St. Francis de Sales

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

Francis was born in a noble family at Chateau de Sales in the Kingdom of Savoy near Geneva, Switzerland on 21 August 1567. From a very early age, he desired to serve God. He knew for years he had a vocation to the priesthood, but kept it from his family. His father wanted him to enter a career in law and politics.

In 1580, Francis attended the University of Paris, and at 24-years-old, he received his doctorate in law at the University of Padua. All the time, he never lost his passion for God. He studied theology and practised mental prayers, but kept quiet about his devotion. To please his father, he also studied fencing and riding.

In due time, Francis revealed his intentions to become a priest. After much discussion and disagreement from his father, Francis was ordained to the priesthood and elected provost of the Diocese of Geneva, in 1593, by the Bishop of Geneva.

During the time of the Protestant reformation, Francis dialogued with the Calvinists. For three years, he trudged through the countryside, had doors slammed in his face and rocks thrown at him. In the bitter winters, his feet froze so badly they bled as he tramped through the snow.

Francis' unusual patience kept him working. No one would listen to him, no one would even open their door. So, Francis found a way to get under the door. He wrote out little pamphlets to explain true Catholic doctrine and slipped them under the doors. This is one of the first records we have of religious tracts being used to communicate the Catholic faith.

The parents wouldn't come to him, so Francis went to the children. When the parents saw how kind he was as he played with the children, they began to talk to him.

In 1602, Francis was consecrated Bishop of Geneva, although he continued to reside in Annecy. In 1604, Francis took one of the most important steps in his life—the step towards extraordinary holiness and mystical union with God.

In Dijon, Francis saw a widow listening closely to his sermon—a woman he had already seen in a dream. Jane de Chantal was a dedicated Catholic Christian on her own, as Francis was, but it was only when they became friends they began to become saints.

Jane was on a path to mystical union with God and, in directing her, Francis was compelled to follow her and become a mystic himself. Years after working with Jane, he made up his mind to form a new religious community. In 1610, he founded the Order of Visitation.

He gave spiritual direction to most people through letters, which attested to his remarkable patience. "I have more than fifty letters to answer. If I tried to hurry over it all, I would be lost. So, I intend neither to hurry or to worry. This evening, I shall answer as many as I can. Tomorrow I shall do the same and so I shall go on until I have finished."

During this time, it was wrongly thought that achieving real holiness of life was a task reserved for only for the clergy and those in religious life, and not for lay men and women. Francis insisted that every Christian was called to holiness and sanctity, thus laying the groundwork for the teaching of the Second Vatican Council's universal call to holiness.

The key to love of God was prayer. "By turning your eyes on God in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with God. Begin all your prayers in the presence of God." For busy people living in the world, he advised, "Retire at various times into the solitude of your own heart, even while outwardly engaged in discussions or transactions with others and talk to God."

The test of prayer was a person's actions. "To be an angel in prayer and a beast in one's relations with people is to go lame on both legs."

He believed the worst sin was to judge someone or to gossip about them. Even if we say we do it out of love we're still doing it to look better ourselves. We should be as gentle and forgiving with ourselves as we should be with others.

Francis died on 28 December 1622, after giving a nun his last word of advice: "Humility." He was beatified on 8 January 1661 and canonized on 19 April 1665.