Feast Day: January 24
Also known as
Francis of Sales; Gentle Christ of Geneva; the Gentleman
Saint
Memorial
24 January
Profile
Born in a castle to a well-placed family. Studied @ La
Roche, Annecy, Clermont College in Paris, and the University of Padua. Lawyer. Senate
advocate. Received a message telling him to "Leave all and follow Me."
Priest. Preacher. Spiritual director. Converted Protestants. Bishop of Geneva. Travelled
and evangelized throughout the Duchy of Savoy. Friend of Saint Vincent de Paul. Turned
down a wealthy French bishopric. Helped found the Order of the Visitation with
Saint Jeanne de Chantal. Prolific correspondent. Doctor of the Church.
Born
1567 @ Chateau of Thorens, Savoy
Died
28 December 1622 @ Lyons; buried @ Annecy
Canonized
1665
Patronage
authors, Catholic press, deaf people, deafness,
educators, journalists, teachers, writers
Representation
bald man with a long beard wearing a bishop's robes holding
a book, heart pierced with thorns or picture of the Virgin
Readings
Nothing makes us so prosperous in this world as to give alms.
-Saint Francis de Sales
It is to those who have the most need of us that we ought to show our love
more especially.
-Saint Francis de Sales
Let us run to Mary, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her
arms with a perfect confidence.
Saint Francis de Sales
Salvation is shown to faith, it is prepared for hope, but it is given only
to charity. Faith points out the way to the land of promise as a pillar of
fire hope feeds us with its manna of sweetness, but charity actually
introduces us into the Promised Land.
Saint Francis de Sales
Oh what remorse we shall feel at the end of our lives, when we look back
upon the great number of instructions and examples afforded by God and the
Saints for our perfection, and so carelessly received by us! If this end
were to come to you today, how would you be pleased with the life you have
led this year?
Saint Francis de Sales
We must fear God out of love, not love Him out of fear.
Saint Francis de Sales
In the royal galley of divine Love, there is no galley slave: all rowers are
volunteers.
Saint Francis de Sales
We are not drawn to God by iron chains, but by sweet attractions and holy
inspirations.
Saint Francis de Sales
Perfection of life is the perfection of love. For love is the life of the
soul.
Saint Francis de Sales
By giving yourself to God, you not only receive Himself in exchange, but
eternal life as well.
Saint Francis de Sales
Man is the perfection of the Universe.
The spirit is the perfection of man.
Love is the perfection of the spirit, and charity that of love.
Therefore, the love of God is the end, the perfection of the Universe.
Saint Francis de Sales
There are many who say to the Lord, "I give myself wholly to Thee,
without any reserve," but there are few who embrace the practice of
this abandonment, which consists in receiving with a certain indifference
every sort of event, as it happens in conformity with Divine Providence,
as well afflictions as consolations, contempt and reproaches as honor and
glory.
Saint Francis de Sales
One of the principle effects of holy abandonment in God is evenness of
spirits in the various accidents of this life, which is certainly a point
of great perfection, and very pleasing to God. The way to maintain it is
in imitation of the pilots, to look continually at the Pole Star, that is,
the Divine Will, in order to be constantly in conformity with it. For it
is this will which, with infinite wisdom rightly distributes prosperity
and adversity, health and sickness, riches and poverty, honor and
contempt, knowledge and ignorance, and all that happens in this life. On
the other hand, if we regard creatures without this relation to God, we
cannot prevent our feelings and disposition from changing, according to
the variety of accidents which occur.
Saint Francis de Sales
Some torment themselves in seeking means to discover the art of loving God,
and do not know - poor creatures - that there is no art or means of loving
Him but to love those who love Him - that is, to begin to practice those
thing which are pleasing to Him.
Saint Francis de Sales
Our business is to love what would have done. He wills our vocation as it
is. Let us love that and not trifle away our time hankering after other
people's vocations.
Saint Francis de Sales
Every moment comes to us pregnant with a command from God, only to pass on
and plunge into eternity, there to remain forever what we have made of it.
Saint Francis de Sales
All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what
condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be.
Saint Francis de Sales
An action of small value performed with much love of God is far more
excellent than one of a higher virtue, done with less love of God.
Saint Francis de Sales
Blessed are those whose hearts are ever open to God's inspiration; they will
never lack what they need to live good holy lives, or to perform properly
the duties of their state. For just as God gives each animal through its
nature the instincts needed for its self-preservation, so - if we offer no
obstacle to grace - he gives each of us the inspirations needed for life,
activity and self-preservation on the spiritual level.
When we are at a loss what to do, when human help fails us in our
dilemmas, then God inspires us. If only we are humbly obedient, he will
not let us go astray. Some plants point their flowers at the sun, turn
them with it as it moves. The sunflower, however, turns not only its
flowers, but its leaves as well. In the same way all God's chosen ones
turn their hearts toward God's will by keeping his commandments. But those
who are utterly filled with charity turn to God's will by more than mere
obedience to his commandments. They also give him their hearts, follow him
in all that he commands, counsels or inspires, unreservedly, with no
exceptions whatsoever.
Saint Francis de Sales, from Finding God Wherever You Are
Anxiety is a temptation in itself and also the source from and by which
other temptations come.
Sadness is that mental pain which is caused by the involuntary evils which
affect us. These may be external - such as poverty, sickness, contempt of
others - or they may be internal - such as ignorance, dryness in prayer,
aversion, and temptation itself.
When the soul is conscious of some evil, it is dissatisfied because of
this, and sadness is produced. The soul wishes to be free from this
sadness, and tries to find the means for this.
If the soul seeks deliverance for the love of God, it will seek with
patience, gentleness, humility, and calmness, waiting on God's providence
rather than relying on its own initiative, exertion, and diligence. If it
seeks from self-love, it is eager and excited and relying on self rather
than God.
Anxiety comes from an irregulated desire to be delivered from the evil we
experience. Therefore, above all else, calm and compose your mind. Gently
and quietly pursue your aim.
Saint Francis de Sales, from Daily Readings with Saint Francis de
Sales
The highest degree of meekness consists in seeing, serving, honoring, and
treating amiably, on occasion, those who are not to our taste, and who
show themselves unfriendly, ungrateful, and troublesome to us.
Saint Francis de Sales
Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in
spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you.
Saint Francis De Sales
The virtue of patience is the one which most assures us of perfection.
Saint Francis De Sales
To be pleased at correction and reproofs shows that one loves the virtues
which are contrary to those faults for which he is corrected and reproved.
And, therefore, it is a great sign of advancement in perfection.
Saint Francis de Sales
Two mistakes I find common among spiritual persons. One is that they
ordinarily measure their devotion by the consolations and satisfactions
which they experience in the way of God, so that if these happen to be
wanting, they think they have lost all devotion. No, this is no more than
a sensible devotion. True and substantial devotion does not consist in
these things, but in having a will resolute, active, ready and constant
not to offend God, and to perform all that belongs to His service. The
other mistake is that if it ever happens to them to do anything with
repugnance and weariness, they believe they have no merit in it. On the
other hand, there is then far greater merit; so that a single ounce of
good done thus by a sheer spiritual effort, amidst darkness and dullness
and without interest, is worth more than a hundred pounds done with great
facility and sweetness, since the former requires a stronger and purer
love. And how great so ever may be the aridities and repugnance of the
sensible part of our soul, we ought never to lose courage, but pursue our
way as travelers treat the barking of dogs.
Saint Francis de Sales
Our greatest fault is that we wish to serve God in our way, not in His way-
according to our will, not according to His will. When He wishes us to be
sick, we wish to be well; when He desires us to serve Him by sufferings,
we desire to serve Him by works; when He wishes us to exercise charity, we
wish to exercise humility; when He seeks from us resignation, we wish for
devotion, a spirit of prayer or some other virtue. And this is not because
the things we desire may be more pleasing to Him, but because they are
more to our taste. This is certainly the greatest obstacle we can raise to
our own perfection, for it is beyond doubt that if we were to wish to be
Saints according to our own will, we shall never be so at all. To be truly
a Saint, it is necessary to be one according to the will of God.
Saint Francis de Sales
All the science of the Saints is included in these two things: To do, and to
suffer. And whoever had done these two things best, has made himself most
saintly.
Saint Francis de Sales
The greatest fault among those who have a good will is that they wish to be
something they cannot be, and do not wish to be what they necessarily must
be. They conceive desires to do great things for which, perhaps, no
opportunity may ever come to them, and meantime neglect the small which
the Lord puts into their hands. There are a thousand little acts of
virtue, such as bearing with the importunities and imperfections of our
neighbors, not resenting an unpleasant word or a trifling injury,
restraining an emotion of anger, mortifying some little affection, some
ill-regulated desire to speak or listen, excusing indiscretion, or
yielding to another in trifles. These things are to be done by all; why
not practice them. The occasions for great gains come but rarely, but of
little gains many can be made each day; and by managing these little gains
with judgement, there are some who grow rich. Oh, how holy and rich in
merits we should make ourselves, if we but knew how to profit by the
opportunities which our vocation supplies to us! Yes, yes, let us apply
ourselves to follow well the path which is close before us, and to do well
on the first opportunity, without occupying ourselves with thoughts of the
last, and thus we shall make good progress.
Saint Francis de Sales
To be perfect in one's vocation is nothing else than to perform the duties
and offices to which one is obliged, solely for the honor and love of God,
referring to His glory. Whoever works in this manner may be called perfect
in his state, a man according to the heart and will of God.
Saint Francis de Sales
A servant of God signifies one who has a great charity towards his neighbor
and an inviolable resolution to follow in everything the Divine Will; who
bears with his own deficiencies, and patiently supports the imperfections
of others.
Saint Francis de Sales
The person who possesses Christian meekness is affectionate and tender
towards everyone: He is disposed to forgive and excuse the frailties of
others; the goodness of his heart appears in a sweet affability that
influences his words and actions, presents every object to his view in the
most charitable and pleasing light.
Saint Francis
Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set
about remedying them.
Saint Francis de Sales
Consider all the past as nothing, and say, like David: Now I begin to love
my God.
Saint Francis de Sales
One of the things that keep us at a distance from perfection is, without a
doubt, our tongue. For when one has gone so far as to commit no faults in
speaking, the Holy Spirit Himself assures us that he is perfect. And since
the worst way of speaking is to speak too much, speak little and well,
little and gently, little and simply, little and charitably, little and
amiably.
Saint Francis de Sales
It should be our principal business to conquer ourselves and, from day to
day, to go on increasing in strength and perfection. Above all, however,
it is necessary for us to strive to conquer our little temptations, such
as fits of anger, suspicions, jealousies, envy, deceitfulness, vanity,
attachments, and evil thoughts. For in this way we shall acquire strength
to subdue greater ones.
Saint Francis de Sales
There is nothing which edifies others so much as charity and kindness, by
which, as by the oil in our lamp, the flame of good example is kept alive.
Saint Francis de Sales
When God the Creator made all things, he commanded the plants to bring forth
fruit each according to its own kind. He has likewise commanded
Christians, who are the living plants of his Church, to bring forth the
fruits of devotion, each one in accord with his character, his station,
and his calling,
I say that devotion must be practiced in different ways by the noblemen
and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by
the unmarried girl and by the married woman. But even this distinction is
not sufficient; for the practice of devotion must be adapted to the
strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular.
Moreover, just as every sort of gem, cast in honey, becomes brighter and
more sparkling, each according to its color, so each person becomes more
acceptable and fitting in his own vocation when he sets his vocation in
the context of devotion. Through devotion your family cares become more
peaceful, mutual love between husband and wife becomes more sincere, the
service we owe to the prince becomes more faithful, and our work, no
matter what it is, becomes more pleasant and agreeable.
from Introduction to the Devout Life by Saint Francis de Sales
How displeasing to God are rash judgments! The judgments of the children of
men are rash because they usurp the office of Our Lord, the just Judge.
They are rash because the principal malice of sin depends on the intention
and the counsel of the heart, and these are hidden things not known to
human judges. They are rash because every person has things that could be
judged, and, indeed, on which one should judge oneself.
On the cross our Savior could not entirely excuse the sin of those who
crucified him, but he extenuated the malice by pleading their ignorance.
When we cannot excuse a sin, let us at least make it worthy of compassion
by attributing the most favorable cause we can to it, such as ignorance or
weakness. We can never pass judgment on our neighbor.
from Introduction to the Devout Life by Saint Francis de Sales
As often as you can during the day, recall your mind to the presence of
God.... Consider what God is doing, what you are doing. You will always
find God's eyes fixed on you in unchangeable love.
Our hearts should each day seek a resting-place on Calvary or near our
Lord, in order to retire there to rest from worldly cares and to find
strength against temptation.
Remember frequently to retire into the solitude of your heart, even while
you are externally occupied in business or society. This mental solitude
need not be hindered even though many people may be around you, for they
surround your body not your heart, which should remain alone in the
presence of God. As David said, "My eyes are ever looking at the
Lord."
We are rarely so taken up in our exchanges with others as to be unable
from time to time to move our hearts into solitude with God.
Saint Francis de Sales
Our profit does not depend so much on mortifying ourselves, as upon knowing
how to mortify ourselves; that is, upon knowing how to chose the best
mortifications, which are those most repugnant to our natural
inclinations. Some are inclined to disciplines and fasts, and though they
may be difficult things, they embrace them with fervor, and practice them
gladly and easily, on account of this leaning which they have toward them.
But then they will be so sensitive in regard to reputation and honor, that
the least ridicule, disapproval, or slight is sufficient to throw them
into a state of impatience and perturbation and to give rise to such
complaints as show an equal want of peace and reason. These are the
mortifications which they ought to embrace with the greatest readiness, if
they wish to make progress.
Saint Francis de Sales
The greater part of Christians usually practice incision instead of
circumcision. They will make a cut indeed in a diseased part but as for
employing the knife of circumcision, to take away whatever is superfluous
from the heart, few go so far.
Saint Francis de Sales
Undertake all of your duties with a calm mind and try to do them one at a
time. If you try to do them all at once, or without order, your spirits
will be so overcharged and depressed that they will likely sink under the
burden and nothing will be done.
In all of your affairs, rely on the Providence of God through which alone
you much look for success. Strive quietly to cooperate with its designs.
If you have a sure trust in God, the success that comes to you will always
be that which is most useful to you, whether it appears good or bad in
your private judgment.
Think of the little children who with one hand hold fast to their father
while with the other they gather berries. If you handle the goods of this
world with one hand, you must also always hold fast with the other to your
heavenly Father's hand, and turn toward him from time to time to see if
you are pleasing him. Above all, be sure that you never leave his hand and
his protection, thinking that with your own two hands you can gather more
or get some other advantage.
Saint Francis de Sales, from Introduction to the Devout Life
We must intend our own salvation in the way God intends it.
God desires that we should be saved. We too need constantly to desire what
God desires. God not only means us to be saved, but actually dives us all
we need to achieve salvation. So we are not to stop at merely desiring
salvation, but go a step further and accept all the graces God has
prepared for us, the graces constantly offered to us. It is all very well
to say, "I want to be saved." It is not must use merely saying,
"I want to take the necessary steps." We must actually take the
steps. We need to make a definite resolution to take and use the graces
God holds out to us. Our wills must be in tune with God's. Because God
wants us to be saved, we should want to be saved. We should also welcome
the means to salvation that God intends us to take....that is why general
acts of devotion and prayer should always be followed by particular
resolutions.
Saint Francis de Sales
Love is strong as death since both equally separate the soul from the body
and all terrestrial things, the only difference is, that the separation is
real and effectual when caused by death, whereas that occasioned by love
is usually confined to the heart.
I say usually, because divine love is sometimes so violent that it
actually separates the soul from the body, and, by causing the death of
those who love, it renders them infinitely happier than it it bestowed on
them a thousand lives.
As the lot of the reprobate is to die in sin, that of the elect is to
expire in the love and grace of God, which is effected in several ways.
Many of the saints died, not only in the state of charity, but in the
actual exercise of divine love. St. Augustine expired in making an act of
contrition, which cannot exist without love; St. Jerome, in exhorting his
disciples to charity and the practice of all virtues; St. Ambrose, in
conversing sweetly with his Saviour, whom he had received in the Holy
Eucharist; St. Antony of Padua also expired in the act of discoursing with
our Divine Lord, after having recited a hymn in honor of the ever --
glorious Virgin; St. Thomas of Aquinas, with his hands clasped, his eyes
raised to heaven, and pronouncing these words of the Canticles, which were
the last he had expounded: " Come, my beloved, let us go forth into
the field " (Cant. vii. II).
All the apostles, and the greater number of the martyrs, died in prayer.
Venerable Bede, having learned the hour of his death by revelation, went
to the choir at the usual hour to sing the evening office, it being the
feast of the Ascension, and at the very moment he had finished singing
vespers he expired, following his Guide and Master into Heaven, to
celebrate His praises in that abode of rest and happiness, round which the
shades of night can never gather, because it is illumined by the
brightness of the eternal day, which neither dawns nor ends.
John Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, remarkable for his
learning and virtue, -- of whom Sixtus of Sienna said, " that it is
difficult to decide whether the vein of piety which runs through his works
surpasses his science, or whether his learning exceeds his piety," --
after having explained the fifty properties of divine love mentioned in
the Canticles, expired at the close of three days, smiling, and
pronouncing these words of the same sacred text: " Thy love, O God,
is strong as death " (Cant. viii. 6).
The fervor and ardor of Saint Martin at the hour of his death are
remarkable. Saint Louis, who has proved himself as great a monarch among
the saints as an eminent saint among kings, being attacked by the plague,
ceased not to pray, and after receiving the viaticum, he extended his arms
in the form of a cross, fixed his eyes on heaven, and, animated with love
and confidence, expired in saying with the Psalmist: " I will come
into Thy house, O Lord; I will worship towards Thy holy temple, in Thy
fear " (Ps. 5: 8).
Saint Peter Celestine, after having endured the most cruel and incredible
afflictions ,, seeing the end of his days approach, began to sing like the
swan, and terminated his song with his life, by these words of the last
Psalm: " Let every spirit praise the Lord " (Ps. 150: 5).
Saint Eusebia, surnamed the Stranger, died kneeling in fervent prayer.
Saint Peter the Martyr yielded his last sigh in writing (with his finger,
which he had dipped in his blood ) the articles of the faith for which he
sacrificed his life, and in saying: " Into Thy hands, O Lord, I
commend my spirit " (Ps. 30: 6).
The great apostle of the Indies and Japan, Saint Francis Xavier, expired
holding a crucifix, which he tenderly embraced, and incessantly repeated
in transports of love, " O Jesus! the God of my heart ! "
Saint Francis de Sales, from "On the Love of God"
As soon as worldly people see that you wish to follow a devout life they aim
a thousand darts of mockery and even detraction at you. The most malicious
of them will slander your conversion as hypocrisy, bigotry, and trickery.
They will say that the world has turned against you and being rebuffed by
it you have turned to God. Your friends will raise a host of objections
which they consider very prudent and charitable. They will tell you that
you will become depressed, lose your reputation in the world, be
unbearable, and grow old before your time, and that your affairs at home
will suffer. You must live in the world like one in the world. They will
say that you can save your soul without going to such extremes, and a
thousand similar trivialities.
Philothea, all this is mere foolish, empty babbling. These people aren't
interested in your health or welfare. "If you were of the world, the
world would love what is its own but because you are not of the world,
therefore the world hates you," says the Savior. We have seen
gentlemen and ladies spend the whole night, even many nights one after
another, playing chess or cards. Is there any concentration more absurd,
gloomy, or depressing than this last? Yet worldly people don't say a word
and the players' friends don't bother their heads about it. If we spend an
hour in meditation or get up a little earlier than usual in the morning to
prepare for Holy Communion, everyone runs for a doctor to cure us of
hypochondria and jaundice. People can pass thirty nights in dancing and no
one complains about it, but if they watch through a single Christmas night
they cough and claim their stomach is upset the next morning. Does anyone
fail to see that the world is an unjust judge, gracious and well disposed
to its own children but harsh and rigorous towards the children of God?
We can never please the world unless we lose ourselves together with it.
It is so demanding that it can't be satisfied. "John came neither
eating nor drinking," says the Savior, and you say, "He has a
devil." "The Son of man came eating and drinking" and you
say that he is "a Samaritan." It is true, Philothea, that if we
are ready to laugh, play cards, or dance with the world in order to please
it, it will be scandalized at us, and if we don't, it will accuse us of
hypocrisy or melancholy. If we dress well, it will attribute it to some
plan we have, and if we neglect our dress, it will accuse of us of being
cheap and stingy. Good humor will be called frivolity and mortification
sullenness. Thus the world looks at us with an evil eye and we can never
please it. It exaggerates our imperfections and claims they are sins,
turns our venial sins into mortal sins and changes our sins of weakness
into sins of malice.
"Charity is kind," says Saint Paul, but the world on the
contrary is evil. "Charity thinks no evil," but the world always
thinks evil and when it can't condemn our acts it will condemn our
intentions. Whether the sheep have horns or not and whether they are white
or black, the wolf doesn't hesitate to eat them if he can. Whatever we do,
the world will wage war on us. If we stay a long time in the confessional,
it will wonder how we can have so much to say; if we stay only a short
time, it will say we haven't told everything. It will watch all our
actions and at a single little angry word it will protest that we can't
get along with anyone. To take care of our own interests will look like
avarice, while meekness will look like folly. As for the children of the
world, their anger is called being blunt, their avarice economy, their
intimate conversations lawful discussions. Spiders always spoil the good
work of the bees.
Let us give up this blind world, Philothea. Let it cry out at us as long
as it pleases, like a cat that cries out to frighten birds in the daytime.
Let us be firm in our purposes and unswerving in our resolutions.
Perseverance will prove whether we have sincerely sacrificed ourselves to
God and dedicated ourselves to a devout life. Comets and planets seem to
have just about the same light, but comets are merely fiery masses that
pass by and after a while disappear, while planets remain perpetually
bright. So also hypocrisy and true virtue have a close resemblance in
outward appearance but they can be easily distinguished from one another.
Hypocrisy cannot last long but is quickly dissipated like rising smoke,
whereas true virtue is always firm and constant. It is no little
assistance for a sure start in devotion if we first suffer criticism and
calumny because of it. In this way we escape the danger of pride and
vanity, which are comparable to the Egyptian midwives whom a cruel Pharaoh
had ordered to kill the Israelites' male children on the very day of their
birth. We are crucified to the world and the world must be crucified to
us. The world holds us to be fools; let us hold it to be mad.
Saint Francis de Sales, from Introduction to the Devine Life
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