St Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641): co-founder of the Order of the Visitation
The
image shows a stained glass window depicting St Francis de Sales giving
the Constitutions of a new religious order to St Jane Frances de
Chantal.
Jane was a happily married with four children whose husband
died in a hunting accident.
Helped by St Francis de Sales, she founded
the Order of the Visitation, adapted for widows and women like herself.
She was also a friend of St Vincent de Paul.
"Sometimes put yourself simply before God, certain of his
presence everywhere, and without any effort, whisper very softly to his
sacred heart whatever your own heart prompts you to say."
Husband was killed in a hunting accident
Jeanne
de Chantal was born into a wealthy family in Dijon, France. At the age
of twenty she married a baron, Christophe de Rabutin. It was a happy
marriage, despite the fact that three of their seven children died in
infancy. In 1600, however, after eight years of marriage, her husband
was killed in a hunting accident. In the following years, as she
struggled with her children's upbringing, dependent on her in-laws for
support, her heart increasingly turned to the attractions of religious
life. She vowed that she would never again marry.
Meets Francis de Sales
In 1604 she heard a sermon
preached by the bishop of Geneva, Francis de Sales. This was a turning
point in her life, the beginning of a deep spiritual friendship and
partnership that would advance them both along their respective paths to
sanctity. Francis was already renowned as a preacher and spiritual
director. Rather than present the spiritual life as something fit only
for monks and nuns, he tried to present a spirituality accessible to
everyone and capable of being lived out in the world. Jeanne immediately
responded to his message and asked him to become her spiritual
director.
Order of the Visitation of Mary
After several
years, in 1610, the two of them founded the Order of the Visitation of
Mary, a congregation dedicated to prayer and works of charity. Their
original intention was that the order would be adapted for widows and
other women who, for reasons of health or age, could not endure the
rigours of enclosed life.
But the plan met with such sharp disapproval
from ecclesiastical authorities that in the end Jeanne consented to
accept enclosure. Jeanne's daughters were married by this time, but her
fifteen-year-old son, Celse-Benigne, resisted his mother's plan to enter
religious life. He was the occasion of a melodramatic test, for which
Jeanne is especially remembered.
Laying his body across the threshold of
their home, he implored her not to leave. Without hesitation she
stepped over him and proceeded on her way.
"Be gentle with yourself"
Jeanne proved a gifted
superior, combining superb administrative skills with a profound
instinct for the spiritual life. "No matter what happens," she wrote,
"be gentle with yourself." In her lifetime the order grew to include
eighty communities in several countries. Along the way she encountered
persistent criticism from church authorities as well as internal
tensions within the congregation.
The order attracted many women from an
aristocratic background who found it difficult to adapt themselves to
the spirit of poverty and obedience. Jeanne weathered these and greater
trials, including the death of her son in war and, later, in 1622, the
passing of her beloved friend, St. Francis de Sales.
"Her face never lost its serenity"
She lived on
for almost twenty years, dying in 1641 at the age of sixty-nine. Another
holy friend, St. Vincent de Paul, was moved to observe: "She was full
of faith, and yet all her life long had been tormented by thoughts
against it. . . . But for all that suffering her face never lost its
serenity, nor did she once relax in the fidelity God asked of her. And
so I regard her as one of the holiest souls I have ever met on this
earth."