SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
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SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES |
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BISHOP, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
(1622)
Saint Francis de Sales was a bishop of Geneva. He was born in Savoy in 1567, and was baptized in infancy. He was a frail and delicate boy of decent manners. He started his schooling at home, and was eager to learn. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the University of Paris where he studied rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, then he became a Doctor of Law at age twenty-four. In spite of his brilliant secular education, his inclination was to become a priest. He refused marriage and world careers, to devote his life to the service of the Church, and consecrate himself to God.
St. Francis was ordained a priest in 1593. He showed a remarkable service to the poor and the sick. He excelled in preaching, and administration. He founded many religious congregations. In his classic book ‘The introduction to the Devout Life’, he told the ordinary person who is tied to his daily routine living, how he could be a saint, and live a holy life. St. Francis showed lay people how prayers, and spirituality fit in all aspects of lives, for the soul who loves God. His love of God consumed him. In pure act of love, once he cried: “Lord, if I am never to see thee in Heaven, this at least grant me, that I may never curse nor blaspheme thy holy name. If I may not love thee in the other world - for in Hell none praise thee- let me at least every instant of my brief existence here love thee as much as I can”.
In 1602, St. Francis became bishop of Geneva. He proved himself to be a great preacher, administrator, and educator. It was said that his tenderness particularly displayed in his reception of apostates and other abandoned sinners. He used to tell them, “ God and I will help you; all I require of you is not to despair: I shall take on myself the burden of the rest.” He was always looking for new paths to reach the hearts and the minds of the people in hi continuous writings and letters. He was also the spiritual guide to other saints. Among them was St. Jane De Chantal, who founded with him the Order of the Visitation.
An outstanding leader of the Catholic Reformation, St. Francis de Sales died in 1622, canonized in 1665, and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1877.
INSPIRATIONAL LINES: “Very often, under color of an alleged impossibility, people who are obliged to live an ordinary life are not willing even to think of undertaking the devout life…They are of the opinion that, just as no animal dare taste the herb called palma Christi (castor oil plant), So no one ought to aspire to the palm of Christian piety, while living in the midst of the press of worldly occupations. And I show them that as the mother-of-pearl fish live in the sea without taking in a drop of salt water, … so a vigorous and constant soul can live in the world without receiving any world taint…” -Francis de Sales
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Page Written By H. G. H. ãCopyright 2001