St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Religious
Feast day: August 12
St. Jane Frances de Chantal was a wife, mother and founder of the Order of the Visitation. Born into a wealthy family in France in 1572, St. Jane is exemplary in how she dealt with family tragedy. By age 28, she had lost three of her seven children in infancy and was widowed when her husband was killed in a hunting accident. St. Jane struggled with depression as she tried to raise her children while being dependent on her in-laws for support within a dysfunctional household. And yet, St. Jane maintained a strong prayer life and found a good spiritual director in St. Francis de Sales. With his encouragement she established the Visitation nuns, an order open to vocations for those turned down by other religious orders, often because of advanced age. St. Jane is a model in remaining serene amidst life’s challenges.
In a happy marriage with Baron de Chantal, St. Jane nevertheless worked to restore order to her household, which was on the brink of financial ruin while her husband was absent at the court or with the army. Even before his untimely and violent death, she had trained herself to bear continuous trials bravely. As a married woman, St. Jane remained close to God and when criticized for her modest manner of dressing, she replied, “The eyes which I must please are a hundred miles from here.”
After the tragic death of her husband, she vowed to never marry again. St. Jane lived a strict schedule devoted to prayer and the care and education of her children, while also looking after sick neighbors. She prayed that God would send her a spiritual director to guide her new life as a widow. This spiritual director the Lord showed her was St. Francis de Sales, whom she had heard preaching. They began a spiritual friendship of letter-writing, and St. Francis encouraged her to focus on always doing the will of God.
When her children were teenagers, St. Jane de Chantal and St. Francis de Sales founded the Order of Visitation, devoted to prayer and works of charity. St. Jane took her two remaining daughters with her, the elder one having married, and she provided for the education of her 14 year-old son. The Congregation of the Visitation was canonically established on Trinity Sunday with the goal of including young girls and widows who did not have the strength to endure the austere practices in other religious orders at that time.
St. Jane de Chantal proved to be a gifted superior having both administrative capabilities and spiritual understanding as she dealt with criticism and internal tensions within her community. She was known for having an attitude of firmness and great vigor in dealing with her spiritual daughters. St. Jane dealt with terrible bouts of temptation and interior crosses, but remained faithful to God as she prayed, “Destroy, cut, burn whatever opposes your holy will.”
Another blow came when she lost her fourth child. Her remaining son was killed in battle, but in humility and love of God, the following year — during the plague of 1628 — she turned her convent at Annecy into a hospital. St. Vincent de Paul, also her friend, noted about St. Jane, “She was full of faith, and yet all her life long had been tormented by thoughts against it. … But for all that suffering her face never lost its serenity, nor did she once relax in the fidelity God asked of her. And so I regard her as one of the holiest souls I have ever met on this earth.”
Reflection
Dear Jesus, I pray that I may never doubt that you are with me no matter how many crosses you ask me to carry. Like St. Paul and St. Jane de Chantal, may I never forget that your grace is enough to sustain and give me the power to rise above my circumstances.
Prayer
O God, who made Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
radiant with outstanding merits in different walks of life,
grant us, through her intercession,
that, walking faithfully in our vocation,
we may constantly be examples of shining light.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
