After St./ Francis de Sales died in 1622, St Vincent de Piul became St. Jane’s spiritual director.
How had this come to be?
It was in the year 1622 tliat Vincent accepted the office of spiritual director to the nuns of the Order of the Visitation of St. Mary at Paris. This order had been founded some years previously by the great Bishop of Geneva, St. Francis de Sales, who, about this time, sent Madame de Chantal to establish a house at Paris. Humanly speaking, the success of the work depended chiefly upon the wisdom, prudence, and discretion of the spiritual director : this no one understood better than that great discerner of spirits St. Francis ; and therefore we may easily imagine what care he would take to select the right person for so important an office.
There were many in Paris at this time of high reputation for learning, wisdom , and sanctity ; doctors of the Sorbonne, and of the great university ; parish -priests of name, and others who gave themselves wholly to the direction of souls; and yet St. Francis passed over all these, and fixed his attention upon Vin cent de Paul. Knowing well the humility of the man , St. Francis overruled by anticipation his refusal of the office, by obtaining a positive command from Cardinal de Retz, the Bishop of Paris. Our Saint, as had been foreseen, shrank in dismay from the task assigned him . Labour in the Lord’s vineyard was what he sought and loved. When the poor needed him , he went with cheerful and ready heart; for his home was among them , and his great humility found its safest shelter in their lowly dwell ings. Here, however, was another task , a different kind of work, and one to which he thought himself unequal
. But what could he do ? St. Francis de Sales guidance ; and his ecclesiastical superior, the Cardinal de Retz, insisted upon a Saint complying with what Saints required. There is a peculiar interest in the great names thus brought together : no less than three canonised saints uniting in one particular work, and ar ranging together the foundation of a religious house. Seldom is it that God pours so bountifully upon one spot His choicest gifts , or brings togetheron earth those who in so supernatural a degree are fulfilling His will. It was, indeed, a blessing for Paris to hold such trea sures within its walls, while religious and civil dissen sion was preying upon the life of the nation. Vincent bowed to the decision of his Bishop ; and when he had once accepted the office of director to this new house, he threw himself with his usual zeal and energy into the good work.
As might be expected, the new order quickly took root, and flourished under such rulers ; the first house speedily gave birth to a second ; and then a third grew up ; and in a few years a fourth ap peared ; and all these in Paris, and all under the di rection of Vincent de Paul. For thirty -eight years we find him continuing the same good offices, and with what fruit the history of the order plainly shows. St. Francis de Sales lived not long to carry on the work which his piety and zeal had founded ; but he had the consolation of leaving it in the hands of Vincent, and well did he know the value of him to whom he had intrusted an institution so dear to his heart.
It was not mere report, or the language of others, upon which the mutual knowledge and esteem these two Šaints had of each other were founded. They had met in Paris, and had there formed a close intimacy ; and the tes timony the Bishop of Geneva gave of his friend was this : I never knew a man more wise or more holy than he.”
And as with St. Francis de Sales, so was it with the venerable mother who, under his direction, presided over the order. Madame de Chantal recognised at once in Vincent one who would supply the place ofShe placed herself in his hands, and for the twenty years which she lived after his appointment she sought no other director and looked for no other guide.