Saint Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor

Saint Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor

1567–1622 · Reformation · Oratory of Saint Philip Neri

Feast day: January 24

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Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

Biography

Francis de Sales, C.O., O.M. (French: François de Sales; Italian: Francesco di Sales; 21 August 1567 – 28 December 1622) was a Savoyard Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Geneva and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to the religious divisions in his land resulting from the Protestant Reformation. He is known also for his writings on the topic of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God. Francis de Sales was born two months premature on 21 August 1567 in the Château de Sales into the noble Sales family of the Duchy of Savoy, in what is today Thorens-Glières, Haute-Savoie, France. His father was François de Sales, Lord of Sales, and Novel, and by marriage, de Boisy. His mother was a noblewoman, Françoise de Sionnaz, the only child of the prominent magistrate, Melchior de Sionnaz, Seigneur de Vallières, de la Thuile, and de Boisy. This being one of the noblest families in Savoy, Francis's father was generally known as M. de Boisy. He was baptised Francis Bonaventura after his godparents, François de la Fléchère and Damoiselle Bonaventure de Chevron-Villette, who was also his widowed, maternal grandmother. His father wanted him, the first of his six sons, to attend the best schools in preparation for a career as a magistrate. He therefore enjoyed a privileged education in the nearby town of La Roche-Sur-Foron, and at the age of eight at the Capuchin college in Annecy. In 1578, de Sales went to the Collège de Clermont, then a Jesuit institution, to study rhetoric and humanities. On this first visit to Paris, he lived near the Église Sainte-Geneviève with his three cousins. As a nobleman, he was accompanied by his servant and by a priest tutor, Abbé Déage. To please his father, he took lessons in the gentlemanly pursuits of riding, dancing, and fencing.

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Prayers

  • Novena to Saint Francis de Sales

    novena

    O great prelate, most blessed saint, model of bishops, the glory of the Church! Thou wast and ever shalt be revered on earth as a man according to God's own heart, and a most perfect imitator of our adorable model, Jesus Christ. Thou wast the champion of the Faith whose zeal extirpated heresy; the ardent victim of charity and docile disciple of that heavenly spirit Who spoke by thy pen, and rendered thy inspired doctrine the treasure of the Church. O good and faithful servant! thou hast now entered into the joy of thy Lord; the divine and holy object of thy love on earth is now thy reward exceedingly great in heaven. O amiable saint, whose tender, compassionate charity was always the refuge of the miserable, despise not our supplications. Since thy conduct on earth toward all thy fellow-creatures, particularly the weakest, marked thee out, like thy beloved Master, as the friend of sinners, show thyself such to us, thy daughters, by obtaining for us the intentions of this novena. Receive us, O great Master of solid perfection! into the number of those whom thou didst form according to the true spirit of the religious state. Teach us those heavenly virtues which thy blessed life, no less than thy word, so constantly inculcated. Thou wast one of the most humble of men, though gifted with all that could exalt thee before God and the world; O plant in our hearts that root of every virtue, humility. Thou wast an angel of peace, whose presence alone gave consolation to the most afflicted hearts, and whose heavenly meekness succeeded in gaining the most obdurate sinners; obtain, then, for us, also, that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding; a condescending meekness in our conduct toward our neighbor. But principally teach us thy own favorite lesson of perfect conformity to the will of God, that we may repose tranquilly in the arms of His adorable Providence; that we may cast all our solicitude on God, so as "to ask for nothing and to refuse nothing;" at least to ask for nothing more earnestly than the treasure of His divine love, and to refuse nothing so resolutely as the misfortune of consenting to sin. Amen.

    — Blessed Sacrament Book (F.X. Lasance), 1913 edition, p. 1133 (Novena to St. Francis de Sales; from the Visitation Manual)

Patronages

Sources: Wikipedia (21). Wikipedia content used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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