by Joseph Boenzi, SDB
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Abstract:
In his article “Visitation: Mystery of Presence, Community of Women for Women,” Joseph Boenzi, SDB sheds light upon the beginnings of St. Francis de Sales’ Visitation Institute. Fr. Boenzi highlights the scope of the new institute and the importance that it had for the Savoyard. From its beginning, the Institute was aimed to attract women and girls “who would begin a new experiment of living together in piety and poverty, enriching themselves only with good works.” Fr. Boenzi stresses that Francis de Sales aimed to create a community where charity towards one’s neighbor and a contemplative life of prayer were perfectly balanced. This was innovative for Francis de Sales’ time, and so his idea would attract some criticism from various quarters, especially since what he was proposing did not seem to be a serious response to the austere demands made by the Council of Trent regarding religious life. It was precisely because religious life was too rigorous and too severe that in the Savoyard’s opinion, only women of robust constitution could endure such a communitarian life. What about women who did not enjoy robust health? Should they be impeded in embracing religious life? Not according to Francis de Sales. In fact, the new Institute would be “for those women and girls who, because of their bodily infirmities or because they have not the inspiration to undertake great austerities, cannot enter the existing or reformed religious communities…” Therefore, his new Institute would create an environment where such women would find a welcoming, gracious refuge with the possibility of living a virtuous life. The author then moves on to state Francis de Sales’ clear scope for the institute and the choice of name for his new religious community. Towards the end of his article, Fr. Boenzi gives details on the expansion of the new Institute and also on the practice of charity by its members, especially towards poor and sick women. Reaching out to these poor women and instructing girls on Sundays, the Sisters of the Visitation – as they became to be known – were an innovation in the field of religious life, especially in a time when monastic or cloistered community life was considered austere and rigid.
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Visitation
Mystery of Presence, Community of Women for Women
by Joseph Boenzi, SDB
Crucial Need to Renew Religious Life
Independent of his role as spiritual director of Jane de Chantal and the other women who formed the first Visitation community, Francis de Sales had long contemplated the need for new forms of religious communities for women and men.
Catholicism after the Council of Trent was, in many ways, characterized by the reform of monastic orders and by the foundation of new apostolic orders. Francis was well aware of this current. Since his missionary days in the Chablais, he understood how much harm had been caused by negligent priests and inobservant monks. As early as 1597, he complained in a letter to papal nuncio in Torino, Archbishop Giulio Riccardi,[1] that many ancient monasteries should either be reformed or be suppressed, for they had become “seedbeds of scandal.”[2]
In 1602 Francis de Sales took part in deliberations held in Paris to invite the daughters of Saint Teresa of Jesus to establish a foundation in France, and wrote favorably of the project to Pope Clement VIII.[3] Soon afterwards, as bishop of Geneva, he worked energetically for the reform of the abbey of Notre-Dame d’Abondance (replacing the Canons Regular with the Feuillant Order of reformed Cistercians) and the Benedictine Priory in Talloires. He endorsed the ministry of reformed and apostolic orders in his own diocese and in the duchy of Savoy, such as the Capuchins, the Oratorians, the Barnabites, and the Jesuits. In terms of women’s communities, as late as 1609 he considered establishing a house for Carmelite nuns in his own episcopal palace, but his friendship with Jane de Chantal prompted him to explore other possibilities.
Originally Francis de Sales had no intention of founding a Religious Order. What he hoped to launch was a community for Christian women who were physically unable to bear the austerity of the Poor Clares or the Carmelites. He invited Madame de Chantal to assist him as he increasingly spoke of forming a simple congregation (a word that denoted a lay association or confraternity rather than a religious community). He was eager that this community should be built around the needs of the women themselves, and committed to balancing a contemplative stance with an active life, works of charity with a deep prayer. The goals were modest: a small household of women who strove to live Gospel charity together. Outside events, however, would help the little community of the Visitation of Holy Mary at Annecy to develop into one of the most influential institutes in the Church.
Launching Community
Escorted by her son-in-law, Bernard de Thorens, Jane de Chantal arrived in Annecy with her daughters Marie-Aimée and Françoise on 4 April 1610. It was Palm Sunday. They were met at the entrance of the city by the Francis de Sales and a group of gentlemen on horseback – many of them members of De Sales family.
During the next two months, Baroness Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal, together with Charlotte de Bréchard and Jacqueline Favre, and with the practical assistance of Anne-Jacqueline Coste, prepared to embrace a new way of life.[4] Jane and her companions, all directées of Francis de Sales, shared a common purpose. They did not give themselves to austere penances and ascetical practices, but they encouraged one another to keep their will united with God’s will, and to live entirely by God’s good pleasure.
Late in May Francis de Sales received all four candidates into religious life in a brief encounter at his own residence. He encouraged them to give themselves entirely to the Lord and handed Jane an outline of a rule of life.
The new community was to have gotten underway on “the day of the Holy Spirit,” that is, Pentecost Sunday, which fell that year on 30 May. Francis de Sales was very devoted to what he called the “mystery of the descent of the Holy Spirit,” which indicated for him the promulgation of the Church. The day also held a special, contemplative meaning for Francis, who desired to inaugurate the new congregation, as he said, “so that our daughters, closed as in a little Upper Room, might receive the Holy Spirit and be inebriated with divine gifts that will not only allow them to speak a new language but to live a new life.”[5]
However, the starting date had to be postponed, for there had been some problems in readying the quarters that the bishop had secured for the women. One week later, Jane and her companions were able to move into a small house on the banks of the Lake of Annecy. Its arched porch accounted for the building’s nickname: the Galerie. Francis de Sales formally launched the tiny community with the women and members of their families with a prayer service during which he invoked a solemn blessing upon them. This took place on the afternoon of Trinity Sunday, 6 June 1610.
Inaugurating the institute was the final step in a long process that had begun several years before. What was on Francis de Sales’ mind as the community assembled on the first Sunday in June? Exactly one month earlier, he had summed up his ideas and intentions in a letter to Gianfrancesco Ranzo[6] in Torino:
On the coming feast of Pentecost, we will initiate a Congregation of gentlewomen, of great spirit and quality, who will involve themselves greatly in works of charity toward the poor and sick, to the service of which these blessed souls want to, in part, dedicate themselves, taking on types of service that women on this side of the mountain typically take upon themselves. And they will have a house in which they will live together, and an oratory in which they will deepen their great devotion.[7]
Scope of the Institute
Offering a precise scope for the Institute was important to Francis. In his correspondence he states that the future religious want to consecrate themselves to the poor and the sick. On 24 May, a few days after his letter to Gianfrancesco Ranzo, Francis wrote nearly the same words in a letter to the Savoyard Jesuit Nicolas Polliens,[8] noting that while he had to give up plans of building a reformed monastery, he could, at a much smaller scale, open a simple but honest retreat for some resolute souls who desired to leave the chaos of the world – women and girls who would begin a new experiment of living together in piety and poverty, enriching themselves only with good works.[9] We see in these texts that charity towards neighbor and contemplative prayer are perfectly balanced.
The Bishop of Geneva was well aware that he might well create some controversy by opening such a small community for women in Annecy. As he told Fr. Polliens, “I know that I will attract a lot of criticism upon me, but give it no thought, because who has ever done something without attracting criticism? In the meantime, many souls will approach the Lord more closely; they will find a little soothing rest and will glorify the holy name of the Savior, while, without this, they would remain with all the other frogs in the swamp.”[10]
Why would there be so much controversy and criticism? The most outspoken critics would claim that this homey little household was not a serious response to the demands of religious life, especially perhaps after the Council of Trent had stressed the austerity of the calling. Experience, however, had taught this missionary bishop that many religious orders for women were too rigorous, too severe. Only women who enjoyed robust health could endure the physical hardships imposed by the rule and the stark, monastic living conditions. These requirements, he felt, impeded many women from responding to a religious calling. His new institute, as he wrote to Philippe de Quoex on 20 July 1510, was founded “for those women and girls who, because of their bodily infirmities or because they have not the inspiration to undertake great austerities, cannot enter the existing or reformed religious communities…” In his new institute, however, such women “will have a gentle and gracious refuge with the practice of the essential virtues of devotion.”[11]
Francis incorporated these thoughts into a small set of guidelines that he gave to Jane de Chantal shortly after she and her companions entered the Galerie. His purpose was to offer some guiding principles for conducting the life of the community, and he had begun to draft these strategies as a preliminary draft of the community constitutions during June and July of 1610.[12] The original document was barely more than an outline, but it offered Francis the opportunity to describe the purpose for founding the community. There were many virtuous women, both the very young and the quite mature, who desired to consecrate “all the moments of their lives to the love and service of God,” he wrote. Often, however, these women were prevented from following their desire to give themselves to God in formal religious institutions because they suffered from poor health. Others were prevented from entering religious life for reasons of age, or because (in the case of widows) they needed to attend to family obligations or urgent household matters from time to time. Others, he says, sought a life of intimacy with God but were not attracted nor inspired to embrace an austere and rigorous life. All those facing these difficulties had to give up the notion of entering a formal religious community. As a result, they are forced to remain in the world and to face continual distractions every day, risking the dangers and occasions of sin and of living without a sense of devotion.[13]
In response to the concrete needs of women who would have otherwise been excluded from entering religious life, Francis de Sales clarified the scope of the new Institute. His comments in the 1610 guidelines are particularly important because he makes a distinction between the “end” and the “means of perfection” in the Institute. The “end” or purpose was the women who were otherwise excluded from austere orders could dedicate themselves to seek the “perfection of charity.” The “means of perfection” or “practices” of the community center around “mental prayer” on the one hand, and the “service of the poor and sick” on the other.
This distinction between the end and the means helps us to understand how in the moments of difficulty when blocked in efforts to obtain pontifical approval of the Institute, Francis will accept letting go of the external “means,” but will fight to preserve the scope of the Congregation.
Name of the Institute
As the idea of founding a new institute began to take shape, the bishop considered different names for the group. At one point he toyed with a name like the “Oblates of the Holy Virgin,” inspired, no doubt, by a community of widows founded by Francesca Bussi de’ Leoni in Ponziani in Rome in the early fifteenth century.[14] By 1607 Francis proposed the “Daughters of St Martha,” to whom he nurtured a great devotion. He considered her a “dear teacher” of spiritual life for she had been the “holy hostess of Our Lord.”[15]
Jane de Chantal was not keen on naming the community after St Martha. Deep within her she nurtured a hope that the group would come together under the patronage of the “most holy Virgin,” but she never said a word to this effect to the Bishop. She simply prayed to God that, if this were God’s will, the Bishop would be inspired to dedicate the foundation to the Mother of God. This, in fact, is what occurred. When the institute finally took shape on 1 July 1610, their name was the “Religious of the Visitation of Holy Mary.”
Francis spoke of numerous motives for settling on the “Visitation of Holy Mary” as the name for the Institute. One, however, seems to have been the determining factor. The women themselves liked this name. In one of his letters we find this comment:
They find in this mystery 1000 spiritual details which especially highlight the spirit they wish to infuse into their institute.[16]
Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, Jane de Chantal’s niece and secretary, describes the sisters’ thinking in this way:
This was a hidden mystery, not celebrated like the others in so solemn a way by the Church. This was a motive for great joy for Mother Chantal, who inculcated this devotion to the Holy Virgin among us, the first Sisters, and spoke so often about her when visiting and caring for the sick, that the little children and the people began to call us the Religious of Holy Mary, a name that has stuck to this day.[17]
The theme of the Visitation, as presented in the Gospel of Luke, pointed to a hidden mystery. In many ways, the Church’s observance of the Visitation was also a hidden feast. The liturgical celebration of the Visitation of Mary to her kinswoman Elizabeth [cf. Luke 1:39-56] went back as early as 1263, when the Franciscans began to commemorate this mystery. On the advice of Jan Jenstein, Archbishop of Prague, Pope Urban VI (1318-1389) extended the observance of the Visitation of Mary to the whole Western Church with the Bull of 6 April 1389 (published by his successor Boniface IX on 9 November of the same year). This gesture was meant as an invitation to Mary to come and visit the Church torn by schism, and renew it with the same grace that worked wonders in the life of St Elizabeth. Although the Archdiocese of Prague observed the feast on 28 April as the date commemorating Mary’s arrival in the house of Elizabeth and Zechariah, Pope Urban set 2 July as the appropriate date for the feast – on the day following the octave of the Birth of John the Baptist. The presumption was that this was the day that Mary ended her stay with her kinsmen, and began her journey home.
No formal liturgy was composed as yet, and with the Church entering its most severe schism, there were very few dioceses that accepted the feast. On the other hand, the feast was quickly adopted by religious orders, beginning with the Carthusians, Franciscans, Carmelites, Mercedarians, Dominicans, Servites, Augustinians, and the Cistercians. The feast became universal during the Council of Basel (Session 43, 1 July 1441), and a number of Oriental Patriarchs decided to adopt the feast as a result of the Council of Florence. The feast began to be observed in the Syrian, Maronite and Coptic Churches.[18]
In 1608, Pope Paul V introduced the formula in the Roman missal and the breviary for the Universal Church. Whatever the symbolic meaning this Gospel story may have held for the bishops and the great religious orders in the early seventeenth century, the liturgical developments that took place at that time helped to mature popular sensitivity for this mystery in the life of the Virgin.
More than the low-key celebration of the feast, however, we find the beginnings of two features of Salesian spirituality in the choice of this name: one is the “hidden life” of Christ; the second is devotion to Mary as the “Christ-bearer.”
First Signs of Growth for the Community
Within days of starting their life in the Galerie, the “ladies” set aside their titles and addressed one another as Sister (but they preferred to address Jane de Chantal as Mother). They quickly adopted a common and simple form of dress.[19] It did not take very long before the little community began to receive new members. Claude-Françoise Roget arrived on 22 July;[20] Péonne-Marie de Châtel came from Chambéry to join the group on 26 July (feast of St. Anne);[21] Marie-Marguerite Milletot entered on the vigil of the Assumption on 14 August.[22] The little house of the Galerie was quickly filling to capacity.
The women gradually deepened in appreciation of their contemplative vocation, slowly and gently adapting to their new life. At the very end of the next year, on 31 December 1611, in the context of a day of prayer and reflection, the sisters held their first canonical elections. Not surprisingly, they chose Jane de Chantal as the first superior of the Visitation Community.
On New Year’s Day 1612, Mother Chantal, accompanied by Sr. Jacqueline Favre, began visiting the poor and the sick of the city. She organized the sisters in parties of two or three to go out to Annecy’s most needy families.[23] At the same time, the bishop was working to prepare more suitable housing for the growing community. On 30 October 1612, the sisters left the little house of the Galerie, and settled in a larger house that would serve as the monastery of the Visitation until the French Revolution.[24]
By 1613 the community had grown to include eleven sisters.[25] The bishop developed a series of guidelines, which he gave to his daughters. This document constituted the first true Constitutions of the Visitation of Holy Mary.[26]
As he had already done in the guidelines that he had drafted in 1610, Francis defined the scope of the congregation in the very first article of the 1613 constitutions. Clearly, in the mind of the founder, the scope of the Visitation community was very simply to offer women who could not enter the ancient or reformed cloistered orders due to fragile health or family commitments (in the case of widows) the opportunity to “retire from the world, flee the occasions of sin and apply themselves most gently and perfectly to the exercise of divine love.”[27] Francis then went on to indicate the two principal means of carrying out the scope of the congregation: contemplation and prayer (to be practiced in the community setting) and the service of poor and sick women (acts of charity carried out in the homes of these same shut-ins).[28]
Exercising Charity
Serving Poor and Sick Women
According to the 1610 guidelines and the 1613 constitutions, serving poor and sick women in town was one of the means by which the women of Visitation could “most gently and perfectly” exercise charity for God and neighbor. Yet, this practice of visiting shut-ins and caring for them in their poverty and sickness was more than a pious work out. The city of Annecy at the start of the 1600s, with a population of 4,500 people, had no hospital. Healthcare depended on Christian charity, and, in the mind of the bishop, the daughters of the Visitation could be a great influence in the city by reaching out to the poor, the sick and the homebound.
Several of the sisters had taken up this charity, including Mother de Chantal who mobilized efforts on behalf of the poor and the sick while raising her own children. Francis de Sales saw no reason why such a practice should not continue. As early as 1607, as a matter of fact, Francis de Sales had envisioned a community of women who could join contemplative prayer with active charity. We find evidence of this in letter which Francis de Sales sent to Jane de Chantal on the day after Pentecost, 4 June 1607. In that letter he invited her to help him to found a new style of religious community that would unite a life of prayer with the care of the sick and poor.[29]
Naturally, this meant that the Visitandines did not maintain strict cloister, which was in keeping with the style of community that the Bishop of Geneva had envisioned: a congregation for women expressly tailored to their needs, with mitigated enclosure and simple rather than solemn vows. Under these circumstances, it would be possible for the Visitandines to reach out to needy women. Yet, it is important to point out that the sisters’ “visits” were strictly controlled. Not all the sisters visited the sick. Only those who had been chosen by the superior were permitted to leave the monastery. Mother Chantal carefully organized the sisters’ visits to the poor and sick of Annecy. On the first day of every month she would designate which sisters would make the rounds. These sisters were “chosen and sent” in pairs. Visits could be made to the rich, especially to women of the upper class who are “devout” or who are supportive of the Visitation order, but the Sisters were generally to direct their attention toward the poor.
Creating Community for Women
As far as other aspects of life among the Sisters of the Visitation were concerned, the community lived as enclosed women. Men were not allowed into the house, except in the parlor. In case of necessity, the doctor, surgeon, confessor, or relatives of a sick sister could, however, enter the monastery.
Francis de Sales had foreseen the possibility of offering spiritual retreats for women of the world – retreats lasting a certain length of time within the confines of the convent. Such a program fit with the founder’s overall concept that the Order should help women live the “love of God” and therefore to minister to those who were looking for spiritual renewal. Retreats were to be directed primarily toward those who were “spiritually poor,” but groups were to be kept small: no more than three women were to be accepted to take part these spiritual exercises.
The love of God made accessible to women also included gathering the girls of the city every Sunday and Holy Day for religious instruction in the style of catechism classes. We have ample evidence that education, both religious and cultural, had always been a priority for both Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal; the education of young girls to the faith was not seen as a separate mission but a natural element in growing the faith community and in the promotion of women.
[1]. Giulio Cesare Riccardi (1552-1602), a native of Naples, became archbishop of Bari in 1592, and apostolic nuncio to the court of Torino in 1595. He was held in high esteem by both Carlo Emanuele I (Duke of Savoy) and Henri IV (King of France), but even more so by Pope Clement VIII. A rich correspondence exists between the nuncio and Francis de Sales, particularly during the saint’s missionary years.
[2]. Cf. S. François de Sales, Chablais, Letter to Mons. Giulio Cesare Riccardi, Nunzio Apostolico, Torino, 11 April 1597, “Lettre XCII,” in OEA 11:264-266.
[3]. Cf. S. François de Sales, Thorens, Letter to His Holiness, Pope Clement VIII, Roma, 1 November 1602, “Lettre CLXVI,” in OEA 12:131-134.
[4]. Charlotte de Bréchard (1580-1637): a neighbor and long-time friend of Mme de Chantal. She was the godmother of Chantal’s youngest daughter Charlotte (1601-1610). Charlotte had come neglected and abused as a child, but had always found strength in her Catholic faith. In 1607 she had tried to enter the Carmelites in Dijon, but withdrew after 5 short weeks for health reasons. She met Francis de Sales at the wedding of the oldest de Chantal daughter, Marie-Aimée with Bernard de Thorens in October 1609, and would accompany Jeanne-François de Chantal in her final weeks of preparation to form the community. In 1615 she became novice director in Annecy; she established the third monastery at Moulins, and was first superior of the monastery at Riom. She died on 18 November 1637. Jeanne-Charlotte never enjoyed a robust health, but in terms of her character, she was flexible and accomodating, gentle and gracious. For the first biography of Jeanne-Charlotte de Bréchard, see: Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, The Lives of the First Religious of the Visitation of Holy Mary, translated from the French (London: R Washbourne, 1876), 1:91-171. For a full biography, see: The Life of Jeanne Charlotte de Bréchard of the Order of the Visitation, Friend and Spiritual Daughter of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal, 1580-1637, by the Sisters of the Visitation, Harrow, with a preface by His Eminence [Francis] Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster (London/New York: Longmans, Green, 1924).
Marie-Jacqueline Favre (1592-1637): independent by nature, and the daughter of one of Francis de Sales’ dearest friends, Antoine Favre, president of the Senate of Savoy. She was considered one of the most eligible young women of Annecy, and many sued for her hand (including Louis de Sales Baron of Thorens, younger brother of the bishop). However, she had experienced a deep spiritual conversion after a dance and refused to consider marriage, much to the consternation of her father who was unaware of her intentions of entering religious life until the Spring of 1610. Jacqueline was 18 at the time of the foundation of the Visitation. After 5 years in the cradle community of Annecy, Marie-Jacqueline would go to found new monasteries, beginning with Lyons. She served as superior in several monasteries over a period of 20 years, until her death on 14 June 1637. For the first biography of Marie-Jacqueline Favre, see: Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, The Lives of the First Religious of the Visitation of Holy Mary, translated from the French (London: R Washbourne, 1876), 1:2-89.
Anne-Jacqueline Coste (1560-1634): a literal-minded and simple alpine woman who had worked as a maid at the hotel called Écu de France in Geneva. She had known Francis de Sales since 1596 when he secretly visited the walled city. She asked him to be her regular confessor and spiritual director in 1604 when she came to live in Annecy. At the time of the founding of the Visitation, Anne Coste was 50 years old. She continued her service as homemaker and cook for the new community, as she had done as a domestic in Geneva and Annecy. For the first biography of Anne-Jacqueline Coste, see: Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, The Lives of the First Religious of the Visitation of Holy Mary, translated from the French (London: R Washbourne, 1876), 2:197-271; see also Année Sainte, 4:244.
[5]. Cf. Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, Mémoires sur la vie et les vertus de Sainte Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal, Fondatrice de l’Ordre de la Visitation Sainte-Marie, publiés par l’Abbé Theodore Boulangé; avec une introduction, une notice sur la Mère de Chaugy, des notes et un appendice (Paris: Débécourt, 1842), 117: Les fêtes de Pentecôte s’approchant, notre bienheureux Père désirait de commencer la Congrégation ce jour-la, « afin, disait-il, que nos filles enfermées comme dans un petit Cénacle, reçoivent le Saint-Esprit, soient enivrées de dons divins, qui ne leur fassent pas seulement parler d’un nouveau langage, mais vivre d’une nouvelle vie. ».
[6]. Giovanni Francesco Ranzo (1550-1618) was a native of Vercelli and a military man who had loyally served his country and had become a favorite of the Duke of Savoy Carlo Emanuele I. He worked to push forward the cause of canonization of Blessed Amedeus IX, and compiled testimony surrounding the defense of the Holy Shroud by the people of Vercelli during the French invasion of the 1553. Gianfrancesco was living in the capital of the duchy, Torino, in the Spring of 1610, and made his deposition concerning the events surrounding the Shroud on 27 April. Francis de Sales counted him as a friend and benefactor, and so made bold to solicit funds from him for the housing of the first community of the Visitation. Cf. Giuseppe Ferraris, “Il canonico che si portò la Sindone a casa”, in L’Osservatore Romano (30 giugno-1 luglio 2010); Tutte le lettere: San Francesco di Sales. Versione italiana a cura di Luigi Rolfo; Collana: Patristica (Roma: Paoline, 1967), 1: 1240.
[7]. S. François de Sales, Annecy, Letter to Giovanni Francesco Ranzo, Torino, 6 May 1610, “Lettre DXCVII,” in OEA 14:299-300: Si darà principio a questa festa prossima di Pentecoste, ad una Congregatione di gentildonne, di gran spirito e qualità, nella quale si adopraranno molto in opere di carità verso li poveri et ammalati, al servitio de’ quali quelle benedette anime si vogliono in parte dedicare, secondo che in queste parti ultramontane quel essercitio si suol fare fra le donne; et elle avranno una casa nella quale vivranno insieme, et un oratorio di gran devotione [original in Italian; translation mine].
[8]. This Jesuit father, Nicolas Polliens (1563-1623), was a native of Geneva and a friend of Francis de Sales. He taught for some time at the Jesuit College in Chambery, and was better known for his piety than for his erudition. Francis’ letters to him demonstrate extraordinary affection and warmth.
[9]. Cf. S. François de Sales, Annecy, Letter to Fr. Nicolas Polliens, of the Company of Jesus, Torino, 24 May 1610, «Lettre DXCIX», in OEA 14:305-306.
[10]. S. François de Sales, Annecy, Letter to Fr. Nicolas Polliens, of the Company of Jesus, Torino, 24 May 1610, «Lettre DXCIX», in OEA 14:307 [translation mine].
[11]. S. François de Sales, Annecy, Letter to M. Philippe de Quoex, Thonon, 20 July 1610, “Lettre DCX,” in OEA 14:331 [translation mine].
[12]. Cf. S. François de Sales, « Règles et Constitutions de la Congrégation des Seurs dédiées a Dieu sous l’invocation de Nostre Dame de la Visitation en la ville d’Annessi », Manuscrit des Constitutions de Juillet – Septembre 1613, in OEA 25:211-214.
[13]. Cf. S. François de Sales, « Règles et Constitutions de la Congrégation des Seurs dédiées a Dieu sous l’invocation de Nostre Dame de la Visitation en la ville d’Annessi », Manuscrit des Constitutions de Juillet – Septembre 1613, in OEA 25:211-212.
[14]. Better known as Francesca Romana (Frances of Rome), Francesca Bussi de’ Leoni, was born in 1384 in Rome (Piazza Navona), and married Lorenzo Ponziani when she was 12. She founded the Oblates of Mary in 1425, and became superior of the community in 1433 after the death of her husband. Her “oblates” lived at home and continued their family duties, though a core group moved into a section of the old Benedictine abbey at Tor de’ Specchi. “Ceccolella,” as she was called by the Romans, was one of the most beloved figures in Rome during her lifetime. She died on 9 March 1440, and was canonized by Paul V on 29 May 1608. Francis de Sales had found hospitality with the Oblates during his 1598 ad limina visit to Rome, and undoubtedly followed the news of her canonization ten years later with great interest.
[15]. Cf. François de Sales, Annecy, Letter to Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Rabutin de Chantal, Montelon, 2 July 1607, “Lettre CDI”, in OEA 13:292-294; François de Sales, Thonon, Letter to Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Rabutin de Chantal, Montelon, 10 July 1607, “Lettre CDIII”, in OEA 13:297-298; François de Sales, Annecy, Letter to Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Rabutin de Chantal, Montelon, 16 August 1607, “Lettre CDVIII”, in OEA 13:309-313.
[16]. S. François de Sales, “Réponse de saint François de Sales au mémoire de Mgr de Marquemont concernant la Congrégation de la Visitation, 2 février 1616,” in OEA 25:340.
[17]. Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, Mémoires sur la vie et les vertus de Sainte Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal, Fondatrice de l’Ordre de la Visitation Sainte-Marie, publiés par l’Abbé Theodore Boulangé; avec une introduction, une notice sur la Mère de Chaugy, des notes et un appendice (Paris: Débécourt, 1842), 363-364: Lorsque notre bienheureux Père lui eut déclaré le dessein qu’il avait de l’employer à ériger une Congrégation, il lui dit qu’il avait pensé qu’elle se nommerait la Congrégation de Sainte-Marthe; et quand il lui en écrivait, il disait: “Saint-Marthe, notre chère maîtresse.” Quoiqu’elle eût une grande dévotion à cette sainte hôtesse de Notre-Seigneur, son cœur sentit un peu de résistance de n’être pas entièrement sous la protection de la très sainte Vierge; cependant elle n’en dit jamais un mot, se tenant si absolument à l’obéissance, qu’elle ne faisait aucun état de ses pensées; mais elle pria beaucoup Dieu de découvrir sa volonté à notre bienheureux Père, lequel, un matin, lorsqu’elle y pensait le moins, lui vint dire avec un visage tout gai, que Dieu lui avait fait changer d’avis, et que nous nous appellerions les Filles de la Visitation; qu’il choisissait ce mystère, parce que c’était un mystère caché, et qu’il n’était pas célébré solennellement en l’Église comme les autres; qu’au moins il le serait en notre Congrégation; ce qui donna une très grande joie à notre bienheureuse Mère. Elle inculqua tellement la dévotion à la Sainte Vierge à nos premières Sœurs, et elle en parlait si souvent aux malades, qu’elle allait visiter et servir, que par un mouvement commun des petits enfants e du peuple, l’on nous nomma les Religieuses de Sainte-Marie, nom qui nous est toujours demeuré depuis.
[18]. Cf. Gabriele Roschini, Maria Santissima nella storia della salvezza, trattato completo di Mariaologia alla luce del Conciliio Vaticano II, vol. 4: Il Culto Mariano (Roma: Pisani, 1969), 216-217.
[19]. Cf. Etienne-Jean Lajeunie, Saint Francis de Sales. The Man, the Thinker, His Influence, translated by Rory O’Sullivan (Bangalore: SFS Publications, 1987), 2: 293 [Étienne-Jean Lajeunie, Saint François de Sales: l’homme, la pensée, l’action (Paris: Guy Victor, 1966), 2 :250].
[20]. Claude-Françoise Roget was born of “an honorable family” of Annecy at the end of 1594 and baptized on 31 December of that year. At the time of her entry into Visitation, she was not quite 16. Her health was very delicate, and the bishop had taken a personal interest in her case. Claude-Françoise professed on 29 August 1611, but died on 14 June 1613. Cf. Etienne-Jean Lajeunie, Saint Francis de Sales. The Man, the Thinker, His Influence, translated by Rory O’Sullivan (Bangalore: SFS Publications, 1987), 2:294, 632 [Étienne-Jean Lajeunie, Saint François de Sales: l’homme, la pensée, l’action (Paris: Guy Victor, 1966), 2 :251].
[21]. Péronne-Marie de Châtel (1588-1637) was the youngest of 6 children. Her parents were pious and noble. She accompanied a relative of hers who was the wife of Savoy’s ambassador to the Princes of Germany. Unable to communicate with many people, she turned to prayer and spiritual reading, and in the midst of court life, began to consider a religious vocation. On her return to Savoy, she met Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus, who directed her to Francis de Sales. The date of her first meeting was Pentecost 1610. She made up her mind quickly, and after a short bout with sickness, recovered and entered Visitation. Cf. Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, The Lives of the First Religious of the Visitation of Holy Mary, translated from the French (London: R Washbourne, 1876), 1:174-209.
[22]. Marie-Margurite Milletot was daughter Bénigne Milletot, a member of Dijon Parliament; cf. Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, Mémoires sur la vie et les vertus de Sainte Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal, Fondatrice de l’Ordre de la Visitation Sainte-Marie, publiés par l’Abbé Theodore Boulangé; avec une introduction, une notice sur la Mère de Chaugy, des notes et un appendice (Paris: Débécourt, 1842), 129.
[23]. Cf. Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, Mémoires sur la vie et les vertus de Sainte Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal, Fondatrice de l’Ordre de la Visitation Sainte-Marie, publiés par l’Abbé Theodore Boulangé; avec une introduction, une notice sur la Mère de Chaugy, des notes et un appendice (Paris: Débécourt, 1842), 141.
[24]. Cf. Pierre Serouet, “François de Sales,” in DS 5 (1964), col. 1062.
[25]. In addition to the seven women who formed the community in 1610, the community also included Adrienne Fichet, a native of Annecy whom Francis de Sales himself had baptized as an infant; she entered on 6 January 1611 and professed on 12 June 1612. Claude-Marie Thiollier, born in 1581 in Chambéry, entered Visitation on 6 June 1611 and professed with Adrienne Fichet on 12 June 1612; she was the daughter of François Thiollier, procurator for the Senate of Savoy. Claude-Agnes Joli de la Roche (1592-1630), whose parents were directees of S. Francis de Sales, entered on 25 January 1612; two of her siblings would also enter the Visitation later. Entering on the same day was Marie-Aimée de Blonay, another Savoyard and daughter of Francis’ dearest friends; she made her profession on 10 February 1613, and Francis would call her “the pearl of the Congregation.” Françoise-Gabrielle Bally (1573-1634) became acquainted with the spirit of the Visitation through reading the Introduction to the Devout Life, and was received into the community by Francis de Sales, perhaps as early as 1611. One more woman lived with the community that year: Claude-Simplicienne Fardel (1594-1629) from Bugey. She arrived in 1613 and became the first lay sister in 1614. Cf. Giorgio Papàsogli, Come piace a Dio: Francesco di Sales e la sua «grande figlia» (Roma: Città Nuova, 1981), 400-401. For biographies of the first sisters, see: Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, The Lives of the First Religious of the Visitation of Holy Mary, translated from the French (London: R Washbourne, 1876), vols. 1 & 2.
[26]. As already noted, Francis de Sales had given Mother Chantal a small set of guidelines, or better, an outline of how to conduct the life of the community when she and her companions entered the Gallery of the Visitation on 6 June 1610. Now, three years later, he elaborated these rules, also in view of opening a second house of the Visitation. Cf. Pierre Serouet, “François de Sales,” in DS 5 (1964), col. 1072.
[27]. S. François de Sales, « Règles et Constitutions de la Congrégation des Seurs dédiées a Dieu sous l’invocation de Nostre Dame de la Visitation en la ville d’Annessi », Manuscrit des Constitutions de Juillet – Septembre 1613, in OEA 25:213 [translation mine]: « Affin donq que telles ames pleines de bonnes affections ayent moyen, parmi tous ces empeschemens que nous avons dit, de se retirer du monde, fuir les occasions du peché et s’appliquer plus doucement et parfaittement a l’exercice du divin amour, cette devote Congregation a esté dresse et procuree… ».
[28]. Cf. S. François de Sales, « Règles et Constitutions de la Congrégation des Seurs dédiées a Dieu sous l’invocation de Nostre Dame de la Visitation en la ville d’Annessi », Manuscrit des Constitutions de Juillet – Septembre 1613, in OEA 25:214: « Or, cette Congregation ayant deux principaux exercices : l’un, la contemplation et orayson, qui se prattique principalement en la mayson ; l’autre, du service des pauvres et malades, principalement du mesme sexe, elle a convenablement choysi pour Patronne Nostre Dame de la Visitation, puisque en ce mistere la tres glorieuse Vierge fit cet acte solemnel de sa charité envers le prochain que d’aller visiter et servir sainte Elizabeth au travail de sa grossesse, et composa neanmoins le cantique du Magnificat, le plus doux, le plus relevé, plus spirituel et plus contemplatif qui soit escrit ».
[29]. Cf. S. François de Sales, Annecy, Letter to Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Rabutin de Chantal, Monthelon, 2 July 1607, “Lettre CDI,” in OEA 13:293, note 3.
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