SAINT FRANCIS de SALES

Saint Francis de Sales was Born in France in 1567. Francis was a patient man. His biggest concern on being ordained was that he had to have his curly gold hair cut off.

Just over the mountains from where Francis lived was Switzerland, a Calvinist territory. Francis decided that he should lead an expedition to convert the 60,000 Calvinists back to Catholicism. 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. After three years he had not made one convert. Nobody would listen to him or would they even open their door. Francis finally found a way to gain the attention of the Calvinists. He wrote out his sermons, copied them by hand and slipped them under their 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. When Francis left to go home he is said to have converted 40,000 people back to Catholicism.
In 1602 he was made bishop of the diocese of Geneva, in the Calvinist territory. In 1604
Francis took one of the most important steps in his life. A step toward holiness and mystical union with God.
In Dijon 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. Jane wanted him to take over her spiritual direction but Francis wanted to wait. “I had to know fully what God himself wanted. I had to be sure that everything in this should be done as though his hand had done it.” Jane was on a path to mystical union with God and, in directing her, Francis was compelled to follow her and become a mystic himself. After working three years with Jane he formed a new religious order. A man came to Francis and donated a place for use by pious women.

At that time the way of holiness was only for monks and nuns not for ordinary people. Francis changed all that by giving spiritual direction to lay people living ordinary lives in the world. He had proven with his own life that people could grow in holiness while involved in a very active
occupation. His most famous book, INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE, was written for these ordinary people in 1608. Written originally as letters it became an instant success all over Europe. Some preachers tore it up because he tolerated dancing and jokes!
For Francis the love of God was like romantic love. He said, “The thoughts of those moved by natural human love are almost completely fastened on the beloved, their hearts are
filled with passion for it, and their mouths full of its praises. When it is gone they express their feelings in letters, and can’t pass by a tree without carving the name of their beloved in its bark. Thus too those who love God can never stop thinking about him, longing for him, aspiring to him, and speaking about him. If they could, they would engrave the name of Jesus on the hearts of all humankind.” The key to love of God was prayer. “By turning your eyes on God in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with God. Begin all your prayers in the presence of God.”
For busy people of the world, he advised “Retire at various times into the solitude of your own heart, even while outwardly engaged in discussions or transactions with others and talk to God.”
The test of prayer was a person’s actions: “To be an angel in prayer and a beast in one’s relations with people is to go lame on both legs.”
He believed the worst sin was to judge someone or to gossip about them. Even if we say we do it out of love we’re still doing it to look better ourselves. But we should be as gentle and
forgiving with ourselves as we should be with others.
He is patron saint of journalists.

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