Saturday January 24 is the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop, Doctor of the Church and Founder of the Visitation order, along with St. Jane de Chantal.
What was the special spirit of this Saint and what can we learn from him today?
Cardinal Wiseman wrote of him:
“The Church has indeed openly recognised in St.Francis the existence of such a peculiar spiritual gift, a spirit of his own. In his Collect, she praises God for having ” made him all to all, for the salvation of souls,” and prays that by following ” the direction of his precepts or advice,” and ” steeped inthe sweetness of charity, we may attain eternal life.”
And again in her legend of him, after our Saint has been praised for all the virtues that made him one, he receives that special eulogium which belongs singularly to himself, that “his works, filled with heavenly doctrine, shine brightly through the Church ; for that in them he has pointed out a way,sure and easy, to Christian perfection.”
Thus does the Church recognise a peculiar commission given by divine goodness to St. Francis, of making felt” the sweetness of charity,” and leading men to salvation by this path, rather than by that of austerity and penance.”
From: Spiritual Conferences, Introduction