Today, August 12, we celebrate the feast day of
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
(1572-1641), mother, tireless servant to the poor and needy, friend and
follower of Saint Frances de Sales, and co-founder of the New Order of
the Visitation.
Jane Frémoit de Chantal was born at Dijon, France in Burgundy, of noble
parents. From an early age, Jane demonstrated clear signs of her future
sanctity. It was said that when she was only five years old, she
outwitted a Calvinist nobleman by substantial arguments-- arguments far
beyond her age. In conciliation, he offered her a small present, which
she immediately threw into a nearby fire, proclaiming:
“This is how heretics will burn in hell, because they do not believe Christ when He speaks.”
Jane
lost her mother at an early age, and from that time, put herself under
the care of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. Her father, president of
the parliament of Borgoa, provided her with the best education available
at the time, as well as in the ways of faith and virtue. Jane took the
message of Christianity to heart, dismissing her servant (while still a
child), as she worried that the servant’s presence would entice her to
love the world and privilege, and cause her to sin. Instead, she shrank
from worldly pleasures, devoting herself entirely to religious pursuits,
and longing for martyrdom. She took the name Frances at her
confirmation.
As was the custom of the time, when Jane turned 20 her father arranged a
marriage for her, which she obediently accepted. She was married to the
Baron de Chantal, a young soldier with proud military accomplishments.
In this new state of life she strove to cultivate every virtue, and
busied herself in instructing in faith and morals the children the
couple produced (their first three children died shortly after birth,
but the young spouses later had a boy and three girls), her servants and
all under her authority. The Baroness loved her husband very much,
dressing in a very modest way when he was traveling. If someone was to
ask her why, she responded:
“The eyes of who I want to please are very far away.”
Jane
devoted herself to sharing the wealth of the household with the poor,
and as reward, received miraculous provisions in her storehouse. On more
than one occasion, when she believed her larder to be empty, it was
miraculously filled by the Lord. On this account, she promised to never
refuse anyone who begged for alms in the name of Jesus.
Jane was to experience great suffering, however. After nine years of
marriage, her husband was wounded in a hunting accident, and died nine
days later at the hands of unskilled surgeons. Jane, following a period
of depression and listlessness, resumed the duties of her household,
caring for her children, and doubling her efforts in service to the
poor. She reached out to the man who had shot her husband, forgiving
him, providing his household with necessities, and becoming Godmother to
his children.
Jane recommitted herself to the Lord, vowing a life of chastity from
that time on (she was only 28!). She streamlined her home, living more
modestly, donating excess to those in need. She traded her fine garments
for simple, modest dresses. Her gowns and fineries she donated to the
Church to be converted into fine religious garments.
Jane
Frances spent the majority of each day (when she wasn’t serving the
poor) in prayer, pious reading, and works. Bound by vow to Jesus Christ,
she received a number of honorable and advantageous offers to re-marry,
but declined them all. To strengthen her resolve of observing chastity,
Jane imprinted the most
Holy Name of Jesus Christ
upon her breast with a red-hot iron. Her love for all grew, and she had
the poor, the abandoned, the sick, and those who were afflicted with
the most terrible diseases, brought to her. Not only did she shelter and
nurse them, she comforted them, washed and mended their filthy
garments, and did not shrink from putting her lips to their running
sores.
Wishing
for still higher ascensions in her heart, she bound herself by a most
difficult vow always to do what she thought most perfect. She prayed to
God incessantly to provide her with a holy spiritual director, capable
of helping her perfectly fulfill God’s will. Once, following this
prayer, she was rewarded with a vision of a man whom she would later
recognize as
Saint Francis de Sales. That recognition occurred in 1604, as Saint France preached a Lenten homily in Dijon.
Saint Frances eventually became Jane’s spiritual advisor, and instructed
her in the ways of balance, encouraging her to relax some of her
harsher penitential practices, and spend more time tending to the duties
of her household—namely her children and her aging father-in-law. With
his guidance, Jane was able to balance the urgings of her heart to the
Lord with her many responsibilities in the world. Someone once said of
her,
“This lady is capable of praying all day without bothering anyone.”
Following a strict rule of life, consecrated for the most part to her
children, she visited the sick in the area and spent entire nights in
vigils next to the agonizing and dying.
The
benevolence and meekness of her character demonstrated how far she
responded to the demands of grace since her natural this strict demeanor
through long years of prayer, suffering and patient submission to
spiritual direction. This was the work of St. Francis de Sales, whom
Jane Francis visited on and off in Annecy and with whom she had fruitful
correspondence through letters.
Following some years of spiritual direction with Saint Frances, Jane
felt drawn to the religious life, and was inclined to enter a convent.
Together, the two prayed about her vocation, and in 1607, Saint Frances
announced his intention to found a new order—the New Congregation of the
Visitation. With great joy, Jane embraced the project, but her joy was
to be short lived as her father’s age and illness, as well as the
continued education of her children, required her to delay her
involvement, and suffer much in the world. Saint Frances directed her
that her children were no longer little and that from the cloister she
was better able to care of them, especially taken into account that the
two elders were old enough to “enter the world” and care for their
grandfather. In this logical and serene way, Saint Francis resolved her
difficulties.
Before
abandoning the world, Jane Francis kneeled before her father, crying,
and asking his blessing. The elderly man put his hands on her head and
said:
“I cannot reproach your actions,
go with my blessing. I offer you Lord, my daughter, as Abraham offered
Isaac, whom he loved so much as I love you. Go where God calls you and
be happy in His house. Pray for me.”
A new convent was built at Annecy, and Jane entered it on Blessed
Trinity Sunday in the year 1610. Shortly afterwards, fifteen women
entered the order, including two of Jane’s daughters. While no formal
rule had been developed yet, the congregation’s purpose was that it
should be a source of refuge to those who couldn’t enter other
congregations and that the religious sisters should not live in cloister
in order to dedicate themselves to apostolic works of charity. Due to
opposition from both within and outside the Church, the plans were
eventually modified, and the women accepted the cloister and adopted the
Rule of Saint Augustine. Saint Frances wanted humility and meekness to
be the base of the religious observance.
“But in practice,” he said to the religious,
“humility is the fountain of all other virtues; don’t limit humility, make of it the principal one of all your actions.”
Saint
Jane took her vows and was made Mother Abbess of the convent. She
traveled throughout the region, establishing new convents (65 in all)
and bringing more and more young women to God. Many of these women were
of nobility, giving up their station and privilege, and committing to
the humble and charitable order.
In 1622, Saint Francis de Sales died and his death constituted a harsh
blow for Mother de Chantal; but her resignation to Divine Will helped
her embrace all with invincible patience. Her son was killed in battle
shortly thereafter. Saint Jane received the news of her son’s death with
heroic fortitude and offered her heart to God and said:
“Destroy, cut and burn all that opposes your holy will.”
Saint Jane Frances fell ill while visiting the convent of Moulins, where
she died on December 13th, 1641 at the age of 69. Her body was taken to
Annecy—her first convent-- and buried close to Saint Francis de Sales.
At the time of her death, Saint Vincent de Paul was visiting, and
reported a vision of Saint Frances escorting the pious saint to heaven.
He said of Saint Jane Frances:
"She
was a woman of great faith, and had temptations against the faith all
her life. Even though she appeared to have reached the peace and
tranquility of spirit of virtuous souls, she suffered terrible interior
trials which she communicated to me on several occasions. She seemed so
harassed by abominable temptations that she had to take her eyes away
from herself so as not to contemplate her unbearable state. To look at
her soul horrified her as if it was an image of hell. But through these
great sufferings she never lost her serenity, yielding with joy to what
God wanted from her. That is why I consider her as one of the most holy
souls I have met on earth.”
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal left behind a legacy of service,
suffering, meekness, and obedience. She was willing to soften herself,
giving up control of her life to the Lord, and following the direction
given to her. Not without loss and sacrifice, her life was difficult—all
of which she embraced with patience and joy. When the daily struggles
of our lives become too great, we might think of the message of Saint
Jane Frances:
“You want to be
humble? Try to know yourself well; desire for others to know you as
imperfect; love contempt, in all its forms and in any which way it may
come. Don’t hide your defects; let them be known, accepting with love
the abjection that will come by them. Never let your heart to be
weakened because of a fault committed. Distrust self and trust only and
continuously in God, persuaded that not able to do anything by
yourselves, you can do all with His grace and powerful help.”
Selection Quotations of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal:
"When shall it be that we shall taste
the sweetness of the Divine Will in all that happens to us, considering
in everything only His good pleasure, by whom it is certain that
adversity is sent with as much love as prosperity, and as much for our
good? When shall we cast ourselves undeservedly into the arms of our
most loving Father in Heaven, leaving to Him the care of ourselves and
of our affairs, and reserving only the desire of pleasing Him, and of
serving Him well in all that we can?"
"We should go to prayer with deep
humility and an awareness of our nothingness. We must invoke the help of
the Holy Spirit and that of our good angel, and then remain still in
God's presence, full of faith that he is more in us than we are in
ourselves."
"Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to him. That is all the doing you have to worry about."
“Jesus
Christ is a great Lord, rich and powerful, who doesn’t have necessity
of our goods. What gift can we give Him if the whole world is his? It is
necessary to offer Him pure souls and clean hearts, white and empty of
all earthly things; notice that our souls are to be very clean to be
able to be offered to the Divine Child, who is born on this day, creator
of all purity and holiness. This is the most pleasing gift we can give:
a clean heart, contrite and humble. He only wants from us our hearts.”
“My dear daughters, let us not have
illusions; it is necessary that for our affection, to be blessed by God,
it has to be equal and uniform for all, for our Savior has not ordered
us to love some more than others, but He has said: Love your neighbor as
yourself.
Sometimes we think our affections are
very pure; but before God it is very different; the affection that is
all pure looks only at God, only aspires to God and does not pretend
anything but God. I love my sisters because I see God in them and
because God wants it this way . . . your charity is false if it is not
equal, general and complete with all the sisters, this way your are to
be gentle with one sister as well as with the other.
The motive behind the love you profess
for your sisters should only come from the womb of God; if it is
outside of it, then it is worth nothing . . . . When this union with our
sisters is more pure, more general and more complete, only then will
our union with God be greater.”
“It
is true my dear daughters, it is lack of self knowledge that amazes us
when we see ourselves so lacking and with defect, because we presume or
boast so much of ourselves, that we always expect something good; we
deceive ourselves, and Our Lord himself allows us to fall, many times in
a stupid, clumsy way, so we can know ourselves better. This knowledge
of self consists in that we should believe, with certitude and faith,
that we are nothing, we can do nothing; we are weak, feeble and
imperfect. Decide in your will to love your misery and poverty. The
reformation of the soul starts in self knowledge and confidence in God;
our self knowledge will let us know we have many things to correct and
reform and it cannot be done by our own efforts; confidence in God will
let us hope in Him, we can do all in Him, and with His grace all things
are possible and easy.”
“Perhaps at some time it will occur that a
sister has bothered us, or did something not pleasing to us, or that
simply we don’t have a liking for her. Another sister will come to us
and speak well of her, and we might answer with half words putting down
all the good. This will produce the effect of a drop of oil that falls
on fabric, an incurable spot on the heart of the sister we are talking
to. All the bad the sister might have done in consequence of this bad
impression we have caused will be on our conscience, and we will be
guilty of it and punished severely. God said he hates six things, but
the seventh he abominates: those who divide hearts and plant discord
among brothers.”
“When
we have conquered ourselves we have done a good action, and feel some
satisfaction and pleasure, this ruins everything, making us lose all if
we are not careful. What a disgrace after making sacrifices, self denial
of attitudes or words or any other thing, we end up satisfying
ourselves! Never or rarely, is good done without some satisfaction and
this is not bad in itself; what ruins all is to distract ourselves and
to seek pleasure in it. What are we to do? We have to chase away and
annihilate all thoughts of pleasure and vain satisfaction, humble
ourselves and seek contempt, give God the glory for everything and
recognize we can do nothing on our own. We are only to seek the Glory of
God in everything and to do all to please Him.”
“If someone wants to follow me,
renounce self . . . ”“These words are the foundation of all Christian
and religious perfection. To deny self is to renounce to all the will of
the flesh, all our inclinations, desires, pleasures, satisfactions,
softness, tastes, humor, preferences, habits, susceptibility, aversions
and repugnance to rough things; in other words, to renounce in all and
for all our perverse self. Fight to destroy your character, passions and
inclinations; in one word, all your nature; and this, with energetic
will, with generosity, and persevering mortification of all your being.
It is necessary to know we are to only
mortify the imperfect inclinations of bad things, and not the good or
the tendency to the good; for example; I’m sent to do a task and I feel
inclined to do another one; we have to mortify this inclination and
submit it to obedience. But if I’m sent to do a task I like, we are not
by any means to mortify our inclination and reject the task, but we are
to offer God the work and say: I do it not because of the inclination I
feel, but because obedience requests it (in the case of lay people: I do
it for love of God or because it is my obligation).”
Lord,
you chose Saint Jane Frances to serve you both in marriage and in
religious life. By her prayers help us to be faithful in our vocation
and always to be the light of the world. We ask this through our Lord
Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
