[1] _The Little Flowers of St Francis._
FRANCIS OF MAYRONE [FRANCISCUS DE MAYRONIS] (d. 1325), scholastic
philosopher, was born at Mayrone in Provence. He entered the Franciscan
order and subsequently went to Paris, where he was a pupil of Duns
Scotus. At the Sorbonne he acquired a great reputation for ability in
discussion, and was known as the _Doctor Illuminatus_ and _Magister
Acutus_. He became a professor of philosophy, and took part in the
discussions on the nature of Universals. Following Duns Scotus, he
adopted the Platonic theory of ideas, and denied that Aristotle had made
any contribution to metaphysical speculation. It is a curious commentary
on the theories of Duns Scotus that one pupil, Francis, should have
taken this course, while another pupil, Occam, should have used his
arguments in a diametrically opposite direction and ended in extreme
Nominalism.
His works were collected and published at Venice in 1520 under the
title _Praeclarissima ac multum subtilia scripta Illuminati Doctoris
Francisci de Mayronis, &c._
FRANCIS OF PAOLA (or PAULA), ST, founder of the Minims, a religious
order in the Catholic Church, was born of humble parentage at Paola in
Calabria in 1416, or according to the Bollandists 1438. As a boy he
entered a Franciscan friary, but left it and went to live as a hermit in
a cave on the seashore near Paola. Soon disciples joined him, and with
the bishop's approval he built a church and monastery. At first they
called themselves "Hermits of St Francis"; but the object they proposed
to themselves was to go beyond even the strict Franciscans in fasts and
bodily austerities of all kinds, in poverty and in humility; and
therefore, as the Franciscans were the Minors (_minores_, less), the new
order took the name of Minims (_minimi_, least). By 1474 a number of
houses had been established in southern Italy and Sicily, and the order
was recognized and approved by the pope. In 1482 Louis XI. of France,
being on his deathbed and hearing the reports of the holiness of
Francis, sent to ask him to come and attend him, and at the pope's
command he travelled to Paris. On this occasion Philip de Comines in his
_Memoirs_ says: "I never saw any man living so holily, nor out of whose
mouth the Holy Ghost did more manifestly speak." He remained with Louis
till his death, and Louis' successor, Charles VIII., held him in such
high esteem that he kept him in Paris, and enabled him to found various
houses of his order in France; in Spain and Germany, too, houses were
founded during Francis's lifetime. He never left France, and died in
1507 in the monastery of his order at Plessis-les-Tours.
The Rule was so strict that the popes long hesitated to confirm it in
its entirety; not until 1506 was it finally sanctioned. The most special
feature is an additional vow to keep a perpetual Lent of the strictest
kind, not only flesh meat but fish and all animal products--eggs, milk,
butter, cheese, dripping--being forbidden, so that the diet was confined
to bread, vegetables, fruit and oil, and water was the only drink. Thus
in matter of diet the Minims surpassed in austerity all orders in the
West, and probably all permanently organized orders in the East. The
strongly ascetical spirit of the Minims manifested itself in the title
borne by the superiors of the houses--not abbot (father), or prior, or
guardian, or minister, or rector, but corrector; and the general
superior is the corrector general. Notwithstanding its extreme severity
the order prospered. At the death of the founder it had five
provinces--Italy, France, Tours, Germany, Spain. Later there were as
many as 450 monasteries, and some missions in India. There never was a
Minim house in England or Ireland. It ranks as one of the Mendicant
orders. In 1909 there were some twenty monasteries, mostly in Sicily,
but one in Rome (S. Andrea delle Fratte), and one in Naples, in
Marseilles and in Cracow. There have been Minim nuns (only one convent
has survived, till recently at Marseilles) and Minim Tertiaries, in
imitation of the Franciscan Tertiaries. The habit of the Minims is
black.
See Helyot, _Hist. des ordres religieux_ (1714), vii. c. 56; Max
Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. Sec. 52; the article
"Franz von Paula" in Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), and
in Herzog, _Realencyklopaedie_ (ed. 3); Catholic _Dictionary_, art.
"Minims." (E. C. B.)
FRANCIS (FRANCOIS) OF SALES, ST (1567-1622), bishop of Geneva and doctor
of the Church (1877), was born at the castle of Sales, near Annecy,
Savoy. His father, also Francois, comte de Sales, but better known as M.
de Boisy, a nobleman and soldier, had been employed in various affairs
of state, but in 1560, at the age of thirty-eight, settled down on his
ancestral estates and married Francoise de Sionnay, a Savoyard like
himself, and an heiress. St Francis, the first child of this union, was
born in August 1567 when his mother was in her fifteenth year. M. de
Boisy was renowned for his experience and sound judgment, and both
parents were distinguished by piety, love of peace, charity to the poor,
qualities which early showed themselves in their eldest son.
He received his education first at La Roche, in the Arve valley, then at
the college of Annecy, founded by Eustace Chappius, ambassador in England
of Charles V., in 1549. At the age of thirteen or fourteen he went to the
Jesuit College of Clermont at Paris, where he stayed till the summer of
1588, and where he laid the foundations of his profound knowledge, while
perfecting himself in the exercises of a young nobleman and practising a
life of exemplary virtue. At this time also he developed an ardent love
of France, a country which was politically in antagonism with his own,
though so closely linked to it geographically, socially and by language.
At the end of 1588 he went to Padua, to take his degree in canon and
civil law, a necessary prelude in Savoy at that time to distinction in a
civil career. His heart, however, especially from the date of his
receiving the tonsure (1578), was already turned towards the Church, and
he gave his attention even more to theology, under the great masters
Antonio Possevino, S.J., and Gesualdo, afterwards general of the Friars
Minor, than to his legal course. "At Padua," he said to a friend, "I
studied law to please my father, and theology to please myself." In that
licentious university Francis found the greatest difficulty in resisting
attacks on his virtue, and once at least had to draw his sword to defend
his personal safety against a band of ruffians. The gentleness for which
he was already renowned was not that of a weak, but of a strong
character. He returned to Savoy in 1592, and, while seeking the occasion
to overcome his father's resistance to his resolution of embracing the
ecclesiastical profession, took the diploma of advocate to the senate.
Meantime, without his knowledge, his friends procured for him the post of
provost of the chapter of Geneva, an honour which reconciled M. de Boisy
to the sacrifice of more ambitious hopes. After a year of zealous work as
preacher and director he was sent by the bishop, Claude de Granier, to
try and win back the province of Chablais, which had embraced Calvinism
when usurped by Bern in 1535, and had retained it even after its
restitution to Savoy in 1564. At first the people refused to listen to
him, for he was represented to them as an instrument of Satan, and all
who had dealings with him were threatened with the vengeance of the
consistory. He therefore wrote out his message on sheets which were
passed from hand to hand, and these, with the spectacle of his virtues
and disinterestedness, soon produced a strong effect. The sheets just
spoken of still exist in the Chigi library at Rome, and were published,
though with many alterations, in 1672, under the title of _Les
Controverses_. This must be considered the first work of St Francis.
The re-erection of a wayside cross in Annemasse, at the gates of Geneva,
amid an enormous concourse of converts, an event which closed the three
years of his apostolate, led to the composition of the _Defense ... de
la Croix_, published in 1600. An illness brought on by toil and
privation forced him to leave his work to others for nearly a year, but
in August 1598 he returned to his field of labour, and in October of
that year practically the whole country was Catholic again. Up to that
time preaching and conference had been the only weapons employed. The
stories of the use of soldiers to produce simulated conversions are
incorrect.[1] Possibly the lamentable events of the campaigns of 1589 in
Gex and Chablais have been applied to the period 1594-1598. In October
of this last year, however, the duke of Savoy, who came then to assist
in person at the great religious feasts which celebrated the return of
the country to unity of faith, expatriated such of the leading men as
obstinately refused even to listen to the Catholic arguments. He also
forbade Calvinist ministers to reside in the Chablais, and substituted
Catholic for Huguenot officials. St Francis concurred in these measures,
and, three years later, even requested that those who, as he said,
"follow their heresy, rather as a party than a religion," should be
ordered either to conform or to leave their country, with leave to sell
their goods. His conduct, judged not by a modern standard, but by the
ideas of his age, will be found compatible with the highest Christian
charity, as that of the duke with sound political prudence. At this time
he was nominated to the pope as coadjutor of Geneva,[2] and after a
visit to Rome he assisted Bishop de Granier in the administration of the
newly converted countries and of the diocese at large.
In 1602 he made his second visit to the French capital, when his
transcendent qualities brought him into the closest relations with the
court of Henry IV., and made him the spiritual father of that circle of
select souls who centred round Madame Acarie. Among the celebrated
personages who became his life friends from this time were Pierre de
Berulle, founder of the French Oratorians, Guillaume Duval, the scholar,
and the duc de Bellegarde, the latter a special favourite of the king,
who begged to be allowed to share the Saint's friendship. At this time
also his gift as a preacher became fully recognized, and de Sanzea,
afterwards bishop of Bethlehem, records that Duval exhorted all his
students of the Sorbonne to listen to him and to imitate this, "the true
and excellent method of preaching." His principles are expressed in the
admirable letter to Andre Fremyot of October 1604.
De Granier died in September 1602, and the new bishop entered on the
administration of his vast diocese, which, as a contemporary says, "he
found brick and left marble." His first efforts were directed to
securing a virtuous and well-instructed clergy, with its consequence of
a people worthy of their pastors. All his time was spent in preaching,
confessing, visiting the sick, relieving the poor. His zeal was not
confined to his diocese. In concert with Jeanne Francoise Fremyot
(1572-1641), widow of the baron de Chantal, whose acquaintance he made
while preaching through Lent at Dijon in 1604, he founded the order of
the Visitation, in favour of "strong souls with weak bodies," as he
said, deterred from entering the orders already existing, by their
inability to undertake severe corporal austerities. The institution
rapidly spread, counting twenty houses before his death and eighty
before that of St Jeanne. The care of his diocese and of his new
foundation were not enough for his ardent charity, and in 1609 he
published his famous _Introduction to a Devout Life_, a work which was
at once translated into the chief European languages and of which he
himself published five editions. In 1616 appeared his _Treatise on the
Love of God_, which teaches that perfection of the spiritual life to
which the former work is meant to be the "Introduction."
The important Lents of 1617 and 1618 at Grenoble were a prelude to a
still more important apostolate in Paris, "the theatre of the world," as
St Vincent de Paul calls it. This third visit to the great city lasted
from the autumn of 1618 to that of 1619; the direct object of it was to
assist in negotiating the marriage of the prince of Piedmont with
Chretienne of France, but nearly all his time was spent in preaching and
works of mercy, spiritual or corporal. He was regarded as a living
saint. St Vincent scarcely left him, and has given the most
extraordinary testimonies (as yet unpublished) of his heroic virtues.
Mere Angelique Arnaud, who at this time put herself under his direction
and wished to join the Order of the Visitation, attracted by its
humility and sweetness, may be named as the most interesting of his
innumerable penitents of this period. He returned to Savoy, and after
three years more of unwearying labour died at Lyons on the 28th of
December 1622. A universal outburst of veneration followed; indeed his
cult had already begun, and after an episcopal inquiry the pontifical
commission in view of his beatification was instituted by decree of the
21st of July 1626, a celerity unique in the annals of the Congregation
of Rites. The depositions of witnesses were returned to Rome in 1632,
but meantime the forms of the Roman chancery had been changed by Urban
VIII., and the advocates could not at once continue their work.
Eventually a new commission was issued in 1656, and on its report, into
which were inserted nineteen of the former depositions, the "servant of
God" was beatified in 1661. The canonization took place in 1665.
Besides the works which we have named, there were published
posthumously his _Entretiens_, i.e. a selection of the lectures given
to the Visitation, reported by the sisters who heard them, some of his
sermons, a large number of his letters, various short treatises of
devotion. The first edition of his united or so-called "Complete"
works was published at Toulouse in 1637. Others followed in 1641,
1647, 1652, 1663, 1669, 1685. The _Lettres_ and _Opuscules_ were
republished in 1768.
The only modern editions of the complete works which it is worth while
to name are those of Blaise (1821), Vires (1856-1858), Migne (1861),
and the critical edition published by the Visitation of Annecy, of
which the 14th volume appeared in 1905.
The biography of St Francis de Sales was written immediately after his
death by the celebrated P. de La Riviere and Dom John de St Francois
(Goulu), as well as by two other authors of less importance. The
saint's nephew and successor, Charles Auguste de Sales, brought out a
more extended life, Latin and French, in 1635. The lives of Giarda
(1650), Maupas du Tour (1657) and Cotolendi (1687) add little to
Charles Auguste. Marsollier's longer life, in two volumes (1700), is
quite untrustworthy; still more so that by Loyau d'Amboise (1833),
which is rather a romance than a biography. The lives by Hamon (1856)
and Perennes (1860), without adding much to preceding biographies, are
serious and edifying. A complete life, founded on the lately
discovered process of 1626 and the new letters, was being prepared by
the author of the present article at the time of his death. With the
Lives must be mentioned the _Esprit du B.F. de Sales_ by Camus, bishop
of Belley, who, amid innumerable errors, gives various interesting
traits and sayings of his saintly friend. Among the very numerous
modern studies may be named an essay by Leigh Hunt entitled "The
Gentleman Saint" (_The Seer_, pt. ii. No. 41); a remarkable _causerie_
by Sainte-Beuve (_Lundis_, 3rd Jan. 1853); _Le Reveil du sentiment
religieux en France au XVII^e siecle_, by Strowski (Paris, 1898);
_Four Essays on S. F. de S._ and _Three Essays on S. F. de S. as
Preacher_, by Canon H.B. Mackey. (H. B. M.)