The great Doctor of the Church and bishop of Geneva, St. Francis de Sales, was not only a faithful devotee of the Guardian of the Redeemer but his avid proponent as well.
St. Francis de Sales made St. Joseph the special Patron of the religious order he founded, the Order of the Visitation. In addition to naming at least one of his parishes in his honor, he set Joseph as the model of the interior life and contemplative prayer for his own spiritual daughters–and in particular for the novices, who were to look upon St. Joseph as their novice “master” and guide (A Manual of Practical Devotion to the Glorious Patriarch St. Joseph, translated by Fr. Patrignani, p. 78).
Foundress St. Jane de Chantal had a deep devotion to the earthly, fatherly protector of Jesus.
St. Jane’s devotion was expressed simply and tenderly. Her piety, according to an early work in French about St. Joseph, was expressed in her praying before a painting of the saint every day, and she kept a picture of him, along with Mary and Jesus, in her book of rules.
She spoke of St. Joseph to St. Francis de Sales as “the dear Saint our heart loves”, and every day she recited the Litany to St. Joseph. When she traveled St. Jane also carried a picture of St. Joseph with her, in his patronage as protector of travelers.
St Jane de Chantal was no doubt influenced by the spirituality of her times in her high regard for St. Joseph. She may also have been influenced by St. Theresa of Avila’s similarly strong devotion.
The virtues of St. Joseph, as well as his intercession, served as a model for the qualities the Foundress would be attracted to cultivate within herself and her communities, especially humility and forgetfulness of self. St. Jane was so fond of reciting the Litany of St. Joseph.
