From her childhood, Jane de Chantal is described as “beautiful, cheerful, simple, clairvoyant, determined and deeply applied to her duties as a Christian”.
“The perfect lady” first saw her faith in service to the poor and the sick. But after the death of her husband in 1601, she thinks of religious life, without knowing in what form to express this desire. She even inscribes the name of Jesus on her heart, to keep this wish always engraved in her!
When she first listened to Francis de Sales in 1604, she understood that her widowhood could be fruitful.
The bishop then becomes her spiritual guide. “It is a mistake to want to ban the devout life of the company of the soldiers, the shop of the craftsmen, the household of the married people”, says Françis de Sales at the beginning of his Introduction to the Devout Life.
For this man of the Church, everything begins with the heart, and the love of God is linked to the love of neighbor. This perfection is attained by an inner life totally abandoned to God, the offering of little things, the importance of modest virtues: gentleness, humility, simplicity … not to mention joy!
This inspired Jane to say to a too rigid Superior: “Since you are of the Visitation, we must understand the spirit of our founder, who was a saint, and his holiness did not prevent him, in the time of a holy recreation, to carry a graceful spirit of joy, which he communicated to others, and he laughed heartily. I think the Spirit of God brings joy. “
The future saint will completely seize this “Salesian spirit” in the founding of her Order, and will maintain it after the death of her great friend. They will be buried side by side in the basilica of the Visitation in Annecy.
“True simplicity, my daughters, consists in seeking God purely and justly, and in showing our hearts on our lips when we give an account of our conscience to our superiors. Simplicity does not philosophize on what others do and say; it has no other look than to seek God and his will purely and to turn away faithfully from all other things. And, certainly, it is a great clue that a soul is empty of God, when it amuses itself to look at the actions of others and to discourse why we do this and that.
There is nothing that makes us more like God than simplicity; who really is perfect. It does not take so much for perfection, for one must only desire good and do it; everything lies in it. There are very few souls who wish to undertake, and who are determined, to good effect, to this total renunciation of themselves. ”
Source: https://croire.la-croix.com/Definitions/Figures-spirituelles/-2019-02-21-1701004136