St. Francis de Sales was born in 1567 in a French border region. He was the son of the Lord of Boisy, an ancient and noble family of Savoy. His life straddled the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He received a very careful education studying theology in Paris and jurisprudence in Padua (as per his father’s wishes) and received degrees in both civil and canon law. His father wanted him to be a soldier or a lawyer. Francis, however, had his heart set on being a priest. In time he was to get his father’s assent to be ordained a priest, which occurred on December 18, 1593. Soon after his ordination to the priesthood, he volunteered for the dangerous mission of serving in the region around Lake Geneva, a bastion of Calvinism. For years he walked from town to town on foot, enduring poverty and harsh winters, and many times barely escaping attempts on his life. In his missionary outreach Francis chose an approach that was unusual for the times. Rather than simply denouncing Calvinism Francis proclaimed the positive message of the Gospel. This helped to overcome many of the negative stereotypes people in that region held about Catholicism. Hundreds of families were reconciled with the Catholic faith as a result of his mission. In 1602, Francis was named the bishop of Geneva. Unable to enter his see, he administered his diocese from Annecy, a town about fifty miles to the south. In time Francis achieved fame as a preacher and spiritual director. With one of his directees, a wealthy widow named Jeanne de Chantal, he founded the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary at Annecy, which has been called the first form of religious life just for women in the modern period. Their ideal for religious life rejected the often-lax medieval convent life while not obligating members to the intense asceticism of the newer orders such as the Discalced Carmelites, which was often physically very difficult for older or infirm women. The Visitandines, as they came to be called, were devoted to both contemplative prayer and the active apostolate of work with the poor and destitute. The influence of the life and teaching of Francis de Sales in the early seventeenth century and in the following centuries has been immense. Francis was an apostle, preacher, writer, man of action and or prayer who was dedicated to implanting the ideals of the Council of Trent. He was involved in controversial issues and dialogue with the Protestants, experiencing increasingly the effectiveness of personal relationship and charity. Increasingly he was charged with diplomatic missions in Europe and with social duties of mediation and reconciliation. Francis desired to rejuvenate the church by raising the level of spiritual devotion. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis taught a way of holiness that could be adapted to the strengths, life-situation, and duties of any person. It was a matter of weaning oneself from sin and enlarging the capacity for love and the practice of virtue. Francis wrote in one place that “Genuine devotion is simply true love of God.” Pope Benedict sums up his life in this way: The life of St. Francis de Sales was a relatively short life but was lived with great intensity. The figure of this saint radiates an impression of rare fullness, demonstrated in the serenity of his intellectual research, but also in the riches of his affection and the “sweetness” of his teachings, which had an important influence on the Christian conscience. Francis was only fifty-five when he died on December 28, 1622. He was canonized on April 8, 1665, and named a Doctor of the Church by Blessed Pius IX in 1877. Until next week, Fr. John