Origin and Publication of the Conferences
The True Spiritual Conferences are a collection of instructions addressed in that form by St. Francis de Sales to the Nuns of the Visitation. This simple and familiar method of instruction is to be found in use both in the infancy of the Church and also in the beginning of all the religious Orders. If we open the book of the Holy Gospels, indeed, we there find the Saviour of the world conversing familiarly with the crowds who flocked to Him in the first opening of His Ministry. Later on, when the hatred of the Pharisees constrained Him to be circumspect and guarded and to make use of allegorical language, we still find Him explaining in private to His Disciples the mysteries of the Kingdom of God (Mk. 4:11, 34). It is with an ever increasing intimacy that, in these wondrous and divine conversations, He treats them not as servants but as friends, until at length, in the discourse which followed the Last Supper, He suffers the outpouring of His infinite love to burst all bounds, and communicates to them all that He has learnt from His Father. Imitating their Divine Master, the Apostles often made use of this mode of instruction, as St. Luke testifies in the Acts (21; 22:19-36).
Perhaps St. Francis de Sales was inspired by this remembrance when he delivered his spiritual conferences. He delighted also in recalling to his memory the thought of the Fathers of the Desert, whose example he quotes, and on whose words he comments; he represents them as also delivering conferences; for, he says, " that has been done from all time" (p. 141). Those of Cassian[1] were very well known to him, and so also was the Life of St. Anthony, in which St. Athanasius devotes whole chapters to the relation of those conferences which that far-famed recluse held with his disciples[2]. But of all the Patriarchs of the desert, no one is so often quoted as St. Pachomius, one of those who held spiritual conferences in the highest honour. His historian relates that every night after Office, he gathered together his Brethren " according to custom, to hear the word of God." His discourses were regarded as a sort of sacramental, so much so, indeed, that the auditors, after having listened to them with devotion, believed themselves to be secure of the remission of their sins.[3] We will not stop to enumerate a multitude of other recluses who were made celebrated by their spiritual conferences. Let it suffice to mention in conclusion the names of St. Dorotheus, St. John Climachus, and above all that of St. Bernard.
We see, then, that our holy Doctor followed examples of the highest authority, when he taught his daughters of the Visitation by familiar conferences. More insinuating and more persuasive than oratorical discourse or written addresses, these instructions permitted him to penetrate the souls of his listeners and infuse into them those principles of perfection with which he himself was inspired, or, rather, to animate them with the thoughts and feelings of Jesus Christ. To reproduce under different aspects, and in infinitely varied degrees, the interior and exterior life of that Model of all the elect, is the aim which all the Founders of Religious Orders proposed to themselves, and to which St. Francis de Sales in particular aspired.
For more than two years (June 1610 to October 1612) the scene of his conferences was at Annecy in the Gallery House[4], and the orchards which surrounded it; the audience, a little group of devout souls; three at the beginning, eight at the end of the first year, ten at the end of the second. These souls, to whom the divine call had come with an irresistible power in the midst — for the most part — of the most brilliant worldly surroundings, had now no other ambition than to hide themselves in the deepest obscurity, in poverty, silence, and self-immolation, to make themselves forgotten on earth, so that they might hold the more undisturbed intercourse with Heaven. Providence had given them, in the person of St. Francis de Sales, a master capable of developing such high aspirations. They all venerated him as an angel of God, and had no less confidence in his devotion than faith in his wisdom. All were humble enough to demand from their teacher the imparting of the most elementary knowledge concerning the spiritual life, and enlightened enough to receive with delight and full appreciation the most sublime instructions. On his part, our Saint appeared in the midst of them, less like a legislator imposing laws, than like a father teaching his little ones to walk. There was, therefore, on both sides a close intimacy; a childlike freedom which yet lacked nothing in respect and reverence, a fatherly tenderness which yet was never wanting in firmness. The holy Founder, we may venture to say, literally fulfilled the functions of Master of the Novices. No incident occurred in the newly formed Community of which he was not instantly informed; no doubt arose of which he was not at once asked the solution. His inexhaustible charity encouraged this incessant reference to him; he found in it no burden, but rather a refreshment in the midst of his other labours.
" Our holy Founder," writes St. Jane-Frances de Chantal in a Memoir relating to the origin of the Order[5], “often visited us, heard our confessions every fortnight, and held with us short spiritual conferences, to teach us true perfection; bidding each of us practise some one particular virtue according to her special requirement, and by this means our first year passed away, having advanced us greatly in holy perfection.” Mother Marie-Adrienne Fichet, the seventh Superior of the Visitation, declares the same in her History of the Gallery. After having described the extreme poverty of the first Mothers of the Order, and the privations which naturally resulted from this poverty, she adds: “What consoled them was the frequency of our holy Founder’s Conferences. Even in bad weather, when rain and snow were falling, he did not give up visiting them two or three times a week, or oftener.”[6]
In these intimate conferences, and as circumstances gave occasion, a great many of those practices which were afterwards incorporated in the Constitutions of the Visitation were established. The Saint availed himself of all passing occurrences as material for the instruction of his daughters, and for their training in the virtues of the Cloister. It was on account of a slight disagreement which arose between Mother Marie-Jacqueline Favre and Mother Péronne-Marie de Châtel, that the custom of asking pardon of one another on their knees after any dispute was established among the sisters. An act of mortification practised by Mother de Châtel was the occasion of the rule being made of keeping the eyes cast down during meals. Then, too, it was in these familiar exhortations that the Nuns learned what marks of deference they should show to one another, and in what manner they should effect that change of cells and of objects of piety which takes place every year.
During the fine weather these conferences were generally held in the open air. We may judge so from the following account borrowed from Mother Fichet; " On the Feast of St. Laurence in the year 1612," she says, "our blessed Father came to visit our Venerable Foundress, accompanied as usual by M. Michel Favre, his almoner, without whom, indeed, he never came. All the sisters went down to the fountain orchard. A seat was brought for him and placed under the vine arbour; the sisters grouped themselves on the ground round about him." The Saint, yielding to their entreaties, spoke to them of moderation, then of kindliness, one of his favourite virtues. He had already given his daughters many beautiful instructions, which were afterwards published, when “he was interrupted by thunder and rain, which obliged him to go up into a gallery, to which the sisters followed him, and the conference was continued with even deeper interest than before.”
At other times, the little Community assembled in the apartment of the holy Foundress. "Our blessed Father," says Mother Fichet again, "held many conferences there, and as at that time he was writing his Treatise on the Love of God, our first Mothers used to ask him at each visit what he had written since the last; he repeated to them the substance of the chapters, and afterwards gave them some beautiful instructions… It was in this room that he bade us farewell before going to preach at Chambery, and spoke to us of promptitude in obedience, and of the respect due to Superiors.”
The favoured audience knew how to appreciate the spiritual banquet served to them, and following the Evangelical Counsels, wished to gather up the fragments so that nothing might be lost; but the holy Bishop opposed this at first, saying that “all was to be found in his Treatise on the Love of God.” It was, then, the teaching contained in this masterpiece of all our Saint’s writings, as he himself mentions in the preface of that work, which served as the theme of most of the numerous conferences of those early years.
Nevertheless, his prohibition was not adhered to so strictly as to prevent his instructions from being partly written down. Mother Fichet, the faithful historian of those happy times, had this most welcome task assigned to her. It is thanks to her that some of the conferences which took place in the Gallery have been preserved to us. That On the Obligation of the Constitutions appears to be the first, not only in order of publication, but also in priority of date; it must have been delivered in the summer of 1611, soon after the Profession of the first Mothers. The Saint, who in his conferences, generally speaking, formed no kind of plan beforehand, and replied to the questions proposed to him on the inspiration of the moment, in this particular instance considered the subject so important that he wrote notes — the only notes preserved of all the many subjects treated in the Conferences[7].
When the Community, having grown in number, was obliged to quit the little dwelling in the faubourg for more spacious quarters in the town, the conferences were continued first in the temporary building and afterwards in the Convent parlour, with as much delightful simplicity as under the shelter of the Gallery. Mother Fichet at this time met with a fellow-worker who very soon surpassed her in excellence of memory and exactness of repetition; this was Mother Claude-Agnes Joly de la Roche." Our Institute,” St. Jane-Frances de Chantal later on, “owes her an eternal gratitude for having so carefully collected the conferences of our venerable Father, and a great number of his sermons, God having endowed her with so happy a memory that she repeated word for word what our good Prelate had preached, several days after she had heard it.” And the public are indebted to her diligence for this work, from which all spiritual persons draw, as from a living stream, draughts of the purest devotion.[8] To the first division of her collection belong the Conferences On Confidence, On Self-Renouncement, and On Religious Modesty.
Whether present or absent, the Holy Foundress never ceased to urge our blessed Prelate to preach the gospel to her daughters. Thus, from Lyons, whither the Saint had gone to establish the second House of the Order, she sent this message to Mother Jeanne-Charlotte de Bréchard, who was in charge of the House at Annecy: “When he (the Bishop) comes to see you and has a little leisure, I beg you to persuade him to speak to all the Community in common, if that is agreeable to him, so that we may gather up some crumbs from the abundance of your consolations.”[9] St. Francis was no doubt alluding to this message when, in March 1615, he wrote to his faithful fellow-labourer, on the subject of the Community at Annecy: "I am well satisfied with all this dear family, with whom I shall converse in common one day in next week, as I hear from Sister Jeanne-Charlotte that my Mother (St. Chantal) commands me to do so." Then, remembering how overburdened the holy Bishop was, and how she herself had implored him to reserve all his leisure for the composition of Treatise on the Love of God, the holy Foundress alters her mind, and on the 28th of April writes thus to Mother de Bréchard: "Do not urge my dearest and best Father any further to give the conferences, since he is already so overwhelmed with work, and it is so important that his book should be finished".[10] And a little later on, after having entered into some details with regard to building matters, she adds: "But as for these small affairs, there is no need to trouble the beloved Bishop to come; on the contrary, we must do so as little as possible, and leave him as much time as we can for his book".[11] The end of this year, 1615, and part of the following year were not, therefore, times of spiritual abundance for the little Community; for the completion of the Treatise on the Love of God, and prolonged absences, did not permit the holy Bishop to occupy himself much with his daughters.
In a remarkable letter, dated August 1, 1617 St. Jane-Frances de Chantal wrote thus of him "This holy soul goes on increasing more and more in sanctity, and advancing nearer and nearer towards that eternity for which he longs so ardently; neither will he pause until he is numbered among those great Fathers and Prelates of the Church… For the last year we have seldom had the consolation of seeing him.”[12] This consolation, however, appears to have become more frequent during the ensuing months. The collections of the conferences are continued, and copies of them are made, to be forwarded to the new Convents. Copies are sent to Moulins, to Lyons, and to Grenoble. “We send you all the conferences given to us by our Bishop since our return from Lyons,” writes St. Jane-Frances de Chantal to Mother de Bréchard; “that on the Rule is admirable.”[13] And to Mother de Châtel: “You shall have all the conferences that the Bishop has given us and will give us; for, my dearest daughter, as far as is possible I wish to persuade him to employ all the time he spends with us before our departure in this manner, and I desire that all our Houses should share in this treasure.”[14] The desires of the Saint were fulfilled, for, according to the most probable conjectures, this year 1618 was one in which the collection of conferences was added to most abundantly. The conferences On Cordiality, On the Virtue of Obedience, On the Spirit of the Rules, and On the Will of God were given at this period.
From Bourges, from Paris, whither she had gone to found Convents, St. Jane-Frances circulated the precious manuscripts throughout the Houses of the rising Institute. More than this, she was unceasing in her entreaties to the holy Founder to bestow his instructions on the Community at Annecy, entreaties to which he most readily acceded. "Our sisters here are doing very well," he wrote, December 13, 1619, "and there is nothing to complain of, unless it is that they are wanting to do too much, so that when our Mother returns she may find everything in the very best state possible; this desire makes them somewhat over-zealous. Yesterday, we held a conference in which I tried to put them a little more at their ease." This conference must have been followed by several others; for on February 12, 1620, the Saint (St. Jane-Frances) writes[15]: "The Bishop … gives a great many exhortations to our sisters; it is for the advantage of all our Houses, and I entreated him most earnestly to do it."
While the holy Foundress urges her beloved Father to be lavish in breaking and distributing the bread of the divine word, she also impresses on her various Communities the duty of nourishing their souls with the crumbs which are transmitted to them. "Take care that the conference on the Rules and all that you have of the Bishop's teaching is frequently read," she writes to Mother de Châtel[16]. "I know of nothing better calculated to feed the spiritual life of the House." To Mother de Mouthoux[17]: " Keep invariably close to the Rule, and to the advice given in the Conferences; read them often, and have them read to the sisters. Every month, I have one or two of them read at table." To Mother Favre[18]: "We are so full of the Bishop’s instructions, that scarcely anything can occur for which we do not find what we need in the Conferences … Let us feed on this bread; it is the best for us.” And again: “In the Bishop’s conferences there is all that can be desired for perfection; their teaching is admirable.”
The intelligent and industrious reporter of the conferences was obliged to leave Annecy, July 6, 1620. Providence had, however, provided a successor. Another Nun, with as faithful a memory, was ready to replace her; this was Mother Marie-Marguerite Michel, who had made her vows the very day before the departure of the Foundresses of the Orleans convent. “She took the greatest care,” we are told in her Life[19], “to collect all the counsels and the recommendations of certain practices given to her by the man of God, and in order that every word uttered by him for the daughters of the Holy Mary might be gathered up like manna, most precious and fitted for the nourishment of the soul, she listened with the deepest attention to the exhortations which at that time the Bishop delivered not unfrequently, and on leaving his presence she hastened to commit all this spiritual wealth to writing; her memory, or rather the Holy Ghost, whose aid in this matter she specially invoked, furnishing her with materials exactly in the same order as that which the holy Prelate had observed in his discourse. This was afterwards read aloud to the Community, that each sister might notice what had been forgotten; but it scarcely ever happened that anything could be added to what she had written." It is to Mother Marie-Marguerite Michel, then, that we are indebted for the Conferences On Generosity, On Votes, and On the Virtues of St. Joseph.
It was not only at Annecy, however, that the words of the Founder were gathered up and treasured with faithful affection. At Paris, where he sojourned in 1619, at Lyons, where he closed his holy life in 1622, his teaching was received with reverence, and written down with jealous care. Thence we get the Conferences Why we should become Religious and On Asking for Nothing.
The death of the Servant of God bestowed a sort of new consecration on all his works, and the esteem in which his conferences were already held increased more and more. St. Jane-Frances de Chantal, who has always so strongly recommended the reading of them, becomes still more urgent in the matter. Such is the influence which she attributes to these manuscripts, that even in 1624, at the time of the first edition of the Book of Customs, she adds these words to what she declares to be the faithful expression of her beloved Father's intentions: "I say nothing on the subject of prayer, because the Introduction to the Devout Life is sufficient for the training of souls as yet unpractised in it; and the Treatise on the Love of God, … with the Conferences, furnish all that is needed for the more advanced." And in Article xxix. of the Book of Customs it is said: "The Conferences shall be read once a year ... in the Refectory during meals, or at least one or two every month." These two sentences were inserted with some modifications in the first edition of the Book of Customs, printed in 1628, and in the final edition of 1637.
At the death of its Founder, the Visitation numbered thirteen convents; during the seven years which followed, the number had risen to thirty-five. All these Communities possessed manuscript copies of the Conferences, and read them assiduously; but these had been written and rewritten so many times, that numerous mistakes had crept into the transcriptions. We infer this from several of the letters of St. Jane-Frances de Chantal; in one, among others, dated March 31, 1623[20], she says to Mother de Blonay: “You can send the Conference to our Houses after you have corrected it.” To Mother de la Roche she writes[21]: “Examine the Conferences; for if there should be any so badly reported that you cannot really correct hem, wait for those from Nessy.” It was prudent to reserved in communicating the manuscripts to others, therefore the Saint adds: “The Sermons may be shown, but not the Conferences, except to well-known and trustworthy persons.”[22] Many letters must have been exchanged between St. Jane-Frances de Chantal and mother de la Roche on this same subject. Unfortunately the portions of this correspondence which would have furnished us with so much useful information have not come down to us.
In September 1624, for the first time, the idea of having these collected manuscripts printed finds its way into one of the Saint's letters. The following year she submits them to the consideration of a Jesuit Father, and writes to Mother de Blonay[23]: "The Father who has seen the Conferences, is of opinion that they will form a most useful book, worthy of the author;" and later on[24]: "My humble respects to the Reverend Father Provincial ... If you receive the Conferences, take care that he sees them and tells you what he thinks of them." Two years pass away, without any further steps being taken in the prosecution of this design. St. Jane-Frances is absorbed in many weighty matters — long journeys, the foundation of many new Houses, and, above all, in her anxious endeavours to procure the Beatification of her holy Director. Meanwhile she learnt that some unknown person had abstracted the manuscripts, so carefully preserved in the secrecy of the Cloister as a family treasure, and that it was intended to publish them. At first this was believed to be a false alarm, but very soon it became evident that these fears were only too well founded, and that the Conferences were already in the press.[25]
At first sight, it might seem that this work, very far from forming a treatise on the duties of the Religious life, was nothing but a collection of ascetic instructions, without sequence or unity. It is, however, nothing of the kind, for the questions which St. Jane-Frances de Chantal and her daughters put to their beloved Father were so numerous that, in dealing with them, he was led to explain his questioners the Religious Life under all its various aspects, and to treat of the principal obligations which it imposes…
However clear and precise the doctrine put forth in the Conferences may be, there may be, there have been people who have considered that certain points of this doctrine might need explanation. Take, in the first place, that maxim so dear to the holy Bishop: “Ask for nothing, refuse nothing, and desire nothing.” But what need could there be of outside explanation, when he himself defines the sense which he attaches to it? “When I say that we must ask for nothing and desire nothing, I mean as regards temporal things; for with regard to virtues, we may ask for them, and in asking for the love of God we comprise all, for it contains them all.” This same thought is explained in almost identical terms in Conference VII. “Among our desires,” he says, “there is one which is preeminent… This desire is the one which we brought with us on entering Religion, the desire to embrace all the Religious virtues; it is one of the topmost of that divine tree.” What could be more categorical on this point? He permits his daughters not only to desire but even to ask for certain aids which will be useful in the work of their sanctification. For instance, when an inward longing urges them to receive Communion on days when it is not prescribed for the Community, they are authorised by him to receive it; or, again, permission is granted to use the discipline when it happens to be necessary. More than this, the Nuns of the Visitation are ordered to ask confidently for such bodily alleviations as " they think they need."
It was from the Works of St. Francis de Sales, and especially from his Conferences, that the Visitation, when it emerged from the Revolution, drew once again that life-giving power which, like new sap, enabled it to flourish in the midst of ruins, and to spread forth its beneficent branches throughout both the Old and the New World. And in our own times, the reputation for sanctity which surrounds the memory of the Venerable Mother Marie de Sales Chappuis, is a fresh proof of the inexhaustible fruitfulness of the doctrine contained in The True Spiritual Conferences… While, however, we express our appreciation of the style of the book, we cannot say that it is free altogether from imperfections; for we must distinguish in that style what belongs to the holy Bishop, and what is to be ascribed to the sisters who took down and collected his words. To the sisters must be attributed exclusively certain inaccuracies, some obscurity of detail, the intricacy and length of certain sentences, overloaded with incident, which interfere with the fluency, and still more with the lucidity, of the discourse. It is true that these defects are largely compensated by the fidelity with which, generally speaking, not only the thought but even the actual expressions of our Saint are reproduced; and even at times the graceful turn of his phrases, and the delicate shades of his simple but vivid similes. The strength of this style is displayed in the Controversies; its brilliancy and loftiness in the Introduction to the Devout Life, and still more in the Treatise on the Love of God. Certain comparisons of which he makes use in these latter works reappear in the Conferences; such as the play of colours on the dove’s plumage in the sunlight.[26]
The Conferences seem, indeed, to be nothing but a sort of commentary on the words of the great Apostle to the Philippians: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. The Visitation Order enjoyed the great happiness of being imbued with this teaching; thus the Son of God could look upon it with satisfaction, and finding in it some likeness to himself, some reproduction of His interior life, poor and common in the sight of men, but rich and fruitful in the sight of God, He rewarded this lowly Order by giving to it His Sacred Heart.
May the number of souls increase who shall deserve a share of that priceless inheritance by studying and practicing the teaching of the Spiritual Conferences!
Dom B. Mackey, O.S.B.
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[1] The Conferences and Institutions of this celebrated monk were held in such repute, that St. Benedict commanded them, as well as the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, to be read every evening in the monasteries of his Order.
[2] They often began with these words: "Although the Holy Scriptures contain everything, it is a very good thing to edify one another by mutual discourses." After these exhortations, says St. Athanasius, all his hearers were thrilled with a happy fervour, in some a longing after virtue was kindled, the tottering faith of others was strengthened; vain fears and dangerous prejudices were banished from the heart and mind of all. (Vita S. Ant. §§ 16, 44.)
[3] Vitae Patrum, lib. I; Vita S. Pachomii, cc. xxx, xlvi.
[4] The humble dwelling in which the Visitation had birth owed its name to a covered gallery, which, being thrown out about the public road, formed a communication between the house and an orchard opposite to it.
[5] The Book of Vows of the 1st Convent at Annecy.
[6] Father Alexandre Fichet, s.j., the brother of Mother Marie-Adrienne, describing the origin of the Visitation, speaks thus of the formation of the first Nuns: “the holy Founder in private conferences gave them lessons on every particular of the Religious life: 1. On all the offices, sermons, and functions of the Order, on the position of the Superior, superintendent, inferior, and equal; in which each individual should have no aim but God Himself, His service, and the interests of Religion, with an absolute forgetfulness of herself, and a perpetual mortification of her self-love… 2. On the qualities of Novices and Nuns, which are a forgetfulness, nay more, a holy and abiding horror of the world and of the flesh-pots of Egypt, and a devout love of Jesus and of their vocation to His divine service, an ardent and consuming desire to do the will of God, to advance His glory, and to save their own souls, a passionate delight in observing all the duties of Religion and the minutest details of the Rules…” (Part II, Chapter 2, des Saintes Reliques de l’Erothée, en la sainte vie de la Mère Françoise de Fremiot, Baronne de Chantal. A Lyon, chez Vincent de Cæursillys, M.DC.LXII.)
[7] These notes must have been somewhat numerous, for the page given in facsimile at the beginning of the French edition is numbered 3. It is written at the back of a letter dated July 28, 1611, which permits us to fix approximately the time at which the first part of this conference was delivered. It contains, under one and the same title, two distinct conferences. According to Mother Fichet, the second part would be belivered on August 10, 1612.
[8] The Lives of four of the first Mothers of the Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Mary, by the Reverend Mother Françoise Madeleine de Changy at Annecy – by Jacques Clerc, M.DC.LIX. Reprinted at Paris, Poussielgue, 1892.
[9] Works of St. Jane-Frances de Chantal (Paris, Plon Plon, 1877), Vol. IV, Letter XX.
[10] Letter XXVI.
[11] Letter XXX.
[12] Letter CX.
[13] She is referring to conference XIII.
[14] Letter CLVIII.
[15] Letter ccxxix
[16] Letter cclxii
[17] Letter cccxxxv
[18] Letter cccxxxvii
[19] The Lives of various superiors of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. At Annecy, Humbert Fonteine, M.DC.DXCIII.
[20] Letter CDXXXIII.
[21] Letter DXIII.
[22] Among these “well-known persons” must be numbered the first biographers of St. Francis de Sales: Longue-terre, P. de la Rivière, Dom Jean de St. François, who all mention or quote the MSS., and even P. Dagonel, SJ., who gives fragments of them in his book entitled Christian Advice, important and common to all (Paris: pub. Sebasiten Crmoisy, M.DC.XXIX).
[23] Letter DCXXXII.
[24] Letter DCCCXXIII.
[25] See Dedication.
[26] The Catholic Controversy, Translator’s Preface, p. xxii, note, and Part II, Chapter 1, Article iii, p. 153; Treatise on the Love of God, Preface.
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