From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 30th - St. Jane Frances de Chantal   
      
   Born at Dijon, France, 28 January, 1572; died at the Visitation Convent   
   Moulins,   
   13 December, 1641.   
      
   Her father was president of the Parliament of Burgundy, and leader of the   
   royalist party during the League that brought about the triumph of the cause   
   of   
   Henry IV. In 1592 she married Baron de Chantal, and lived in the feudal   
   castle   
   of Bourbilly. She restored order in the household, which was on the brink of   
   ruin, and brought back prosperity. During her husband's absence at the   
   court, or   
   with the army, when reproached for her extremely sober manner of dressing,   
   her   
   reply was: "The eyes which I must please are a hundred miles from here". She   
   found more than once that God blessed with miracles the care she gave the   
   suffering members of Christ. St. Francis de Sales's eulogy of her   
   characterizes   
   her life at Bourbilly and everywhere else: "In Madame de Chantal I have   
   found   
   the perfect woman, whom Solomon had difficulty in finding in Jerusalem".   
   Baron   
   de Chantal was accidentally killed by a harquebus while out shooting in   
   1601.   
   Left a widow at twenty-eight, with four children, the broken-hearted   
   baroness   
   took a vow of chastity. In all her prayers she besought God to send her a   
   guide   
   and God, in a vision, showed her the spiritual director He held in reserve   
   for   
   her. In order to safeguard her children's property, she was obliged to go   
   and   
   live at Monthelon in the home of her father-in-law, who was ruled over by an   
   arrogant and wicked servant. This was real servitude, which she bore   
   patiently   
   and gently for seven years. At last her virtue triumphed over the ill will   
   of   
   the old man and housekeeper.   
      
   During Lent, 1604, she visited her father at Dijon, where St. Francis de   
   Sales   
   was preaching at the Sainte Chapelle. She recognized in him the mysterious   
   director who had been shown her, and placed herself under his guidance. Then   
   began an admirable correspondence between the two saints. Unfortunately, the   
   greater number of letters are no longer in existence, as she destroyed them   
   after the death of the holy bishop. When she had assured the future security   
   of   
   her children, and when she had provided the education of Celse-Bénigne, her   
   fourteen year old son, whom she left to her father and her brother, the   
   Archbishop of Bourges, she started for Annecy, where God was calling her to   
   found the Congregation of the Visitation. She took her two remaining   
   daughters   
   with her, the elder having recently married the Baron of Thorens, a brother   
   of   
   St. Francis de Sales. Celse-Bénigne, impetuous like those of her race,   
   barred   
   his mother's way by lying across the threshold. Mme de Chandal stopped,   
   overcome: " Can the tears of a child shake her resolution? " said a holy and   
   learned priest, the tutor of Celse-Benigne. "Oh! no", replied the saint,   
   "but   
   after all I am a mother!" And she stepped over child's body.   
      
   The Congregation of the Visitation was canonically established at Annecy on   
   Trinity Sunday, 6 June, 1610. Its aim was to receive, with a view to their   
   spiritual advancement, young girls and even widows who had not the desire or   
   strength to subject themselves to the austere ascetical practices in force   
   in   
   all the religious orders at that time. St. Francis de Sales was especially   
   desirous of seeing the realization of his cherished method of attaining   
   perfection, which consisted in always keeping one's will united to the   
   Divine   
   will, in taking so to speak one's soul, heart, and longings into one's hands   
   and   
   giving them into God's keeping, and in seeking always to do what is pleasing   
   to   
   Him. "I do always the things that please him" (John, viii, 29). The two holy   
   founders saw their undertaking prosper. At the time of the death of St.   
   Francis   
   de Sales in 1622, the order already counted thirteen houses; there were   
   eight-six when St. Jane Frances died; and 164 when she was canonized.   
      
   The remainder of the saint's life was spent under the protection of the   
   cloister   
   in the practice of the most admirable virtues. If a gentle kindness,   
   vivified   
   and strengthened by a complete spirit of renunciation, predominates in St.   
   Francis de Sales, it is firmness and great vigour which prevails in St. Jane   
   Frances; she did not like to see her daughters giving way to human weakness.   
   Her   
   trials were continuous and borne bravely, and yet she was exceedingly   
   sensitive.   
   Celse-Bénigne was an incorrigible duelist. She prayed so fervently that he   
   was   
   given the grace to die a Christian death on the battlefield, during the   
   campaign   
   against the Isle of Ré (1627). He left a daughter who became the famous   
   Marquise   
   de Sévigné. To family troubles God added interior crosses which,   
   particularly   
   during the last nine years of her life, kept her in agony of soul from which   
   she   
   was not freed until three months before her death.   
      
   Her reputation for sanctity was widespread. Queens, princes, and princesses   
   flocked to the reception-room of the Visitation. Wherever she went to   
   establish   
   foundations, the people gave her ovations. "These people", she would say   
   confused, "do not know me; they are mistaken". Her body is venerated with   
   that   
   of St. Francis de Sales in the church of the Visitation at Annecy. She was   
   beatified in 1751, canonized in 1767, and 21 August was appointed as her   
   feast   
   day.   
      
   The life of the saint was written in the seventeenth century, with   
   inimitable   
   charm, by her secretary, Mother de Chaugy. Monsignor Bougaud, who died   
   Bishop of   
   Laval, published in 1863 a "Histoire de Sainte Chantal" which had a great   
   and   
   well-deserved success.   
      
   The words of the saint comprise instructions on the religious life, various   
   minor works, among which is the admirable "Deposition for the Process of   
   Beatification of St. Francis de Sales", and a great many letters. The   
   Saint's   
   qualities are seen in her precise and vigorous style, void of imagery but   
   betraying a repressed emotion, and bursting forth spontaneously from the   
   heart,   
   anticipating in its method the beautiful French of the seventeenth century.   
   The   
   book which may be called her masterpiece, "Réponses sur les Régles,   
   Constitutions et Coutumes", a truly practical and complete code of the   
   religious   
   life, is not in circulation.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Take this as a general rule: judge with charity all that you see others   
   doing.   
   When that is not possible, excuse them and pray for them.   
   --St. Jane Frances de Chantal   
      
   Bible Quote   
   1 The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, of all things which Jesus began   
   to   
   do and to teach, 2 Until the day on which, giving commandments by the Holy   
   Ghost   
   to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up. 3 To whom also he   
   shewed   
   himself alive after his passion, by many proofs, for forty days appearing to   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)