Salesian Literature

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

To the Reader

 

1.   “I am in every way a Savoyard, both by birth and by obligation” (1567-1578)

Birth and Ancestry  

Baptism in the Church in Thorens  

From 1569 to 1573, Did the Boisy Family Settle at Brens?  

The Education of a Future Lord of Sales  

1573-1575: The Schoolboy at La Roche-sur-Foron  

1575-1576: Francis at the Chappuisien College in Annecy  

Two Great Events in Francis' Religious Life  

Francis de Sales Leaves the Chappuisien College for Paris

 

2.   The humanistic and mystical student at Paris and Padua (1578-1591)

 

1. Paris: 1578-1588  

Francis’ Scholarly Progress  

At the Jesuit’s School  

“On the High Seas of the World”  

“I wish to see… Sacred Theology”  

The Crisis  

The Mystical Character of this crisis  

Francis leaves Paris

 

2. Padua: 1588-15921  

The City and its University  

Father Possevin  

Law Studies  

Theology Studies  

Francis’ Student life at Padua  

The Doctorate in Law  

Portrait of a Young Doctor  

The Return to Savoy

 

3.   A Priesthood dearly acquired (February 1592-December 1593)

Family welcome  

Francis’ great perplexity  

What happened in the Sionnaz Woods on that return trip  

Francis refuses the Title of Senator  

“Father, may it please you to permit me to enter the church”  

Francis de Sales “Takes the Habit of Saint Peter”  

Francis the Provost “in Solitude” at the Château de Sales  

Holy Orders  

The “Installation” of the Provost of Geneva  

A Priest of the country

 

4.   Missionary at the risk of his life (1594-1598)

The Chablais

Bishop de Granier’s Choice

Francis leaves for the Chablais

Strategy

The Controversies

Francis settles in Thonon

First Yield

Interruption at Thorens and Annecy

Return to the Chablais 

Lassitude and Bursts of Hope 

The Time of the great Confrontations 

The Abjuration of Antoine de Saint-Michel, Seigneur d’Avully 

The silences and promises of the Duke of Savoy 

The three Christmas masses at Thonon 

1597: The visits to Theodore de Bèze   

The Forty Hours at Annemasse 

Francis accepts the Coadjutorship of Geneva 

A serious illness delays Francis’ trip to Rome 

The Forty Hours at Thonon

 

5.   “A rare bird on the earth” (1598-1602)

Bishop de Granier's substitute for the "Ad Limina" Visit

Francis faces an examining board of Cardinals and Theologians  

The Coadjutor of Bishop de Granier  

The French invade Savoy  

The death of M. de Boisy  

Bishop de Granier sends Francis to Paris on a diplomatic mission  

Diplomat and missionary  

Lent and the Louvre  

The Bishop and the King  

The spiritual radiance of Francis  

The Episcopal consecration of Francis in the Church at Thorens

 

6.   Francis de Sales, Prince-Bishop of Geneva

In the steps of Jesus Christ in the manner of the apostles

A Reformer-Bishop  

The Bishop of Geneva’s daily schedule  

The aura of the miraculous  

Francis de Sales’ apostolic vision of the world  

1603: The new Bishop’s most urgent tasks  

Change of strategy regarding some protestants in Gex  

Francis de Sales, Father Chérubin, and the “Pope’s League”  

The Bishop and his priests

 

7.   “The God of encounters” (1604): Lent at Dijon

To avoid the lawsuit between Bishops  

“A lady of quality, dressed as a widow”  

The true problem

 Jane de Chantal and her director-dictator  

Francis restores Mme de Chantal’s spiritual freedom  

Jane de Chantal on her way toward pure love  

Light at last  

Correspondence of spiritual friendship

 

8.   The Bishop among the people of God (1605-1608)

“A complete sphere under a single star” (Sainte-Beuve)  

Pastoral Visitations  

The Florimontane Academy  

The quarrel “De Auxiliis”  

The death of young Jeanne de Sales

 

9.   A writer without “time to catch his breath” (1608-1609)

The marriage between Bernard de Sales and Marie-Aimée de Chantal  

The service of souls: Philotheas and Theotimuses  

The misadventures of a Little Book and its author  

A “great confusion of affairs”  

Jane de Chantal “obtains permission” to follow her vocation

 

10.  The Introduction to the Devout Life (1609) ... and still continuing

Three key words  

What, then, is the devout life?  

The itinerary of the devout life  

The outstanding characteristics of Salesian Devotion  

Three questions  

The Style of the Introduction to the Devout Life

 

11.  The Annecy Visitation (1610-1615)

Bereavements in the de Sales and de Chantal families  

Jane de Chantal leaves Burgundy for Annecy  

The “Bethlehem” of the new Institute  

The evening of June 6, 1610  

Genesis of the Visitation of Holy Mary  

Francis de Sales and Archbishop de Marquemont: The Visitation in “Formal Religion”

The spirit of the Visitation  

“Like rays of the sun”

 

12.  The Treatise on the Love of God (1616)

The Retreat during Pentecost  

The war in Savoy  

Lent at Grenoble  

The Treatise on the Love of God or God’s game with the human heart  

The protagonists of the game: God and man  

The enclosure in which the game is played  

The rule of the game  

The finale of the game of divine love  

An astonishment to dissipate

 

13.  To the Mercy of God (1617-October 1618)

“The little larva becomes a bee”  

The deaths of Bernard and Marie-Aimée de Sales  

“The Apostle of Grenoble”  

Toward new diplomatic missions

 

14.  Paris’ triumphal welcome to the Bishop of Geneva (October 1618-October 1619)

The journey of the Prince’s retinue  

Diplomacy and the “Novitiate at court”  

When a Diplomat Has a missionary’s heart  

Francis de Sales and Vincent de Paul  

The Visitation in Paris  

Mother Angélique Arnauld and her encounters with Francis de Sales and Mother de Chantal  

The Coadjutorship of Paris

 

15.  When a missionary dreams of a hermitage (October 1619-1621)

Resumption of familiar business and worries  

Jean-François de Sales, Coadjutor to the Bishop of Geneva  

The dream of repose in the hermitage of Saint-Germain de Talloires

 

16.  “Either to love of to die, to love and to die” (1622)

The general chapter of the Bernadines at Pignerol  

The Avignon Journey

To love or die, to love and die

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