Salesian Literature

Introduction: The Origin of the 'Introduction'

 

St. Francis de Sales is certainly one of the few truly great teachers of the spiritual life.  The very practical guidance he gives about Christian living is as relevant to us today as it was to the people of his time.  In fact, as Pope Paul VI pointed out, “St. Francis de Sales appears as a new Doctor of the spiritual life, and one who is very well suited to the present times.”[1]

 

Like a sunflower ever turned towards the sun, Francis de Sales was drawn to God from his earliest years.  During his childhood the principal influence in his life was his mother.  She was not merely religious but also kind and compassionate to the needy and the suffering.  As a schoolboy at La Roche and at Annecy, as a teenager at the Jesuit College in Paris, and as a young man at the University of Padua, he responded to God’s grace and experienced in agony and ecstacy what it means to live in complete love for God and neighbour.  He joyfully welcomed all that genuine humanism had to offer, while firmly rejecting whatever was evil and debasing.

 

At the age of 25, Francis was an accomplished young nobleman who had completed his Doctorate, in civil law and Church law, with extraordinary brilliance.  As the eldest son, he could easily have agreed to follow his father’s plans for him: he could have become a renowned lawyer and diplomat.  But he had already made up his mind to give himself to the service of God and his people as a priest.  And this he realized in spite of strong initial opposition form his father.

 

In the late sixteenth century and the early seventeenth century, the Church in Europe was being renewed after the Council of Trent which concluded in 1563.  in this renewal, St. Francis de Sales had a very important role to play.  As a recently ordained priest, Francis generously accepted the difficult task of trying to contact the hostile Calvinists of the Chablais.  Here, during the three years of his ministry, the crucified Saviour put the finishing touches to the preparation of Francis.  Here, in his late twenties, in rejection and loneliess and suffering, he was made ready for the special mission to be entrusted to him.  And it was in the Chablais that Francis became and expert at communicating in writing the truths of Faith with clarity and attractiveness.  Since the people to whom he was sent refused to listen to him, he got their attention through short articles written on loose sheets and quietly distributed to them.[2]

 

For many years, Francis had made Jesus the centre of his life, and lived the Gospel in total fidelity and trust.  He was now ready to draw all to the God of Love made known in Christ Jesus.  He understood that this was his primary responsibility to Christ’s faithful when he was consecrated Bishop at 35 years of age.

 

It is very difficult indeed to describe the enormous amount of pastoral work that young Bishop Francis de Sales took up with joyful courage and untiring zeal:  preaching, hearing confessions, teaching Catechism to children, forming his priests, giving spiritual direction to individual persons in all walks of life, regularly visiting his people even though it meant fatiguing journeys up steep mountain paths, reforming monasteries, undertaking tedious diplomatic missions at the request of his rulers, settling disputes out of court after listening at length to both parties, founding the new contemplative order of the Visitation and giving special guidance to these Sisters.[3]

 

St. Francis de Sales began the spiritual direction of individual persons as a result of the contacts made at the time of the Lenten Sermons he preached as Bishop, in Paris in 1602 and in subsequent years in different important towns in Savoy and in France.  After the Lenten Sermons at Dijon, in 1604, Madame de Chantal placed herself under his direction along with some others.  And after the Lenten Sermons at Annecy, n 1607, Madame de Charmoisy chose him as her director.

 

In order to help Madame de Chantal, Madame de Charmoisy and others, women as well as men, Bishop Francis de Sales began writing to them pastoral letters of spiritual direction.[4]  Later, due to pressure of work, he prepared short articles or “essays” about different aspects of the spiritual life.  These he got circulated among some of those whom he directed.  It was from such short “essays” that the Introduction was born in 1608.

 

In his preface to the Introduction, St. Francis refers to the origin of the book.[5]  He does not mention the name of the “very respectable and virtuous person” to whom he gave “written notes” about various spiritual exercises.  She has been identified as Madame Louise de Charmoisy, the wife of one of his cousins.  As a matter of fact, Madame de Charmoisy gave the following testimony at the Process of Canonization of St. Francis de Sales:

 

Soon after I had placed myself under the direction of the said Servant of God, I was obliged to return to Court.  I felt very uneasy about this.  So I went to consult the said Servant of God and told him of my fears.  His answer was: “Take courage, my child.  Do not be afraid that you will fall back because of this.  If you are faithful to God he will never fail you.  He will give you enough time to make your spiritual exercises, as well as to do everything else that you have to do, even if he has to stop the sun and the moon.”  Because of this, he decided to give me some written instructions about this matter.  I showed these to a Jesuit Father.  He found them so very good and useful that he requested the Servant of God to have them published.  That is why he prepared the Introduction to the Devout Life of which they become a part.[6]

 

The “Jesuit Father” mentioned by Madame de Charmoisy, whom St. Francis in his Preface calls “an important, learned and devout religious,” is identified in one of St. Francis’ letters as Fr. John Fourier, then Rector of the Jesuit College at Chambery.[7]  Francis had chosen him as his spiritual director.  In a letter dated 25th March 1608, Fr. Fourier writes to Bishop Francis as follows:

 

How shall we go about preparing for publication the treasure of devotion with Madame de Charmoisy?  It seems to me that the whole matter must be revised, arranged with titles, and have a Preface as well as the author’s name.  In this way the good will be more secure and more widespread: all for the glory of God.[8]

 

The first edition of the Introduction was published towards the end of 1608.  It was immediately sold out.  In mid-February 1609, Francis wrote to Madame de Chantal asking her to bring all the letters and “essays” she had received from him.[9]  He completely revised the book, adding new chapters as well as new matter.  The second edition appeared in September 1609.  As there were many printing mistakes, Francis carefully prepared a third edition which was published in 1610.[10]  But the printing mistakes remained; and even in the fourth edition of 1616.  From October 1618, St. Francis was forced to spend many months in Paris on a diplomatic mission.  He used this opportunity to make one more revision.  This fifth edition was published in 1619.  It is the text of this fifth edition which has been retained as the definitive text in the Annecy Edition of the Introduction.  If is from this text that the present translation is made.  The Introduction was so well appreciated that during the lifetime of St. Francis it was translated into Italian, Latin, English, Flemish and Spanish.

 

In the course of the centuries, the Introduction has remained one of the few spiritual classics that has a special appeal to all of Christ’s faithful.  St. Francis wrote it specially for the laity.  May the desire of Pope Pius XI be realized “that this book, as at one time it was in the hands of all, may now also be read by all.  In this way Christian piety will flourish everywhere, and the Church of God will rejoice at seeing sanctity common among her children.”[11]

 

-  Fr. Armind Nazareth msfs

 

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[1]   Apostolic letter, “Jewel of Savoy”, of January 1967, for the 4th centenary of the birth of St. Francis de Sales.  From the French text published by Bishop’s House, Annecy [1967].

[2]  From January 1595 to January 1596, later collected into a book called Controversies (A.E., Vol.1)

[3]  The talks he gave to the Sisters were taken down and now form the book called Spiritual Conferences (A.E., vol. 6).

[4]  There are 2,100 extant letters of St. Francis de Sales. Many of these were written to give spiritual guidance to individual persons.  The letters occupy eleven volumes in the 26-volume Annecy Edition of St. Francis’ writings.  But the editors point out that he must have written ten times that number.  See A.E., vol. 21, pp. v-vi.

[5]  See Preface by St. Francis de Sales, paragraph 7.

[6]  Translated from French: quoted by Dom B. Mackey, O.S.B., in his preface to the Introduction, A.E., Vol. 3. p. xiv.

[7]   See A.E., Vol. 14. p.215.

[8]   Translated from French in A.E., Vol. 13. p. 413.

[9]   See A.E., Vol. 14. p.131.

[10]  To see the notice with which Francis introduced this edition,  click  the introductory part.

[11]  In the Encyclical Letter f January 1923, for the 3rd Centenary of the death of St. Francis de Sales.  From the Latin in “L’Osservatore Romano.”

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