Masses at Thonon

1597: The Visits to Theodore de Bèze

The Forty Hours at Annemasse

Francis Accepts the Coadjutorship of Geneva

A Serious Illness Delays Francis' Trip to Rome

The Forty Hours at Thonon

5. “A Rare Bird on the Earth”: 1598-1602

Bishop de Granier's Substitute for the "Ad Limina" Visit

Francis Faces an Examining Board of Cardinals and Theologians

The Coadjutor of Bishop de Granier

The French Invade Savoy

The Death of M. de Boisy

Bishop de Granier Sends Francis to Paris on a Diplomatic Mission

Diplomat and Missionary

Lent and the Louvre

The Bishop and the King

The Spiritual Radiance of Francis

The Episcopal Consecration of Francis in the Church at Thorens

6. Francis de Sales, Prince-Bishop of Geneva

In the Steps of Jesus Christ in the Manner of the Apostles

A Reformer-Bishop

The Bishop of Geneva's Daily Schedule

The Aura of the Miraculous

Francis de Sales' Apostolic Vision of the World

1603: THE NEW BISHOP'S MOST URGENT TASKS

Change of Strategy Regarding Some Protestants in Gex

Francis de Sales, Father Cherubin, and the "Pope's League"

The Bishop and His Priests

7. “The God of Encounters”: 1604: Lent at Dijon

To Avoid a Lawsuit between Bishops

"A Lady of Quality, Dressed as a Widow"

The True Problem

Jane de Chantal and Her Director-Dictator

Francis Restores Mme de Chantal's Spiritual Freedom

Jane de Chantal on Her Way toward Pure Love

Light at Last

Correspondence of a Spiritual Friendship

8. The Bishop among the People of God: 1605-1608

"A Complete Sphere under a Single Star" (Sainte-Beuve)

Pastoral Visitations

The Florimontane Academy (1606-1610)

The Quarrel "De Auxiliis" (1606)

The Death of Young Jeanne de Sales (idol)

9. A Writer without “Time to Catch His Breath”: 1608-1609

The Marriage of Bernard de Sales and Marie- Aimée de Chantal

The Service of Souls: Philotheas and Theotimuses

The Misadventures of a Little Book and Its Author

A "Great Confusion of Affairs"

Jane de Chantal "Obtains Permission" to Pursue Her Vocation

10. The Introduction to the Devout Life: 1609 … and Still Continuing

Three Key Words

What, Then, Is the Devout Life?

The Itinerary of the Devout Life

The Outstanding Characteristics of Salesian Devotion

Three Questions

The Style of the Introduction to the Devout Life

11. The Annecy Visitation: 1610-1615

Bereavements in the de Sales and de Chantal Families

Jane de Chantal Leaves Burgundy for Annecy

The "Bethlehem" of the New Institute

The Evening of June 6, 1610

Genesis of the Visitation of Holy Mary

Francis de Sales and Archbishop de Marquemont: The Visitation in "Formal Religion"

The Spirit of the Visitation

"Like Rays of the Sun"

12. The Treatise on the Love of God: 1616

The Retreat during Pentecost 1616

The War in Savoy

Lent at Grenoble

The Treatise on the Love of God or God's Game with the Human Heart

The Protagonists of the Game: God and Man

The Enclosure in Which the Game of Love Is Played

The Rule of the Game

The Finale of the Game of Divine Love

An Astonishment to Dissipate

13. To the Mercy of God: 1617-October 1618

"The Little Larva Becomes a Bee"

The Deaths of Bernard and Marie-Aimée de Sales

"The Apostle of Grenoble"

Toward New Diplomatic Missions

14. Paris’ Triumphal Welcome to the Bishop of Geneva: October 1618 - October 1619

The Journey of the Prince's Retinue

Diplomacy and the "Novitiate of the Court"

When a Diplomat Has a Missionary's Heart

Francis de Sales and Vincent de Paul

The Visitation in Paris

Mother Angélique Arnauld and Her Encounters with Francis de Sales and Mother de Chantal

The Coadjutorship of Paris

15. When a Missionary Dreams of a Hermitage: October 1619 - 1621

Resumption of Familiar Business and Worries

Jean-François de Sales, Coadjutor to the Bishop of Geneva

The Dream of Repose in the Hermitage of Saint Germain de Talloires

16. “Either to Love or to Die, to Love and to Die”: 1622

The General Chapter of the Bemardines at Pignerol

The Avignon Journey

To Love or Die, to Love and Die