Friday 12 June 2020

St Frances de Chantal



12th December is the saint’s day for a 17th century French nun, Frances de Chantal. She was the founder of the Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

She was born in Dijon in 1572, was married at the age of 20 and widowed at 28 when her husband, the Baron de Chantal, died after a hunting accident. She proved to be a very able administrator of her late husband’s estates.

In 1604 she met Francis de Sales (who also became a saint) and expressed her wish to join a Carmelite nunnery. Knowing about her organisational skills, he had a better idea, which was that she should set up a community for women who believed that they had a vocation for the religious life but were not quite sure about the direction that it should take. These would be widows such as herself and younger girls who were uncertain about their future.

Frances duly set up the first “Congregation of the Visitation” at Annecy in the French Alps. The task was not easy, duly mainly to the attitude of some the first adherents – a number of the younger women came from wealthy families and did not see why they should do menial work, and some of the widows was very self-centred.

However, Frances persevered and had established more than 80 congregations by the time of her death in 1641.


© John Welford

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