Jane Frances de Chantal

Feastday: August 12

What a way to start a marriage! Jane no sooner arrived at her new home then she discovered she might lose it. Her husband, Christophe, had not only inherited the title of baron but enormous debts as well.

But Jane had not come to the marriage empty-handed. She brought with her a deep faith instilled by her father who made daily religious discussion fun, allowing the children to talk about anything -- even controversial topics. She also brought a good-hearted way that made a friend comment, "Even stupid jokes were funny when she told them."

These qualities helped the twenty-year-old French woman take charge by personally organizing and supervising every detail of the estate, a method which not only brought the finances under control but won her employees' hearts as well.

Despite the early financial worries, she and her husband shared "one heart and one soul." They were devoted to each other and to their four children.

One way Jane shared her blessings was by giving bread and soup personally to the poor who came to her door. Often people who had just received food from her would pretend to leave, go around the house and get back in line for more. When asked why she let these people get away with this, Jane said, "What if God turned me away when I came back to him again and again with the same request?"

Her happiness was shattered when Christophe was killed in a hunting accident. Before he died, her husband forgave the man who shot him, saying to the man, "Don't commit the sin of hating yourself when you have done nothing wrong." The heartbroken Jane, however, had to struggle with forgiveness for a long time. At first she tried just greeting him on the street. When she was able to do that, she invited him to her house. Finally she was able to forgive the man so completely that she even became godmother to his child.

These troubles opened her heart to her longing for God and she sought God in prayer and a deepening spiritual life. Her commitment to God impressed Saint Francis de Sales, the bishop who became her director and best friend. Their friendship started before they even met, for them saw each other in dreams, and continued in letters throughout their lives.

With Francis' support, Jane founded the Visitation order for women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age. She even accepted a woman who was 83 years old. When people criticized her, she said, "What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I'm on their side." She believed that people should have a chance to live their calling regardless of their health.

Still a devoted mother, she was constantly concerned about the materialistic ways of one of her daughters. Her daughter finally asked her for spiritual direction as did may others, including an ambassador and her brother, an archbishop. Her advice always reflected her very gentle and loving approach to spirituality:

"Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction and practice the opposite virtue, all the time speaking words of love and trust to our Lord after you have committed a thousand faults, as much as if you had committed only one. Once we have humbled ourselves for the faults God allows us to become aware of in ourselves, we must forget them and go forward."

She died in 1641, at sixty-nine years of age.

In Her Footsteps

We have been told the secret of happiness is finding: finding yourself, finding love, finding the right job. Jane believed the secret of happiness was in "losing," that we should "throw ourselves into God as a little drop of water into the sea, and lose ourselves indeed in the Ocean of the divine goodness." She advised a man who wrote to her about all the afflictions he suffered "to lose all these things in God. These words produced such an effect in the soul, that he wrote me that he was wholly astonished, and ravished with joy."

Today, when any thoughts or worries come to mind, send them out into the ocean of God's love that surrounds you and lose them there. If any feelings come into your heart -- grief, fear, even joy or longing, send those out into the ocean of God's love. Finally, send your whole self, like a drop, into God. There is no past no future, here or there. There is only the infinite ocean of God.

Prayer: Saint Jane, you forgave the man who killed your husband. Help me learn to forgive a particular person in my life who has caused me harm. You know how difficult it is to forgive. Help me to take the steps you took to welcome this person back into my life. Amen

*In the USA, Jane Frances de Chantal's feast day was moved to August 12 in order to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Jane Frances de Chantal (Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot, Baronne de Chantal; 28 January 1572 – 13 December 1641) is a Catholic saint, who was beatified in 1751 and canonized in 1767. She founded the religious Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. The order accepted women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age. When people criticized her, Chantal famously said, "What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I'm on their side." During its first eight years, the new order also was unusual in its public outreach, in contrast to most female religious who remained cloistered and adopted strict ascetic practices.

Her life

Jane Frances de Chantal was born in Dijon, France, on 28 January 1572, the daughter of the royalist president of the Parliament of Burgundy, Bénigne Frémyot and his wife, Margaret de Berbisey. Her paternal uncle was the prior at Val des Choux. Her brother André became the Archbishop of Bourges (1602–1621).

Her mother died when Jane was 18 months old. Her father became the main influence on her education. She developed into a woman of beauty and refinement.

Baroness

Having turned down two prior suitors, in 1592, she married the Baron de Chantal when she was 20 and they lived in the feudal castle of Bourbilly. There they hosted hunting parties and other entertainments for the neighboring nobles. Their first two children died shortly after birth. When her older sister Margaret died, the baroness brought her three small children to Bourbilly. She and her husband subsequently had a son and three daughters. Baron de Chantal was occasionally away from home on service to the king. Chantal gained a reputation as an excellent manager of the estates of her husband, as well as of her difficult father-in-law, while also providing alms and nursing care to needy neighbors.

In 1601, the Baron was accidentally killed in a hunting accident. Left a widow at 28, with four children, the broken-hearted baroness took a vow of chastity. Chantal then put the estate in order and acceded to her father's request that she and her children to stay for a time with him in Dijon. She had not long returned to Bourbilly when she received a letter from her widowed father-in-law demanding that she live with him in his castle at Monthelon, Saône-et-Loire. Towards the end of 1602, Chantal closed up Bourbilly and moved to Monthelon.

Francis de Sales

In 1604, her father invited her to come to Dijon to hear the bishop of Geneva, Francis de Sales, preach the Lenten sermons at the Sainte Chapelle. They became close friends and de Sales became her spiritual director. He "...bade her avoid scruples, hurry, and anxiety of mind, which above all things hinder a soul on the road to spiritual perfection." At De Sales suggestion, she divided her time between Dijon and Monthelon so to attend to both her father and father-in-law.

In 1605, Pierre de Bérulle sent Anne of Jesus to found a Carmelite house in Dijon. She wanted to become a nun but he persuaded her to defer this decision. As for her request to perform additional austerities, De Sales was firm in advising between seven and eight hours sleep. In 1610 Chantal's daughter, Marie Aymée, married De Sales youngest brother, Bernard. Shortly after this, Chantal's youngest daughter, Charlotte, died of an illness. With the death of De Sales' mother, Chantal moved to Annecy to be of assistance to Marie Aymée with her remaining daughter Françoise. Her fifteen-year-old son, Celse Bénigne, lived with his grandfather in Dijon.

Daughters of the Visitation

De Sales purchased a small house on Lake Annecy, where she was joined by Marie Favre, daughter of president of Savoy, and Charlotte de Bréchard, whom De Sales had also recruited. The Congregation of the Visitation was canonically established at Annecy on Trinity Sunday, 6 June 1610. Chantal had previously made over her wealth to her children, so the circumstances of the group were rather poor. The order accepted women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age. Their office was the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

During its first eight years, the new order also was unusual in its public outreach, in contrast to most female religious who remained cloistered and adopted strict ascetic practices. A second convent was established in Lyon. The usual opposition to women in active ministry arose and Francis de Sales was obliged to make it a cloistered community following the Rule of St. Augustine. He wrote his Treatise on the Love of God for them. When people criticized her for accepting women of poor health and old age, Chantal famously said, "What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I'm on their side."

Her reputation for sanctity and sound management resulted in many visits by (and donations from) aristocratic women. The order had 13 houses by the time de Sales died, and 86 before Chantal herself died at the Visitation Convent in Moulins, aged 69. Vincent de Paul served as her spiritual director after de Sales' death. Her favorite devotions involved the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary. Chantal was buried in the Annecy convent next to de Sales. The order had 164 houses by 1767, when she was canonized. Chantal outlived her son (who died fighting Huguenots and English on the Île de Ré during the century's religious wars) and two of her three daughters, but left extensive correspondence. Her granddaughter also became a famous writer, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné.

Veneration

Francis de Sales meets Jane Frances de Chantal, cutout from a window in the cathedral of Annecy

She was beatified on 21 November 1751 by Pope Benedict XIV, and canonized on 16 July 1767 by Pope Clement XIII.

Saint Jane Frances's feast day was included in the General Roman Calendar in 1769, two years after she was canonized. Her feast was set as 21 August. In the 1969 revision of the calendar, her feast was moved to 12 December, to be closer to the day of her death, which occurred on 13 December 1641, the feast of Saint Lucy. In 2001, Pope John Paul II included in the General Roman Calendar the memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 12 December. Consequently, he moved the memorial of Saint Jane Frances to 12 August.