Salesian Literature

Introduction

Translator’s introduction

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A Brief biographical sketch of St. Francis de Sales

 

Francis de Sales was born of a noble family on 21st August 1567 at the Castle of Sales at Thorens, in a mountainous region between Geneva and Annecy.  Initially he was given private lessons at home and later went to school at La Roche and Annecy.  At the age of twelve he was sent along with his tutor Fr. Déage to Paris where he pursued his studies in Arts and Humanities t the College of Clermont, run by the Jesuits.  There he studied Rhetoric, Philosophy, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and also, privately, Theology.  As was the custom in those days, Francis underwent training in music, fencing, horse riding and dancing.  These exercises would help him to become physically as well as mentally fit and give him a suppleness of movement, an ease, a grace which later on would add to his personal charm and power of persuasion.  Francis spent ten years at the College of Clermont, during which he received a sound spiritual and human formation under the guidance of the Jesuit Fathers.  During his stay in Paris, Francis had the opportunity to attend some lectures at the renowned University of Sorbonne and also to visit occasionally the court of the King of France, Henry III.  On finishing his studies in Paris, Francis returned home but he soon left for Italy to pursue higher studies at the University of Padua.  At the end of three years he returned to Annecy with the degree of Doctor in Civil and Church Law obtained on 5th Sept 1591 a the young age of twenty-five.

 

Francis’ father had great ambitions for him.  He wanted him to become a Senator of Savoy.  But Francis chooses to become a priest and after much persuasion his father gives in to his son’s desire.  Francis is at first made the Provost of the Cathedral, the most prestigious post after that of the Bishop.  He is ordained Priest on the 18th December 1593, at the age of twenty-seven.

 

Francis was entrusted with a very difficult and sensitive mission.  He is asked to work in the region of the Chablais on the southern shores of the Lake of Geneva, to bring back the people converted to Calvinism into the Catholic fold.  Even though his father is opposed to it, Francis accepts the hazardous mission and leaves Annecy, along with his cousin, Fr. Louis de Sales, to undertake this enormous work of the conversion of the people of the Chablais.  Francis spends four years as a missionary working relentlessly and heroically against many odds to convince the people about the purity and authenticity of the Catholic faith.  He spends his time in study, prayer, fasting and preaching the Word of God.  Neither the obstinacy of the hardened Protestants, nor the hardships, nor dangers to his life made him abandon the mission.  When he found that people refused to come to listen to his sermons and conferences, he wrote small tracts and slipped them under the doors of the houses.  These were later put together and published under the title of The Controversies. It took much labour and toil, patience and understanding, goodness of heart, serenity of mind, and gentleness of being to sow the seeds of the truth of Catholic faith ultimately, the harvest was reaped in abundance.  By the end of 1598 practically the whole of Chablais had come back to the Catholic Church.

 

Francis was made coadjutor to the Bishop of Geneva, Mgr. Granier in 1599.  In this capacity he was asked to undertake several extremely delicate diplomatic missions in Paris and elsewhere at the courts of Kings and Princes.  These missions furnished him with opportunities to preach, confess, conciliate and meet some of the most renowned people of his time.  After the death of Mgr. Granier, Francis de Sales was consecrated Bishop on 8th December 1602.  Throughout his life Francis will keep a vivid and heart-warming memory of this day.  He would say later on: “When I was consecrated Bishop, God took me out of myself in order to take me entirely to himself and then to give me back to my people.  He changed my heart in such a way that instead of living for myself, I would live only and completely for others.”

 

In 1534, Geneva had turned over to the Calvinists and the Bishop had been forced to abandon his Episcopal see of Geneva and seek refuge in Annecy.  Francis de Sales was the Prince-Bishop of Geneva but living in exile in Annecy.  As Bishop, Francis serves his difficult and scattered diocese during the remaining twenty years of his life in a spirit of love and devotion.  He is assiduous in visiting his people in remote, far-flung villages and hamlets, in the mountains and plains and valleys, he takes to heart the formation of his priests whom he visits individually and whom he assembles regularly in synods; he undertakes the reforms of monasteries and the renewal of religious life; he helps lay people to live their faith and Christian vocation to the full.  One is simply amazed at the enormous work, undertaken by Francis de Sales in his apostolate.  He preaches, hears confessions, teaches catechism, opens schools, colleges and academies, infuses the desperate with new hope.  He makes himself readily available to all, to people in the world as well as in the cloisters, to the learned, the cultured and the rich as well as the humble peasants and artisans, the poor, the little ones of this world.

 

According to the testimony of his close friends, Francis de Sales “was blessed with a jovial and gracious nature and shunned sadness and melancholy; he had a humble, grave and majestic personality, a serene look fusing into a face that was noble and great unassuming.  He was in no way extravagant nor showy in his bearing, nor given to manifesting extreme raptures of joy.  However much he was disturbed or harassed, he never put on a gloomy, sullen and scowling face.”

 

Saint Jeanne de Chantal said of him in her testimony: “His whole manner and his way of speaking had great dignity and discretion but was at the same time humble, quite and candid.  He never posed, he was completely unaffected and lacked any stiffness.  He was never heard to say anything unsuitable or merely flippant, or to speak in any way which might have proved offensive.  He did not raise his voice unduly and he spoke in a serious, deliberate, calm and unhurried way, always conveying his meaning effectively but without fine phrases or any other speech affectation – he was all for starightforwardness and simplicity.  I myself often noticed, and others had the same impression, that he said neither too much nor too little but just what was right; and his use of terms was so apt that it could not have been bettered.  He often used to impress on us that many things should be conveyed by silence, by reticence and by a clam and dispassionate attitude.  This is certainly something he himself demonstrated admirably well in practice.”

 

“He was most approachable and very easy of access to anyone who wanted to talk to him. He received all comers with the same expression of quiet friendliness and never turned anyone away whatever his station in life; he always listened with unhurried calmness and for as long as people felt they needed to talk.  He was so patient and attentive that you would have thought that this was all he had to do, and everybody felt so happy and satisfied when they left him that people were really very pleased to have an excuse to call on him.  They longed to have a taste of that great sweetness and serenity of heart which he invariably gave them and which helped people to open out to him with great confidence especially when they wanted to talk about spiritual things.  It was his great joy to talk about the things of the spirit and to encourage everybody, as far as he was able, to be devout according to their calling.  It would not be possible to count the number of people he helped along the road to Christian perfection.  Unless you actually saw it, as I did, you could never have believed how very many there were whom he inspired with ardent longing to change their attitude to life, or to live more perfectly.  In short, everybody who talked to him with due confidence profited immensely for their spiritual life and longed to see him again; and people used to encourage and stimulate one another to take his counsel.”

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