Category:Saint Francis de Sales

(Born in 1567, died December 28, 1622, Memorial on January 24)

Native name: François de Sales Diocese: Geneva See: Geneva Appointed: 15 July 1602 (Coadjutor) Enthroned: 8 December 1602 Reign ended: 28 December 1622 Predecessor: Claude de Granier Successor: Jean-François de Sales Ordination: 18 December 1593 by Claude de Granier Consecration: 8 December 1602 by Vespasien Gribaldi Born: 21 August 1567 in Château de Sales, Duchy of Savoy Died: 28 December 1622 (aged 55) in Lyon, France Denomination: Roman Catholic Previous post: Titular Bishop of Nicopolis ad Iaterum (1602) Motto: non excidet Feast day: 24 January 23 January Anglican Church of Wales 29 January (local communities and among Traditional Roman Catholics) Venerated in: Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Title as Saint: Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church and tertiary of the Order of Minims Beatified: 8 January 1661 in Rome by Pope Alexander VII Canonized: 8 April 1665 in Rome by Pope Alexander VII Attributes: Heart of Jesus, Crown of Thorns Patronage: Baker, Oregon; Cincinnati, Ohio; Catholic press; Columbus, Ohio; confessors; deaf people; educators; Upington, South Africa; Wilmington, Delaware; writers; journalists; the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest Shrines: Annecy, France

Excerpt from Lives of the Saints, 1894
January 29 — ST. FRANCIS OF SALES. In 1894, this was the day of his Memorial. January 24 is the day his Memorial is currently celebrated.

FRANCIS was born of noble and pious parents, near Annecy, 1566, and studied with brilliant success at Paris and Padua. On his return from Italy he gave up the grand career which his father had marked out for him in the service of the state, and became a priest. When the Duke of Savoy had resolved to restore the Church in the Chablais, Francis offered himself for the work, and set out on foot with his Bible and breviary and one companion, his cousin Louis of Sales. It was a work of toil, privation, and danger. Every door and every heart was closed against him. He was rejected with insult and threatened with death. But nothing could daunt or resist him, and ere long the Church burst forth into a second spring. It is stated that he converted 72,000 Calvinists. He was then compelled by the Pope to become Coadjutor Bishop of Geneva, and succeeded to the see in 1602. At times the exceeding gentleness with which he received heretics and sinners almost scandalized his friends, and one of them said to him, "Francis of Sales will go to Paradise, of course; but I am not so sure of the Bishop of Geneva: I am almost afraid his gentleness will play him a shrewd turn." "Ah," said the Saint, "I would rather account to God for too great gentleness than for too great severity. Is not God all love? God the Father is the Father of mercy; God the Son is a Lamb; God the Holy Ghost is a Dove—that is, gentleness itself. And are you wiser than God?" In union with St. Jane Frances of Chantal he founded at Annecy the Order of the Visitation, which soon spread over Europe. Though poor, he refused provisions and dignities, and even the great see of Paris. He died at Avignon, 1622.

Reflection.—"You will catch more flies," St. Francis used to say, "with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar. Were there anything better or fairer on earth than gentleness, Jesus Christ would have taught it us; and yet He has given us only two lessons to learn of Him—meekness and humility of heart." excerpt from Lives of the Saints, 1894 by Alban Butler, Benziger Brothers edition, 1894