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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FRA-GAE |
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FRANCIS (FRarrcols) OF SALES, ST (1567-1622) , bishop of Geneva and doctor
Annecy
He received his education first at La Roche, in the Arve valley, then at the college of Annecy
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 re-turned 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 con-versions are incorrect.' Possibly the lamentable events of the campaigns of 1589 in Gex and Chablais have been applied to the 1 This, at least, is the account given by Catholic authorities. Less favourable is the view taken by non-Catholic historians, which seems in some measure to be confirmed by St Francis himself. According to this, Duke Charles Emmanuel ofSavoy, who succeeded his more tolerant father in 1580, was determined to reduce the Chablais to the Catholic religion, by peaceful means if possible, by force if necessary. After two years of preaching Francis wrote to the duke (Qfui,res comp'. ii. p. 551): " During 27 months I have scattered the seed of the Word of God in this miserable land; shall I say among thorns or on stony ground? Certainly, save for the conversion of the seigneur d'Avully and the advocate PonCet, I have little to boast of." In the winter of 1596-1597 Francis was at Turin, and at his suggestion the duke decided on a regular plan for the coercion of the refractory Protestants. This plan anticipated that employed later by Louis XIV. against the Huguenots in France. The Calvinist ministers were expelled; Protestant books were confiscated and destroyed ; the acts of Protestant lawyers and officials were declared invalid. The country was flooded with Jesuits and friars, whose arguments were reinforced by quartering troops, veterans of the Indian wars in Mexico, on the refractory inhabitants. Those whose stubborn persistence in error survived all these inducements to repent were sent into exile . Seethe article " Franz von Sales " by J. Ehni in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadis (3rd ed., Leipzig
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,' 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 Marie. 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 (15721641), 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 tscanslated into the chief
The important Lents of 1617 and 1618 at Grenoble were a prelude to a still more important apostolate in Paris, " the theatre o'i 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 ' With the title of Nicopolis in partibus.En. 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 Lettrrs and Opuscules were re-published 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 (165o), 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 (186o), 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. 40 ; a remarkable causerie by Sainte-Beuve (Lundis, 3rd Jan. 1853) Le Revell du sentiment religioux en France au XVIP, 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.)End of Article: FRANCIS (FRarrcols) OF SALES, ST (1567-1622) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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