THE parents of this saint were Francis, count of Sales, and Frances of
Sionas. The countess being with child, offered her fruit to God with the
most fervent prayers, begging he would preserve it from the corruption
of the world, and rather deprive her of the comfort of seeing herself a
mother, than suffer her to give birth to a child who should ever become
his enemy by sin. The saint was born at Sales, three leagues from
Annecy, the seat of that noble family; and his mother was delivered of
him when she was {290} but seven months advanced in her pregnancy.[1]
Hence he was reared with difficulty, and was so weak, that his life,
during his infancy, was often despaired of by physicians. However, he
escaped the danger, and grew robust: he was very beautiful, and the
sweetness of his countenance won the affections of all who saw him: but
the meekness of his temper, the pregnancy of his wit, his modesty,
tractableness, and obedience, were far more valuable qualifications. The
countess could scarce suffer the child out of her sight, lest any
tincture of vice might infect his soul. Her first care was to inspire
him with the most profound respect for the church, and all holy things;
and she had the comfort to observe in him a recollection and devotion at
his prayers far above his age. She read to him the lives of the saints,
adding recollections suited to his capacity; and she took care to have
him with her when she visited the poor, making him the distributer of
her alms, and to do such little offices for them as he was able. He
would set by his own meat for their relief, and when he had nothing left
to bestow on them, would beg for them of all his relations. His horror
of a lie, even in his infancy, made him prefer any disgrace or
chastisement to the telling of the least wilful untruth.
His mother's inclination for a domestic preceptor, to prevent his being
corrupted by wicked youth in colleges, was overruled by her husband's
persuasion of the usefulness of emulation for advancing children in
their studies; hoping his son's virtue and modesty would, under God, be
a sufficient guard of his innocency. He was accordingly sent to
Rocheville, at six years of age, and some time after to Annecy. An
excellent memory, a solid judgment, and a good application, could not
fail of great progress. The young count spent as much of his time as
possible in private studies and lectures of piety, especially that of
the lives of saints; and by his diligence always doubled or trebled his
school tasks. He showed an early inclination for the ecclesiastical
state, and obtained his father's consent, though not without some
reluctance, for his receiving tonsure in the year 1578, and the eleventh
of his age. He was sent afterwards, under the care of a virtuous priest,
his preceptor, to pursue his studies in Paris; his mother having first
instilled into him steady principles of virtue, a love of prayer, and a
dread of sin and its occasions. She often repeated to him those words of
queen Blanche to her son St. Louis, king of France: "I had rather see
you dead, than hear you had committed one mortal sin." On his arrival at
Paris, he entered the Jesuits' schools, and went through his rhetoric
and philosophy with great applause. In pure obedience to his father's
orders, he learned in the academy to ride, dance, and fence, whence he
acquired that easy behavior which he retained ever after. But these
exercises, as matters of amusement, did not hinder his close application
to the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages, and of positive
divinity, for six years, under the famous Genebrard and Maldonatus. But
his principal concern all this time was a regular course of piety, by
which he labored to sanctify himself and all his actions. Pious
meditation, and the study of the holy scripture, were his beloved
entertainments: and he never failed to carry about him that excellent
book, called the Spiritual Combat. He sought the conversation of the
virtuous, particularly of F. Angelus Joyeuse, who, from a duke and
marshal of France, was become a Capuchin friar. The frequent discourses
of this good man on the necessity of mortification, induced the count to
add, to his usual austerities, the wearing of a hair shirt three days in
the week. His chief resort during his stay at Paris, was to some
churches, that especially of Saint Stephen des Grez, as being one of the
most retired. Here, he made {291} a vow of perpetual chastity, putting
himself under the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin. God, to
purify his heart, permitted a thick darkness insensibly to overspread
his mind, and a spiritual dryness and melancholy to overwhelm him. He
seemed, from a perfect tranquillity and peace of mind, to be almost
brought to the brink of despair. Seized with the greatest terrors, he
passed nights and days in tears and lamentations, and suffered more than
can be conceived by those who have not felt the severity of such
interior conflicts. The bitterness of his grief threw him into a deep
jaundice; he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep. His preceptor labored,
but all in vain, to discover the cause of this disorder, and find out a
remedy. At last, Francis, being at prayer in the same church of St.
Stephen, cast his eyes on a picture of our Lady: this awaking his
confidence in her intercession, he prostrated himself on the ground,
and, as unworthy to address the Father of all consolation, begged that
she would be his advocate, and procure him the grace to love God with
his whole heart. That very moment he found himself eased of his grief as
of a heavy weight taken off his heart, and his former peace and
tranquillity restored, which he ever after enjoyed. He was now eighteen
years old, when his father recalled him from Paris, and sent him to
Padua, to study the law, where his master was the celebrated Guy
Pancirola; this was in the year 1554. He chose the learned and pious
Jesuit, Antony Possevin, for his spiritual director; who at the same
time explained to him St. Thomas's Sum, and they read together
Bellarmin's controversies. His nephew, Augustus, gives us his written
rule of life, which he made at Padua: it chiefly shows his perpetual
attention to the presence of God, his care to offer up every action to
him, and implore his aid at the beginning of each. Falling sick, he was
despaired of by the physicians, and he himself expected with joy his
last moment. His preceptor, Deage, who had ever attended him, asked him
with tears, what he had to order about his funeral and other matters.
"Nothing," answered he, cheerfully, "unless it be, that my body be given
to the anatomy theatre to be dissected; for it will be a comfort to me
if I can be of any advantage when dead, having been of none while alive.
Thus I may also prevent some of the disorders and quarrels which happen
between the young physicians and the friends of the dead, whose bodies
they often dig up." However, he recovered; and by his father's orders,
being twenty years of age, commenced doctor in laws, with great applause
and pomp, in presence of forty-eight doctors. After which he travelled
through Italy to see the antiquities, and visit the holy places there.
He went to Rome by Ferrara, and returned by Loretto and Venice. To any
insult offered him on the road he returned only meekness; for which he
met with remarkable blessings from heaven. The sight of the pompous
remains of ancient Rome gave him a feeling contempt of worldly grandeur:
but the tombs of the martyrs drew everywhere tears of devotion from his
eyes. Upon his return his father received him with great joy, at his
castle of Tuille, where he had prepared for him a good library of books.
All persons were charmed with the young count, but none so much as the
great Antony Favre, afterwards first president of the parliament of
Chamberry, and Claudius Cranier, the learned and truly apostolic bishop
of Geneva, who already consulted him as an oracle. His father had a very
good match in view for him, and obtained in his behalf, from the duke of
Savoy, patents creating him counsellor of the parliament of Chamberry.
Francis modestly, but very firmly, refused both; yet durst not propose
to his parents his design of receiving holy orders; for the tonsure was
not all absolute renouncing of the world. At last, he discovered it to
his pious preceptor, Deage, and begged of him to mention it to his
father: but this he {292} declined, and used his utmost endeavors to
dissuade the young count from such a resolution, as he was the eldest
son, and destined by the order of nature for another state. Francis
answered all his reasonings, but could not prevail on him to charge
himself with the commission. He had then recourse to a cousin, Lewis of
Sales, a priest and canon of Geneva, who obtained the consent of his
parents, but not without the greatest difficulty. His cousin also
obtained for him from the pope, without his knowledge, the provostship
of the church of Geneva, then vacant: but the young clergyman held out a
long time before he would accept of it. At last he yielded, and took
possession of that dignity, and was in a short time after promoted to
holy orders by his diocesan, who, as soon as he was deacon, employed him
in preaching. His first sermons gained him an extraordinary reputation,
and were accompanied with incredible success. He delivered the word of
God with a mixture of majesty and modesty; had a strong, sweet voice,
and an animated manner of gesture, far from any affectation or vanity:
but what chiefly affected the hearts of his hearers was the humility and
unction with which he spoke from the abundance of his own heart. Before
he preached, he always renewed the fervor of his heart before God, by
secret sighs and prayer. He studied as much at the foot of the crucifix
as in books, being persuaded that the essential quality of a preacher is
to be a man of prayer. He received the holy order of priesthood with
extraordinary preparation and devotion, and seemed filled by it with an
apostolic spirit. He every day began his functions by celebrating the
holy mysteries early in the morning, in which, by his eyes and
countenance of fire, the inward flames of his soul appeared. He then
heard the confessions of all sorts of people, and preached. He was
observed to decline with the utmost care whatever might gain him the
applause of men, seeking only to please God, and to advance his glory.
He chiefly resorted to cottages, and country villages, instructing an
infinity of poor people. His piety, his charity to the poor, his
disinterestedness, his care of the sick and those in prison, endeared
him to all: but nothing was so moving as his meekness, which no
provocation was ever capable of disturbing. He conversed among all as
their father, with a fellow-feeling of all their wants, being all to
all. He was indeed naturally of a hasty and passionate temper, as he
himself confesses; and we find in his writings a certain fire and
impetuosity which renders it unquestionable. On this account from his
youth he made meekness his favorite virtue, and by studying in the
school of a God who was meek and humble of heart, he learned that
important lesson to such perfection, as to convert his predominant
passion into his characteristical virtue. The Calvinists ascribed
principally to his meekness the wonderful conversions he made among
them. They were certainly the most obstinate of people at that time,
near Geneva; yet St. Francis converted no less than seventy-two thousand
of them.
Before the end of this first year of his ministry, in 1591, he erected
at Annecy a confraternity of the Holy Cross, the associates of which
were obliged to instruct the ignorant, to comfort and exhort the sick
and prisoners, and to beware of all lawsuits, which seldom fail to
shipwreck Christian charity. A Calvinistical minister took occasion from
this institution to write against the honor paid by Catholics to the
cross. Francis answered him by his book entitled, The Standard of the
Cross. At this time, fresh matter presented itself for the exercise of
the saint's zeal. The bishop of Geneva was formerly lord of that city,
paying an acknowledgment to the duke of Savoy. While these two were
disputing about the sovereignty, the Genevans expelled them both, and
formed themselves into a republic in alliance with the Switzers; and
their city became the centre of Calvinism. {293} Soon after, the
Protestant canton of Bern seized the country of Vaux, and the republic
of Geneva, the dutchy of Chablais, with the bailiwicks of Gex, Terni,
and Gaillard; and there by violence established their heresy, which from
that time had kept quiet possession for sixty years. The duke Charles
Emmanuel had recovered these territories, and resolving to restore the
Catholic religion, wrote in 1594 to the bishop of Geneva, to recommend
that work to him. The wise ones, according to this world, regarded the
undertaking as impracticable; and the most resolute, whether
ecclesiastics or religious, were terrified at its difficulties and
dangers. Francis was the only one that offered himself for the work, and
was joined by none but his cousin-german Lewis de Sales. The tears and
remonstrances of his parents and friends to dissuade him from the
undertaking, made no impression on his courageous soul. He set out with
his cousin on the 9th of September, in 1594. Being arrived on the
frontiers of Chablais, they sent back their horses, the more perfectly
to imitate the apostles. On his arrival at Thonon, the capital of
Chablais, situate on the lake of Geneva, he found in it only seven
Catholics. After having commended the souls to God, and earnestly
implored his mercy through the intercession of the guardian angels, and
tutelar saints of the country, he was obliged to take up his quarters in
the castle of Allinges, where the governor and garrison were Catholics,
two leagues from Thonon, whither he went every day, visiting also the
neighboring country. The Calvinists for a long time shunned him, and
some even attempted his life. Two assassins, hired by others, having
missed him at Thonon, lay in wait to murder him on his return; but a
guard of soldiers had been sent to escort him safe, the conspiracy
having taken wind. The saint obtained their pardon, and, overcome by his
lenity and formed by his holy instructions, they both became very
virtuous converts. All our saint's relations, and many friends, whom he
particularly respected for their great virtue and prudence, solicited
him by the most pressing letters to abandon such a dangerous and
fruitless enterprise. His father, to the most tender entreaties, added
his positive commands to him to return home, telling him that all
prudent persons called his resolution to continue his mission a foolish
obstinacy and madness; that he had already done more than was needful,
and that his mother was dying of grief for his long absence, the fear of
losing him entirely, and the hardships, atrocious slanders, and
continual alarms and dangers in which he lived. To compel him to abandon
this undertaking, the father forbade his friends to write any more to
him, or to send him necessary supplies. Nevertheless, St. Francis
persevered, and at length his patience, zeal, and eminent virtue,
wrought upon the most obdurate, and insensibly wore away their
prejudices. His first converts were among the soldiers, whom he brought
over, not only to the faith, but also to an entire change of manners and
strict virtue, from habits of swearing, duelling, and drunkenness. He
was near four years, however, without any great fruit among the
inhabitants, till the year 1597, when God was pleased to touch several
of them with his grace. The harvest daily increased both in the town and
country so plentifully, that a supply of new laborers from Annecy was
necessary, and the bishop sent some Jesuits and Capuchins to carry on
the good work with Francis and under his direction. In 1598 the public
exercise of the Catholic religion was restored, and Calvinism banished
by the duke's orders over all Chablais, and the two bailiwicks of Terni
and Gaillard. Though the plague raged violently at Thonon, this did not
hinder Francis either by day or night from assisting the sick in their
last moments; and God preserved him from the contagion, which seized and
swept off several of his fellow-laborers. It is incredible what fatigues
and hardships he underwent in the course of his mission; with what
devotion {294} and tears he daily recommended the work of God: with what
invincible courage he braved the greatest dangers: with what meekness
and patience he bore all manner of affronts and calumnies. Baron
D'Avuli, a man of quality, and of great worth and learning, highly
esteemed among the Calvinists, and at Geneva, being converted by him,
induced him to go thither, to have a conference with the famous minister
La Faye. The minister, during the whole conference, was ever shifting
the matter in debate, as he found himself embarrassed and pressed by his
antagonist. His disadvantage being so evident that be himself could read
it in the countenance of every one present, he broke off the conference
by throwing out a whole torrent of injurious language on Francis, who
bore it with so much meekness as not to return the least sharp answer.
During the whole course of his ministry in these parts, the violent
measures, base cowardice in declining all dispute, and the shameful
conduct of the ministers in other respects, set the saint's behavior and
his holy cause still in a more shining light. In 1597 he was
commissioned by pope Clement VIII. to confer with Theodore Beza at
Geneva, the most famous minister of the Calvinist party, in order to win
him back to the Catholic church. He accordingly paid him four visits in
that city, gained a high place in that heresiarch's esteem, and made him
often hesitate in deep silence and with distracted looks, whether he
should return to the Roman Catholic church or not, wherein he owned from
the beginning that salvation was attainable. St. Francis had great hopes
of bringing him over in a fifth visit, but his private conferences had
alarmed the Genevans so much that they guarded Beza too close for him to
find admittance to him again, and Beza died soon after. 'Tis said, that
a little before death he lamented very much he could not see Francis.[2]
It is certain, from his first conference with him, he had ever felt a
violent conflict within himself, between truth and duty on one hand, and
on the other, the pride of being head of a party, the shame of
recanting, inveterate habits, and certain secret engagements in vice, to
which he continued enslaved to the last. The invincible firmness and
constancy of the saint appeared in the recovery of the revenues of the
curacies and other benefices which had been given to the Orders of St.
Lazarus and St. Maurice; the restoration of which, after many
difficulties, he effected by the joint authority of the pope and the
duke of Savoy. In 1596 he celebrated mass on Christmas-day in the church
of St. Hippolytus at Thonon, and had then made seven or eight hundred
converts. From this time he charged himself with the parish of the town,
and established two other Catholic parishes in the country. In the
beginning of the year 1599 he had settled zealous clergymen in all the
parishes of the whole territory.
The honors the saint received from the pope, the duke of Savoy, the
cardinal of Medicis, and all the church, and the high reputation which
his virtues had acquired him, never made the least impression on his
humble mind, dead to all motions of pride and vanity. His delight was
with the poor: the most honorable functions he left to others, and chose
for himself the meanest and most laborious. Every one desired to have
him for their director, wherever he went: and his extraordinary
sweetness, in conjunction with his eminent piety, reclaimed as many
vicious Catholics as it converted heretics. In 1599, he went to Annecy
to visit his diocesan, Granier, who had procured him to be made his
coadjutor. The fear of resisting God, in refusing this charge, when
pressed upon him by the pope, in conjunction with his bishop and the
duke of Savoy, at last extorted his consent; but the apprehension of the
obligations annexed to the episcopacy was so strong that it threw him
into an illness which had like to have cost him his life. {295} On his
recovery he set out for Rome to receive his bulls, and to confer with
his Holiness on matters relating to the missions of Savoy. He was highly
honored by all the great men at Rome, and received of the pope the bulls
for being consecrated bishop of Nicopolis; and coadjutor of Geneva. On
this occasion he made a visit of devotion to Loretto, and returned to
Annecy before the end of the year 1599. Here he preached the Lent the
year following, and assisted his father during his last sickness, heard
his general confession, and administered to him the rites of the church.
An illness he was seized with at Annecy made him defer his consecration.
On his recovery he was obliged to go to Paris, on affairs of his
diocese, and was received there by all sorts of persons with all the
regard due to his extraordinary merit. The king was then at
Fontainebleau; but the saint was desired to preach the Lent to the court
in the chapel of the Louvre. This he did in a manner that charmed every
one, and wrought innumerable wonderful conversions. The duchesses of
Morcoeur and Longueville sent him thereupon a purse of gold: he admired
the embroidery, but gave it back, with thanks to them for honoring his
discourses with their presence and good example. He preached a sermon
against the pretended reformation, to prove it destitute of a lawful
mission; it being begun at Meaux, by Peter Clark, a wool-carder; at
Paris, by Masson Riviere, a young man called to the ministry by a
company of laymen; and elsewhere after the like manner. This sermon
converted many Calvinists; among others the countess of Perdrieuville,
who was one of the most obstinate learned ladies of the sect: she
consulted her ministers, and repaired often to Francis's conferences,
till she had openly renounced Calvinism with all her numerous family.
The whole illustrious house of Raconis followed her example, and so many
others, even of the most inveterate of the sect, that it made cardinal
Perron, a man famous for controversy, say: "I can confute the
Calvinists; but, to persuade and convert them, you must carry them to
the coadjutor of Geneva." Henry IV. was charmed with his preaching, and
consulted him several times in matters relating to the direction of his
conscience. There was no project of piety going forward about which he
was not advised with. He promoted the establishment of the Carmelite
nuns in France, and the introduction of F. Berulle's congregation of the
oratory. The king himself earnestly endeavored to detain him in France,
by promises of 20,000 livres pension, and the first vacant bishopric:
but Francis said, God had called him against his will to the bishopric
of Geneva, and he thought it his obligation to keep it till his death;
that the small revenue he had sufficed for his maintenance, and more
would only be an incumbrance. The king was astonished at his
disinterestedness, when he understood that the bishopric of Geneva,
since the revolt of that city, did not yield the incumbent above four or
five thousand livres, that is, not two hundred and fifty-nine pounds,
a-year.
Some envious courtiers endeavored to give the king a suspicion of his
being a spy. The saint heard this accusation just as he was going into
the pulpit; yet he preached as usual without the least concern; and that
prince was too well convinced of the calumny, by his sanctity and
candor. After a nine months' stay in Paris, he set out with the king's
letters,[3] and heard on the road, that Granier, bishop of Geneva, was
dead. He hastened to Sales-Castle, and as soon as clear of the first
visits, made a twenty days' retreat to prepare himself for his
consecration. He made a general confession, and {296} laid down a plan
of life, which he ever punctually observed. This was, never to wear any
silk or camlets, or any clothes but woollen, as before; to have no
paintings in his house but of devotions: no magnificence in furniture:
never to use coach or litter, but to make his visits on foot: his family
to consist of two priests, one for his chaplain, the other to take care
of his temporalities and servants: nothing but common meats to be served
to his table: to be always present at all feasts of devotion, kept in
any church in town: his regulation with respect to alms was incredible,
for his revenues: to go to the poor and sick in person: to rise every
day at four, make an hour's meditation, say lauds and prime, then
morning prayers with his family: to read the scripture till seven, then
say mass, which he did every day, afterwards to apply to affairs till
dinner, which being over, he allowed an hour for conversation; the rest
of the afternoon he allotted to business and prayer. After supper he
read a pious book to his family for an hour, then night prayers; after
which he said matins. He fasted all Fridays and Saturdays, and our
Lady's eves: be privately wore a hair shirt, and used the discipline,
but avoided all ostentatious austerities. But his exact regularity and
uniformity of life, with a continued practice of internal self-denials,
was the best mortification. He redoubled his fasts, austerities, and
prayers, as the time of his consecration drew nearer. This was performed
on the 3d of December, 1602. He immediately applied himself to preaching
and the other functions of his charge. He was exceedingly cautious in
conferring holy orders. He ordained but few, neither was it without the
strictest scrutiny passed upon all their qualifications for the
priesthood. He was very zealous, both by word and example, in promoting
the instruction of the ignorant by explanations of the catechism, on
Sundays and holidays; and his example had a great influence over the
parish-priests in this particular, as also over the laity, both young
and old. He inculcated to all the making, every hour when the clock
struck, the sign of the cross, with a fervent aspiration on the passion
of Christ. He severely forbade the custom of Valentines or giving boys,
in writing, the names of girls to be admired and attended on by them;
and, to abolish it, he changed it into giving billets with the names of
certain saints for them to honor and imitate in a particular manner. He
performed the visitation of his diocese as soon as possible, published a
new ritual, set on foot ecclesiastical conferences, and regulated all
things; choosing St. Charles Borromeo for his model.
Above all things he hated lawsuits, and strictly commanded all
ecclesiastics to avoid them, and refer all disputes to arbitration. He
said they were such occasions of sins against charity, that, if any one
during the course of a lawsuit had escaped them, that alone would
suffice for his canonization. Towards the close of the visitation of his
diocese, he reformed several monasteries. That of Six appealed to the
parliament of Chamberry: but our saint was supported there, and carried
his point. While Francis was at Six, he heard that a valley, three
leagues off, was in the utmost desolation, by the tops of two mountains
that had fallen, and buried several villages, with the inhabitants and
cattle. He crawled over impassable ways to comfort and relieve these
poor people, who had neither clothes to cover, nor cottages to shelter
them, nor bread to stay their hunger; he mingled his tears with theirs,
relieved them, and obtained from the duke a remission of their taxes.
The city of Dijon having procured leave from the duke of Savoy, the
saint preached the Lent there in 1604, with wonderful fruit; but refused
the present offered him by the city on that occasion. Being solicited by
Henry IV. to accept of a considerable abbey, the saint refused it;
alleging, that he dreaded riches as much as others could desire them;
and that, the less he had of them the less he would have to answer for.
That king {297} offered to name him to the dignity of cardinal at the
next promotion; but the saint made answer, that though he did not
despise the offered dignity, he was persuaded that great titles would
not sit well upon him, and might raise fresh obstacles to his salvation.
He was also thought of at Rome as a very fit person to be promoted to
that dignity, but was himself the only one who everywhere opposed and
crossed the design. Being desired on another occasion by the same king
to accept of a pension; the saint begged his majesty to suffer it to
remain in the hands of his comptroller till he should call for it; which
handsome refusal much astonished that great prince, who could not
forbear saying: "That the bishop of Geneva, by the happy independence in
which his virtue had placed him, was as far above him, as he by his
royal dignity was above his subjects." The saint preached the next Lent
at Chamberry, at the request of the parliament, which notwithstanding at
that very time seized his temporalities for refusing to publish a
monitory at its request; the saint alleging, that it was too trifling an
affair, and that the censures of the church were to be used more
reservedly. To the notification of the seizure he only answered
obligingly, that he thanked God for teaching him by it, that a bishop is
to be altogether spiritual. He neither desisted from preaching, nor
complained to the duke, but heaped most favors on such as most insulted
him, till the parliament, being ashamed, granted him of their own accord
a replevy. But the great prelate found more delight in preaching in
small villages than amidst such applause, though he everywhere met with
the like fruit; and he looked on the poor as the object of his
particular care. He took a poor dumb and deaf man into his family,
taught him by signs, and by them received his confession. His steward
often found it difficult to provide for his family by reason of his
great alms, and used to threaten to leave him. The saint would answer:
"You say right; I am an incorrigible creature, and what is worse, I look
as if I should long continue so." Or at other times, pointing to the
crucifix; "How can we deny any thing to a God who reduced himself to
this condition for the love of us!"
Pope Paul V. ordered our saint to be consulted about the school dispute
between the Dominicans and Jesuits on the grace of God, or de auxiliis.
His opinion appears from his book On the Love of God: but he answered
his Holiness in favor of neutrality, which he ever observed in school
opinions; complaining often in how many they occasioned the breach of
charity, and spent too much of their precious time, which, by being
otherwise employed, might be rendered more conducive to God's honor. In
1609 he went to Bellay, and consecrated bishop John Peter Camus, one of
the most illustrious prelates of the church of France, and linked to our
saint by the strictest bands of holy friendship. He wrote the book
entitled, The Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, consisting of many of his
ordinary sayings and actions, in which his spirit shines with great
advantage, discovering a perpetual recollection always absorbed in God,
and a constant overflowing of sweetness and divine love. His writings to
this day breathe the same; every word distils that love and meekness
with which his heart was filled. It is this which makes his epistles,
which we have to the number of five hundred and twenty-nine, in seven
books, to be an inestimable treasure of moving instructions, suitable to
all sorts of persons and circumstances.
His incomparable book, the Introduction to a Devout Life, was originally
letters to a lady in the world, which, at the pressing instances of many
friends, he formed into a book and finished, to show that devotion
suited Christians in a secular life, no less than in cloisters. Villars,
the archbishop of Vienna, wrote to him upon it: "Your book charms,
inflames, and puts me in raptures, as often as I open any part of it."
The author received {298} the like applause and commendations from all
parts, and it was immediately translated into all the languages of
Europe. Henry IV. of France was extremely pleased with it; his queen,
Mary of Medicis, sent it richly bound and adorned with jewels to James
I. of England, who was wonderfully taken with it, and asked his bishops
why none of them could write with such feeling and unction.[4] There
was, however, one religious Order in which this book was much censured,
as if it had allowed of gallantry and scurrilous jests, and approved of
balls and comedies, which was very far from the saint's doctrine. A
preacher of that Order had the rashness and presumption to declaim
bitterly against the book in a public sermon, to cut it in pieces, and
bum it in the very pulpit. The saint bore this outrage without the least
resentment; so perfectly was he dead to self-love. This appears more
wonderful to those who know how jealous authors are of their works, as
the offspring of their reason and judgment, of which men are of all
things the fondest. His book of the Love of God cost him much more
reading, study, and meditation. In it he paints his own soul. He
describes the feeling sentiments of divine love, its state of fervor, of
dryness, of trials, sufferings, and darkness: in explaining which he
calls in philosophy to his assistance. He writes on this sublime subject
what he had learned by his own experience. Some parts of this book are
only to be understood by those souls who have gone through these states:
yet the author has been ever justly admired for the performance. The
general of the Carthusians had written to him upon his Introduction,
advising him to write no more, because nothing else could equal that
book. But seeing this, he bade him never cease writing, because his
latter works always surpassed the former; and James 1. was so delighted
with the book, that he expressed a great desire to see the author. This
being told the saint, he cried out: "Ah! who will give me the wings of a
dove, and I will fly to the king, into that great island, formerly the
country of saints; but now overwhelmed with the darkness of error. If
the duke will permit me, I will arise, and go to that great Ninive: I
will speak to the king, and will announce to him, with the hazard of my
life, the word of the Lord." In effect, he solicited the duke of Savoy's
consent, but could never obtain it.[5] That jealous sovereign feared
lest he should be drawn in to serve another state, or sell to some other
his right to Geneva; on which account he often refused him leave to go
to preach in France, when invited by many cities. His other works are
sermons which are not finished as they were preached, except, perhaps,
that on the Invention of the Cross. We have also his Preparation for
Mass: his Instructions for Confessors: a collection of his Maxims, pious
Breathings and Sayings, written by the bishop of Bellay; some Fragments,
and his Entertainments to his nuns of the Visitation, in which he
recommends to them the most perfect interior self-denial, a
disengagement of affections from all things temporal, and obedience. The
institution of that Order may be read in the life of B. Frances Chantal.
Saint Francis designing his new Order to be such, that all, even the
sickly and weak, might be admitted into it, he chose for it the rule of
St. Austin, as commanding few extraordinary bodily austerities, and
would have it possess funds and settlements in common, to prevent being
carried off from the interior life by anxious cares about necessaries.
But then he requires from each person so strict a practice of poverty,
as to allow no one the property or even the long use of any thing; and
orders them every year to change chambers, beds, crosses, beads, and
books. He will have no manner of account to be made of birth, wit, or
talents; but only of humility; {299} he obliges them only to the little
office of our Lady, which all might easily learn to understand;
meditations, spiritual reading, recollection, and retreats, abundantly
compensating the defect. All his regulations tend to instil a spirit of
piety, charity, meekness, and simplicity. He subjects his Order to the
bishop of each place, without any general. Pope Paul V. approved it, and
erected the congregation of the Visitation into a religious Order.
St. Francis, finding his health decline, and his affairs to multiply,
after having consulted cardinal Frederic Borromeo, archbishop of Milan,
chose for his coadjutor in the bishopric of Geneva, his brother John
Francis of Sales, who was consecrated bishop of Chalcedon at Turin, in
1618. But the saint still applied himself to his functions as much as
ever. He preached the Lent at Grenoble, in 1617, and again in 1618, with
his usual conquests of souls; converting many Calvinists, and among
these the duke of Lesdiguieres. In 1619, he accompanied to Paris the
cardinal of Savoy, to demand the sister of king Louis XIII., Christina
of France, in marriage for the prince of Piedmont. He preached the Lent
in St. Andre-des-Arcs, and had always such a numerous audience, that
cardinals, bishops, and princes could scarce find room. His sermons and
conferences, and still more the example of his holy life, and the
engaging sweetness of his conversation, most powerfully moved not only
the devout, but also heretics, libertines, and atheists; while his
eloquence and learning convinced their understandings. The bishop of
Bellay tells us, that he entreated the saint at Paris not to preach
twice every day, morning and evening, for the sake of his health. St.
Francis answered him with a smile: "That it cost him much less to preach
a sermon than to find an excuse for himself when invited to perform that
function." He added: "God has appointed me a pastor and a preacher: and
is not every one to follow his profession? But I am surprised that the
people in this great city flock so eagerly to my sermons: for my tongue
is slow and heavy, my conceptions low, and my discourses flat, as you
yourself are witness." "Do you imagine," said the other, "that eloquence
is what they seek in your discourses? It is enough for them to see you
in the pulpit. Your heart speaks to them by your countenance, and by
your eyes, were you only to say the Our Father with them. The most
common words in your mouth, burning with the fire of charity, pierce and
melt all hearts. There is I know not what so extraordinary in what you
say, that every word is of weight, every word strikes deep into the
heart. You have said every thing even when you seem to have said
nothing. You are possessed of a kind of eloquence which is of heaven:
the power of this is astonishing." St. Francis, smiling, turned off the
discourse.[6] The match being concluded, the princess Christina chose
Francis for her chief almoner, desiring to live always under his
direction: but all her entreaties could neither prevail on him to leave
his diocese, though he had a coadjutor, nor to accept of a pension: and
it was only on these two conditions he undertook the charge, always
urging that nothing could dispense with him from residence. The princess
made him a present of a rich diamond, by way of an investiture, desiring
him to keep it for her sake. "I will," said he, "unless the poor stand
in need of it." She answered, she would then redeem it. He said, "This
will happen so often, that I shall abuse your bounty." Finding it given
to the poor afterwards at Turin, she gave him another, richer, charging
him to keep that at least. He said. "Madam, I cannot promise you: I am
very unfit to keep things of value." Inquiring after it one day, she was
told it was always in pawn for the poor, and that {300} the diamond
belonged not to the bishop, but to all the beggars of Geneva. He had
indeed a heart which was not able to refuse any thing to those in want.
He often gave to beggars the waistcoat off his own back, and sometimes
the cruets of his chapel. The pious cardinal, Henry de Gondi, bishop of
Paris, used all manner of arguments to obtain his consent to be his
coadjutor in the see of Paris; but he was resolved never to quit the
church which God had first committed to his charge.
Upon his return to Annecy he would not touch a farthing of his revenue
for the eighteen months he was absent; but gave it to his cathedral,
saying, it could not be his, for he had not earned it. He applied
himself to preaching, instructing, and hearing confessions with greater
zeal than ever. In a plague which raged there, he daily exposed his own
life to assist his flock. The saint often met with injurious treatment,
and very reviling words, which he ever repaid with such meekness and
beneficence as never failed to gain his very enemies. A lewd wretch,
exasperated against him for his zeal against a wicked harlot, forged a
letter of intrigue in the holy prelate's name, which made him pass for a
profligate and a hypocrite with the duke of Nemours and many others: the
calumny reflected also on the nuns of the Visitation. Two years after,
the author of it, lying on his death-bed, called in witnesses, publicly
justified the saint, and made an open confession of the slander and
forgery. The saint had ever an entire confidence in the divine
providence, was ever full of joy, and resigned to all the appointments
of heaven, to which he committed all events. He had a sovereign contempt
of all earthly things, whether riches, honors, dangers, or sufferings.
He considered only God and his honor in all things: his soul perpetually
breathed nothing but his love and praises; nor could he contain this
fire within his breast, for it discovered itself in his countenance;
which, especially while he said mass, or distributed the blessed
eucharist, appeared shining, as it were, with rays of glory, and
breathing holy fervor. Often he could not contain himself in his
conversation, and would thus express himself to his intimate friends:
"Did you but know how God treats my heart, you would thank his goodness,
and beg for me the strength to execute the inspirations which he
communicates to me. My heart is filled with an inexpressible desire to
be forever sacrificed to the pure and holy love of my Saviour. Oh! it is
good to live, to labor, to rejoice only in God. By his grace I will
forevermore be nothing to any creature; nor shall any creature be
anything to me but in him and for him." At another time, he cried out to
a devout friend: "Oh! if I knew but one string of my heart which was not
all God's, I would instantly tear it out. Yes; if I knew that there was
one thread in my heart which was not marked with the crucifix, I would
not keep it one moment."
In the year 1622, he received an order from the duke of Savoy to go to
Avignon to wait on Louis XIII., who had just finished the civil wars in
Languedoc. Finding himself indisposed, he took his last leave of his
friends, saying, he should see them no more; which drew from them floods
of tears. At Avignon he was at his prayers during the king's triumphant
entry, and never went to the window to see any part of that great pomp.
He was obliged to attend the king and the cardinal of Savoy to Lyons,
where he refused all the grand apartments offered him by the intendant
of he province and others, to lodge to the poor chamber of the gardener
to the monastery of the Visitation: as he was never better pleased than
when he could most imitate the poverty of his Saviour. He received from
the king and queen-mother, and from all the princes, the greatest marks
of honor and esteem: and though indisposed, continued to preach and
perform all his {301} functions, especially on Christmas-day, and St.
John's in the morning. After dinner he began to fall gradually into an
apoplexy, was put to bed by his servant, and received extreme unction;
but as he had said mass that day and his vomiting continued, it was
thought proper not to give him the viaticum. He repeated with great
fervor: "My heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God; I will sing
the mercies of the Lord to all eternity. When shall I appear before his
face? Show me, my beloved, where thou feedest, where thou restest at
noonday. O my God, my desire is before thee, and my sighs are not hidden
from thee. My God and my all! my desire is that of the hills eternal."
While the physicians applied blistering plasters, and hot irons behind
his neck, and a caustic to the crown of his head, which burned him to
the bone, he shed abundance of tears under excess of pain, repeating:
"_Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin. Still
cleanse me more and more_. What do I here, my God, distant from thee,
separated from thee?" And to those about him: "Weep not, my children;
must not the will of God be done?" One suggesting to him the prayer of
St. Martin, "If I am still necessary for thy people, I refuse not to
labor:" he seemed troubled at being compared to so great a saint, and
said, he was an unprofitable servant, whom neither God nor his people
needed. His apoplexy increasing, though slowly, he seemed at last to
lose his senses, and happily expired on the feast of Holy Innocents, the
28th of December, at eight o'clock at night, in the year 1622, the
fifty-sixth of his age, and the twentieth of his episcopacy. His corpse
was embalmed, and carried with the greatest pomp to Annecy, where he had
directed by will it should be interred. It was laid in a magnificent
tomb near the high altar in the church of the first monastery of the
Visitation. After his beatification by Alexander VII., in 1661, it was
placed upon the altar in a rich silver shrine. He was canonized in 1665
by the same pope, and his feast fixed to the 29th of January, on which
day his body was conveyed to Annecy. His heart was kept in a leaden
case, in the church of the Visitation at Lyons: it was afterwards
exposed in a silver one, and lastly in one of gold, given by king Louis
XIII. Many miracles, as the raising to life two persons who were
drowned, the curing of the blind, paralytic, and others, were
authentically attested to have been wrought by his relics and
intercession; not to mention those he had performed in his lifetime,
especially during his missions. Pope Alexander VII., then cardinal
Chigi, and plenipotentiary in Germany, Louis XIII., XIV., and others,
attributed their cures in sickness to this saint's patronage.
Among his ordinary remarkable sayings, we read that he often repeated to
bishop Camus, "That truth must be always charitable; for bitter zeal
does harm instead of good. Reprehensions are a food of hard digestion,
and ought to be dressed on a fire of burning charity so well, that all
harshness be taken off; otherwise, like unripe fruit, they will only
produce gripings. Charity seeks not itself nor its own interests, but
purely the honor and interest of God: pride, vanity, and passion cause
bitterness and harshness: a remedy injudiciously applied may be a
poison. A judicious silence is always better than a truth spoken without
charity." St. Francis, seeing a scandalous priest thrown into prison,
fell at his feet, and with tears conjured him to have compassion on him,
his pastor, on his religion, which he scandalized, and on his own soul;
which sweetness converted the other, so that he became an example of
virtue. By his patience and meekness under all injuries, he overcame the
most obstinate, and ever after treated them with singular affection,
calling them dearer friends, because regained. A great prelate observes,
from his example, that the meek are kings of other hearts, which they
powerfully attract, and can turn as they please; and in {302} an express
and excellent treatise, proposes him as an accomplished model of all the
qualifications requisite in a superior to govern well.
* * * * *
Meekness was the favorite virtue of St. Francis de Sales. He once was
heard to say, that he had employed three years in studying it in the
school of Jesus Christ, and that his heart was still far from being
satisfied with the progress he had made. If he, who was meekness itself,
imagined, nevertheless, that he had possessed so little of it; what
shall we say of those, who, upon every trifling occasion, betray the
bitterness of their hearts in angry words and actions of impatience and
outrage? Our saint was often tried in the practice of this virtue,
especially when the hurry of business and the crowds that thronged on
him for relief in their various necessities, scarce allowed him a moment
to breathe. He has left us his thoughts upon this situation, which his
extreme affability rendered very frequent to him. "God," says he, "makes
use of this occasion to try whether our hearts are sufficiently
strengthened to bear every attack. I have myself been sometimes in this
situation: but I have made a covenant with my heart and with my tongue,
in order to confine them within the bounds of duty. I considered those
persons who crowd in one upon the other, as children who run into the
embraces of their father: as the hen refuseth not protection to her
little ones when they gather around her, but, on the contrary, extendeth
her wings so as to cover them all; my heart, I thought, was in like
manner expanded, in proportion as the numbers of these poor people
increased. The most powerful remedy against sudden starts of impatience
is a sweet and amiable silence; however little one speaks, self-love
will have a share in it, and some word will escape that may sour the
heart, and disturb its peace for a considerable time. When nothing is
said, and cheerfulness preserved, the storm subsides, anger and
indiscretion are put to flight, and nothing remains but a joy, pure and
lasting. The person who possesses Christian meekness, is affectionate
and tender towards every one; he is disposed to forgive and excuse the
frailties of others; the goodness of his heart appears in a sweet
affability that influences his words and actions, and presents every
object to his view in the most charitable and pleasing light; he never
admits in his discourse any harsh expression, much less any term that is
haughty or rude. An amiable serenity is always painted on his
countenance, which remarkably distinguishes him from those violent
characters, who, with looks full of fury, know only how to refuse; or
who, when they grant, do it with so bad a grace, that they lose all the
merit of the favor they bestow."
Some persons thinking him too indulgent towards sinners, expressed their
thoughts one day with freedom to him on this head. He immediately
replied: "If there was any thing more excellent than meekness, God would
have certainly taught it us; and yet there is nothing to which he so
earnestly exhorts us, as to be _meek and humble of heart_. Why would you
hinder me to obey the command of my Lord, and follow him in the exercise
of that virtue which he so eminently practised and so highly esteems?
Are we then better informed in these matters than God himself?" But his
tenderness was particularly displayed in the reception of apostates and
other abandoned sinners; when these prodigals returned to him, he said,
with all the sensibility of a father: "Come, my dear children, come, let
me embrace you; ah, let me hide you in the bottom of my heart! God and I
will assist you: all I require of you is not to despair: I shall take on
myself the labor of the rest." Looks full of compassion and love
expressed the sincerity of his feelings: his affectionate and charitable
care of them extended even to their bodily wants and his purse was open
to them as well as his heart; {303} he justified this proceeding to
some, who, disedified at his extreme indulgence, told him it served only
to encourage the sinner, and harden him still more in his crimes, by
observing, "Are they not a part of my flock? Has not our blessed Lord
given them his blood, and shall I refuse them my tears? These wolves
will be changed into lambs: a day will come when, cleansed from their
sins, they will be more precious in the sight of God than we are: if
Saul had been cast off, we would never have had a St. Paul."
Footnotes:
1. It is a problem in nature, discussed without success by several
great physicians, why children born in their seventh month more
frequently live than those that are brought forth in their eighth
month.
2. Aug. Sales de Vit. l. {} p. 123.
3. The saint being on his return to Savoy, was informed that a convent
of religious women, of the order of Fontevrault, received
superfluous pensions. He wrote about it to those religious, and
after giving testimony to their virtue, in order to gain their
confidence, he conjured them, in the strongest and most pathetic
terms, to banish such an abuse from their monastery; persuaded that
such pensions were not exempt from sin, were an obstacle to monastic
perfection, and opposite to their essential vow of poverty;
lamenting that after doing so much they should, for the sake of one
small reserve, destroy the merit of their whole sacrifice. This
letter is extremely useful and beautiful. L. 1, ep. 41, t. 1, p.
136.
4. Aug. Sales in Vit.
5. Aug. Sales in Vit.
6. Quel est le meilleur Gouvernment, &c. ch. 8, p. 298.