Source: The spirit of St. Francis de Sales today – Omnes (omnesmag.com)
Anyone who wants to know St. Francis de Sales in depth, deepen his thinking, guess his feelings and possess in its entirety the revelation of his soul and his heart, will be able to see him reflected in his “little Congregation”.
The Visitation was, in the last 15 years of his life, his work par excellence, fruit of his deep meditations and his paternal care.
The Providence of God wanted the meeting of two great saints, St. Francis de Sales and St. Jeanne Frances Fremiot de Chantal, to bear fruit in their Church a new charism, a new religious Order destined to honor the two most beloved virtues of the Sacred Heart of the Incarnate Word: sweetness and humility.
It is difficult to want to summarize in a few lines the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales, a spirituality that he transmitted to his daughters of the Visitation, and from which many other religious congregations in the Church, and innumerable lay people, have been enriched throughout history.
It could be said that the life of the saints never ends: their bodies die; they live their souls in Heaven interceding for those who pilgrimage on earth; but his works remain, and his spirit is still alive in the Church today.
For this reason, the Order of the Visitation, which today has more than 150 monasteries spread throughout the world, continues to spread the charism received as a gift of the Holy Spirit for the whole Church and transmitted by the founders.
The origins of the Order of the Visitation
But how was the Visitation born? The holy founder affirmed without hesitation: “our little Congregation is the work of the Heart of Jesus and Mary, the Savior at death gave birth to us through the opening of his Sacred Heart”.
So it really was, the charism proper to the Order was born from the Heart of Jesus. The two holy founders drank from Him and from Him the visitors of the whole world continue to drink from Him today. In fact, this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, willed and desired by the Founders, was providentially prepared by the will of the Lord.
A few decades after the death of the founders, in Paray-le-monial a humble daughter of St. Francis de Sales received the Revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus himself, commissioning him to make them known and spread throughout the Church.
The Lord chose St. Margaret Mary Alacoque as a particular confidant of this mystery of her heart, and in her, he gave the whole Order of the Visitation a particular mission, to bring all men to the Sacred Heart.
In the same way, the saint wanted the new congregation founded by him to bear the title of “The Visitation of Holy Mary”, for a very special devotion and love for the Mother of God, for finding in this Mystery “a thousand particular details that gave him a special light on the spirit he wished to establish in his Institute”.
The holy Doctor of the Love of God, throughout his pastoral life and especially his immense work as director of souls, had encountered on his way many people who wanted to consecrate themselves entirely to God in religious life, but who could not do so due to lack of health.
In fact, the religious orders that existed at that time demanded a strong body complexion capable of withstanding great fasts and external penances macadas by the rules.
The admirable intuition of the saint made him understand how a new path of sanctification was necessary in the Church, which would open the door to people with little physical health, the elderly, or who were simply not attracted to the practice of great external austerities.
However, these external austerities should be replaced by inner renunciation and great simplicity and joy in common life.
The axis and foundation of the spiritual edifice desired by St. Francis de Sales for the Visitation could not be other than the Pure Love of God.
In May 1610, just a few days before the beginning of the Foundation, he himself wrote to the holy foundress: “O my daughter, how I wish that the day will come when we die to ourselves, live only for God, and that our life will be hidden with Jesus Christ in God! Oh! When is it that we are no longer the ones who live but Jesus Christ in us?”
These few lines summarize the wishes of the two saints when the date indicated for the Foundation arrived: June 6, 1610, Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.
Some time later the Saint was asked why he founded a new Order if there were already so many in the Church, he replied: “It is for you to give God daughters of prayer and souls so interior, that they may be found worthy to serve His Divine Majesty and to adore Him in spirit and truth. Leaving it to the great Orders already established in the Church to honor Our Lord through excellent exercises and brilliant virtues, I want my daughters to have no other pretension than to glorify Him for their humble lives.”
For her part, Saint Jeanne Frances explained to her daughters years later: “There is a martyrdom, that of Love, by which God, sustaining the lives of his servants, so that they may work for his glory, makes them both martyrs and confessors. I know that this is the martyrdom for which the Daughters of the Visitation are destined, and which God will give to those who have the joy of desiring it. Give God your consent, and you will experience it. It consists in the Love of God piercing, like a sword, the most intimate and secret parts of our soul, and separating us from ourselves.”
And St. Francis de Sales spoke to the first visitors in this way: “Why do you think, my daughters, that God has placed you in the world… but that you may be, for His Divine Majesty, hosts, burnt offerings and victims who are consumed daily in His Divine Love?”
Thus, having the Love of God as its foundation, the “particular spirit of the Visitation is none other than a spirit of profound humility towards God and of great sweetness towards one’s neighbour”. A small anecdote from the life of the saint makes it very clear.
A few days before his death while in the parlor with his daughters, he was presented with a paper asking him to leave in writing those things that he considered most important to be able to keep them especially. The holy Founder took up the pen and slowly wrote a single word: humility.
Together with this humility and sweetness, another virtue of the visitandino spirit is simplicity of heart. The Saint said: “Simplicity is nothing but an act of charity pure and simple, which has only one goal: to acquire the love of God. And our soul is simple when that is the only thing we want in how much we do or desire.”
St. Francis de Sales fled from everything complicated, cumbersome, from everything superfluous and ornate, the simplicity of the Gospel was his usual way of life. A simplicity of heart that emanated from the profound detachment of everything that was not God and the service to the brothers.
That is why, especially at the end of his life, he constantly had on his lips these words that have become famous for their simplicity, but also for the depth they contain: Nothing to ask, nothing to refuse. “Receive what they give you, and do not ask for what they do not want to give you. In this practice you will find Peace for your souls. Yes, dear Sisters, keep your heart in this holy indifference to receive what they give you and not to desire what they will not give you. In a word: desire nothing; put yourselves and put all your concerns fully and perfectly in the hands of Divine Providence.”
We wanted to make a small sketch of this rich visitandine spirituality that St. Francis de Sales left as a legacy not only to his daughters, but to every Christian who wants to follow his teachings and live this spirit accessible to anyone whatever their personal vocation.
More than 400 years ago, a new branch sprouted on the Church tree, a branch that continues to bear fruit.
As a religious Order of contemplative life, these fruits are for the most part hidden from the eyes of men.
A life hidden in the silence of a cloister may seem sterile according to human criteria, but the supernatural vision makes us guess in that silent surrender the wisdom of grace that spreads through prayer to all corners of the Church and the world.
This is the hidden testimony of every religious of the visitation, of those who were contemporaries of the holy founders and also of those who in the twenty-first century wish to follow their spirit with all fidelity.