Homily for Memorial of St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Aug. 12, 2022
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

The collect for St. Jane notes her “outstanding merits in different walks of life.”  Those walks of life included being wife, mother, widow, and religious.

Her very happy marriage to Baron Christopher de Chantal was too short; in 1600 he was killed in a hunting accident, leaving 28-year-old Jane with 4 children.  As his wife she’d been an adept manager of the house and hostess, altho she lived quite simply in her own regard; and she was a woman of prayer.

Her life as a widow was something else, hard on 2 accounts.  She was left in the hands of her difficult father-in-law and his housekeeper who, apparently, was something of a shrew.  Jane maintained her patience and charity with them and eventually won them over.  Her 2d trial was a harsh spiritual director, until Providence led her unexpectedly to Francis de Sales in 1604.

The holy bishop answered her need for practical guidance, which he did mainly by letters.  She answered a need on his part:  the right woman for a project he had in mind, a new form of female religious life devoted not only to prayer but also to practical charity.  It took 6 years for Francis to be sure she was that right woman and for her to discern God’s will in this new walk of life (and to make arrangements for her children).

Francis’s plan for the Visitation Sisters was thwarted by the Roman Curia, and they were restricted to cloister.  Nowadays some remain cloistered, but others have been able to take up active apostolates, such as the well known Georgetown Visitation Prep School.  (Mike and I were privileged at times to offer Sunday Mass for the sisters and their guests.)

As for Jane, she proved to be the perfect cofoundress with Francis, wise, energetic, practical, intensely spiritual.  She guided the new order to rapid expansion thruout France, and now they’re worldwide.  The 2 founders’ graves are side by side in the great Visitation church at Annecy.

We might learn from Jane some ways to “be examples of shining light” (Collect), e.g., by the acceptance of trials and setbacks; patience with people we don’t get along with; and true devotion—marrying our work and community living to a life of prayer, as St. Francis taught her and teaches us.