by Wyatt North
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
Young Francesco Bernadone shared his father’s attraction to all things French, but he didn’t want to go into business as his father wanted him to. Instead, he had dreams of nobility and knighthood. When he got a chance to go to battle in defense of Assisi as part of a militia group, he was captured and spent a year in a dungeon before he was ransomed. Undeterred by the experience, he answered the call to participate in the Fourth Crusade, riding out of Assisi clad in gold-trimmed armor and vowing to return as a prince. But a day later he turned around and rode home after dreaming that God told him to. He returned to face ridicule and accusations of cowardice, and the anger of his father over the money wasted on fancy armor.
“Alms are an inheritance and a justice which is due to the poor and which Jesus has levied upon us.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
While praying in the church at Damiano one day, Francis heard Jesus on the crucifix call him by name and say to him, “Repair my church.” Francis took merchandise from his father’s business to sell for money to start repairing the ancient church building, without realizing that the message referred to the Church with a capital “C.” Pietro, his father, was furious and hauled Francis in front of the bishop where he publicly demanded restitution for the stolen merchandise and disinherited his son. The bishop told Francis to make restitution and trust that God would provide. This was the pivotal moment in Francis’s life. He not only returned the money, but also removed the clothes his father had paid for and announced that henceforth his only father was his Father in heaven. From that moment on, material possessions meant nothing to Francis, and his only desire was to serve God.
“Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
It took Francis (the anglicized version of Francesco) a while to find his way to God. His dream in which God told him to turn back from his quest for glory as a crusading knight got him thinking. He started praying and repenting for the sins of his youth. He was clearly searching for answers and direction. But it was not until he overcame his distaste for ugliness and deformity and kissed the hand of a leper that he felt he had been tested by God and has passed.
With no formal religious training, Francis began preaching as he wandered from place to place, sleeping in the open and begging for scraps of food. His was a ministry of love, respecting all of God’s creation and urging listeners to love God and obey the Church. He acquired several followers who wanted to live as he did—people from all walks of life, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, city dwellers and peasants from the countryside, nobles and commoners. They moved from place to place, sleeping in the open or in caves or lean-tos they fashioned from branches. Francis felt a responsibility to provide direction for them, though he had no interest in establishing a formal religious order. Rather, he thought of the growing group as a brotherhood that included all living creatures, animals as well as human beings.
“By the anxieties and worries of this life Satan tries to dull man's heart and make a dwelling for himself there.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
Francis led by example and lived by the Gospel. He chose three passages to serve as the Rule for his brotherhood of God: Jesus’ command to the rich man to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor; His instructions to the apostles to leave everything behind; and the order to take up the cross daily.
“It would be considered a theft on our part if we didn't give to someone in greater need than we are.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
Francis became known for his directness and complete lack of artifice. He acted instinctively, from an inner sense of what was right and what response a situation called for. Sometimes, this led to mistakes, which Francis was quick to recognize and correct. For example, he once ordered a brother who did not want to speak in public because of his stutter to go into town and preach half-naked. As soon as Francis realized the pain his command caused to someone he loved, Francis ran after him, took off his own clothes, and preached in his place.
“Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
After spending years in Syria converting Muslims during the Fifth Crusade, Francis returned to Italy to find that the brotherhood had grown to more than 5,000 brothers practicing radical poverty. He faced great criticism and demands that he impose some discipline and structure on the organization. Many in the Church believed that the brotherhood needed a Rule that conformed to what was more in line with the standards of more traditional religious orders. Francis gave up his leadership role, apparently content to be one brother among many. Today he is regarded as the founder of all Franciscan orders.
“Every day, Jesus humbles Himself just as He did when He came from His heavenly throne into the Virgin’s womb; everyday He comes to us and lets us see Him in abjection, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
In his later years, Francis suffered the physical consequences of years of living in radical poverty. He regarded his suffering from malaria as an opportunity to share in Christ’s passion, and he had a vision of his own body marked with the stigmata of Christ’s wounds. He was also losing his eyesight. The 13th century treatment for preventing blindness was a brutal one that involved cauterizing the patient’s face with a hot iron. Francis prayed to “Brother Fire” to be merciful and reported when the procedure was over that he had felt no pain at all. During his years of illness, a childhood friend named Clare, founder of the Poor Clares, helped nurse him.
“Heaven open, Hell open, between the two is the Christian.”
– St. Francis of Assisi
Francis died in 1226 and was canonized only two years late due in large part to the many miracles attributed to him during his lifetime. He is credited with healing people in body and soul. He was also observed to tame a ferocious wolf, one known to have killed livestock and people, by making the sign of the Cross, praying over it, and speaking to it with loving kindness, assuring it that the local residents would feed it regularly. The wolf never killed again. It was also reported that flocks of birds would gather around Francis to listen to him preach. Fittingly, St. Francis is the patron of animals.
“Recall yourself sometimes to the interior solitude of your heart, and there, removed from all creatures, treat of the affairs of your salvation and your perfection with God, as a friend would speak heart to heart with another.”
– St. Francis de Sales
Francis was born into nobility in 1567 in the Kingdom of Savoy, France, not far from Geneva, Switzerland. As is often the case, father and son had very different plans for Francis’ life. His father, a member of the senate, expected Francis to follow in his footsteps and take his place in the senate one day. Francis, from an early age, felt a calling to the priesthood. It was confirmed when he fell from his horse three times while out riding one day. Each time he fell, his sword came out of its scabbard and the two landed on the ground, one on top of the other, in the shape of the cross. Francis didn’t reveal his calling to his parents until after he had received his doctorate in law from the University of Padua. His father was strongly opposed to the idea but eventually gave his consent. Francis was ordained by the Bishop of Geneva and elected provost of the Diocese of Geneva in 1593.
“Depend upon it, it is better to learn how to live without being angry than to imagine one can moderate and control anger lawfully; and if through weakness and frailty one is overtaken by it, it is far better to put it away forcibly than to parley with it; for give anger ever so little way, and it will become master, like the serpent, who easily works in its body wherever it can once introduce its head.”
– St. Francis de Sales
A story about
Francis de Sales as a young child provides insight to his early devotion to the Catholic faith and to the quick temper that took twenty years to tame. A group of visitors arrived at his family’s chateau one day, and some of them were Calvinists. Upon learning this, Francis, too young to join the gathering inside the chateau, grabbed a stick and chased the chickens around the courtyard, yelling at them and calling them out as Calvinists. Fortunately, as provost of the Diocese of Geneva, and later as Bishop, his efforts to convert Calvinists relied on gentle words and patience rather than a big stick.
“Make yourself familiar with the Angels, and behold them frequently in spirit. Without being seen, they are present with you.”
– St. Francis de Sales
At the time Francis de Sales became provost of the Diocese of Geneva, the area was a hotbed of Calvinism, and Francis aimed to bring as many of them back to the Church as he could. He went door to door trying to get Calvinists to speak with him, but all too often the door remained closed or was slammed in his face. He began writing out his explanations of Catholic doctrine and slipping them under doors, which was among the first known uses of religious tracts to communicate the Catholic faith to those who had left or fallen away from it. In addition to many such pamphlets, Francis wrote two well-regarded books and is known today as the patron saint of the Catholic press.
“Consider the pains which martyrs have endured, and think how even now many people are bearing afflictions beyond all measure greater than yours, and say, ‘Of a truth my trouble is comfort, my torments are but roses as compared to those whose life is a continual death, without solace, or aid or consolation, borne down with a weight of grief tenfold greater than mine.’”
– St. Francis de Sales
Francis de Sales was a kind, humble, and gentle man who was very successful in bringing souls into the Church, or back to it. While serving as provost of the Diocese of Geneva, he set himself the challenges of bringing 60,000 Calvinists back into the fold. He reached out to people who wouldn’t open the door to him through their children, letting parents see his kindness and patience as he played with their young ones. During the three years he spent going door to door in Calvinist areas he brought 40,000 people into the Church, largely by adhering to the axiom he lived by: “A spoonful of honey attracts more flies than a barrelful of vinegar.”
“A man makes the most progress and merits the most grace precisely in those matters wherein he gains the greatest victories over self and most mortifies his will.”
– St. Francis de Sales
Even after becoming bishop of Geneva in 1602, Francis de Sales continued to perform such priestly duties as hearing confessions and teaching catechism classes. He was the model of humility and good-natured kindness—so much so that nobody realized he had worked hard for more than two decades to gain control over what he described as his quick temper. For that reason, he is sometimes referred to as the “Gentleman Saint.” Interestingly, as bishop of Geneva, Francis was only in the city on two occasions, and on one of those he was simply passing through on his way elsewhere. He made his home in Annecy, France, about 22 miles south of Geneva.
“Obedience is a consecration of the heart, chastity of the body, and poverty of all worldly goods to the Love and Service of God. Blessed indeed are the obedient, for God will never permit them to go astray.”
– St. Francis de Sales
In 1610, Francis de Sales co-founded the Order of Visitation of Mary with St. Jane de Chantal. It was initially not meant to be a religious order, but rather a congregation where the sisters would be cloistered only for the first year of their novitiate. They would subsequently go out into the community to visit the poor and sick. It was not a model that church officials felt comfortable with, and the archbishop began pressuring Francis to transform his congregation into a traditional religious order. He held out for a year before acceding in 1616. Francis insisted, however, that not only virgins could join, but also widows with no children to care for, the aged who were of sound mind, the crippled who were sound of mind and heart, and the sick whose diseases were not communicable.
“The Devil doesn’t fear austerity but holy obedience.”
– St. Francis de Sales
The concept of spiritual direction was the keystone of the relationship between Francis de Sales and his dear friend, St. Jane Frances de Chantal. They met in 1604, when Jane, a young widow, heard him preach in Dijon, France. She believed him to be the person she had seen in a vision and who had been sent to her by God to be her spiritual director. (Francis reported having also seen Jane in a vision before meeting her.) Spiritual direction is the process through which the Church guides the faithful to the attainment of eternal happiness, or Christian perfection. A confessor is, in this sense, also a director of conscience. The surviving letters from their correspondence provide perhaps the best-known example of spiritual direction.
“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.”
– St. Francis de Sales
In the 17th century, true holiness was considered to be attainable only by the ordained and those in religious life. Lay people were not thought to be able to devote the necessary time to contemplation and prayer because they were actively involved in the world and did not have the luxury of withdrawing from it. Francis did not agree with this view. He believed that every Christian was called to holiness regardless of their immersion in earthly matters, a view that was closer to the teachings of Jesus and the lives of early Christians than the prevailing position of the Church during his own time. His goal in providing spiritual direction was to help those he advised become more Christ-like, just as it was the goal for his own ongoing spiritual development.
“Stretch forth your hand towards God as an infant towards its father to be conducted by Him.”
– St. Francis de Sales
Just as Francis urged the faithful to reach out to God as an infant reaching for its father’s hand, he also used the analogy of romantic love to describe the ideal relationship with God. He spoke of the intense desire to always be in the presence of one’s beloved, to hold tight and never let go, to be obsessed with that one person. All of these, he maintained, should characterize one’s love of God.
“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.”
– St. Francis de Sales
To Francis de Sales, it was impossible to love God without loving God’s children. We learn to love God by loving each other, without judgment. The corollary to this is being as gentle and forgiving with ourselves as we are with our neighbors. In the saint’s words, “To be an angel in prayer and a beast in one's relations with people is to go lame on both legs.”
“Many would be willing to have afflictions provided that they not be inconvenienced by them.”
– St. Francis de Sales
In 1605, Bishop Francis was introduced to a young deaf-mute named Martin. In the 17th century, people who could neither hear nor speak were thought to be mentally impaired and not worth trying to educate, so Martin had never received any religious instruction. Determined that Martin learn about God’s love, the bishop determined to teach him about the Catholic faith, which he accomplished by inventing his own sign language. Martin turned out to be intelligent and an apt pupil and was able to receive the Holy Eucharist in 1606 and was confirmed two years later. Bishop Francis hired Martin to be his gardener and served as Martin’s confessor. Martin was devastated when Bishop Francis died and visited the grave nearly every day. He wasted away with grief and died within a few weeks of the Bishop’s death. Consequently, St. Frances de Sales is the patron of catechists, the deaf, and the hearing-impaired.
“If, when stung by slander or ill-nature, we wax proud and swell with anger, it is a proof that our gentleness and humili
ty are unreal and mere artificial show.”
– St. Francis de Sales
Bishop Francis maintained a full schedule of work and travel even when his health began to fail. He was in more demand than ever, called upon for counsel by royalty and Church officials while continuing to preach and catechize and provide spiritual direction to many. In 1622, he was part of the Duke of Savoy’s entourage for the Duke’s Christmas tour in Avignon, France. During a stop in Lyon to visit a new Visitation convent, he exchanged what would turn out to be his last words with Mother Jane Francis de Chantal. She told him that she expected him to be canonized one day and that she hoped to take part in his canonization. On the day of his death, she was in Grenoble, deep in prayer, when she heard a voice say, “He is no more.” She wasted no time in gathering his writings and other evidence to start the process of recommending him for canonization in which she played a key role.