The Congregation of the Visitation was canonically established at Annecy on Trinity Sunday, 6 June, 1610. Its aim was to receive, with a view to their spiritual advancement, young girls and even widows who had not the desire or strength to subject themselves to the austere ascetical practices in force in all the religious orders at that time. St. Francis de Sales was especially desirous of seeing the realization of his cherished method of attaining perfection, which consisted in always keeping one's will united to the Divine will, in taking so to speak one's soul, heart, and longings into one's hands and giving them into God's keeping, and in seeking always to do what is pleasing to Him. "I do always the things that please him" (John, viii, 29). The two holy founders saw their undertaking prosper. At the time of the death of St. Francis de Sales in 1622, the order already counted thirteen houses; there were eight-six when St. Jane Frances died; and 164 when she was canonized.

The remainder of the saint's life was spent under the protection of the cloister in the practice of the most admirable virtues. If a gentle kindness, vivified and strengthened by a complete spirit of renunciation, predominates in St. Francis de Sales, it is firmness and great vigour which prevails in St. Jane Frances; she did not like to see her daughters giving way to human weakness. Her trials were continuous and borne bravely, and yet she was exceedingly sensitive. Celse-Bénigne was an incorrigible duellist. She prayed so fervently that he was given the grace to die a Christian death on the battle-field, during the campaign against the Isle of Ré (1627). He left a daughter who became the famous Marquise de Sévigné. To family troubles God added interior crosses which, particularly during the last nine years of her life, kept her in agony of soul from which she was not freed until three months before her death.

Her reputation for sanctity was widespread. Queens, princes, and princesses flocked to the reception-room of the Visitation. Wherever she went to establish foundations, the people gave her ovations. "These people", she would say confused, "do not know me; they are mistaken". Her body is venerated with that of St. Francis de Sales in the church of the Visitation at Annecy. She was beatified in 1751, canonized in 1767, and 21 August was appointed as her feast day.

The life of the saint was written in the seventeenth century, with inimitable charm, by her secretary, Mother de Chaugy. Monsignor Bougaud, who died Bishop of Laval, published in 1863 a "Histoire de Sainte Chantal" which had a great and well-deserved success.

The words of the saint comprise instructions on the religious life, various minor works, among which is the admirable "Deposition for the Process of Beatification of St. Francis de Sales", and a great many letters. The Saint's qualities are seen in her precise and vigorous style, void of imagery but betraying a repressed emotion, and bursting forth spontaneously from the heart, anticipating in its method the beautiful French of the seventeenth century. The book which may be called her masterpiece, "Réponses sur les Régles, Constitutions et Coutumes", a truly practical and complete code of the religious life, is not in circulation.

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Beatified by Benedict XIV. on Nov. 13, 1751, and canonized on Aug. 17, 1767, by Clement XIII., who appointed that her festival should be observed on Aug. 21, though she died on Dec. 13. Authorities The Act of Canonization, her letters and those of S. Francis of Sales. Her Life by Beaufils, 1752; another by Henri de Maupas, bishop of Le Puy, 1 753; another by Marsollier, 1772. There is a modem Life by the Abbe Bougaud, “ Histoire de Sainte Chantal et des origines de la Visitation,” Paris, 1863.] Jeanne-Fran^oise Fr£myot was bora at Dijon on January 23, 1572. Her mother died when she was only eighteen months old, but her father, Bdnigne Fr&nyot, saw that she was properly educated. She was zealous in her profession of the Catholic faith. One day, when she was five years old, she heard a Huguenot gentleman deny the Real Presence before her father. The child went up to him and said, “Jesus Christ said that He was in the Holy Sacrament, and one must believe His word, or make Him a liar.” The gentleman, amused at the precocity of the child, gave her some sugar-plums, but she flung them into the fire. When old enough to be married, her sister planned a union between her and a Calvinist gentleman, a friend of the brother-in-law of Jeanne, but she concealed from her his religious opinions. Jeanne, however, observed him at the Fdte Dieu neither kneel nor remove his hat, as the Blessed Sacrament passed, and she at once broke off* the engagement She was married at an early age to Christophe de Rabutin, baron of Chantal, and lord of Bourbilly and of Monthelm, whose mother was descended from S. Humbeline, sister of S. Bernard. She at once instituted a daily Mass in S. JEANNE PRANCOISE DB CHANTAL.

…the chapel of her castle, but on Sundays and festivals went to the parish church, though situated at some distance, in order to set an example to the peasants. In a famine she was very charitable, giving soup and bread to the poor at her gates. Some of the poor made the circuit of the castle and reappeared as beggars. She noticed this, but did not refuse them a second portion. “Have* I not to beg and beg of my God repeatedly ? ” she said. Her husband was accidentally shot whilst out hunting, and left her a widow, aged twenty-eight, with three children. They had had six, but three were dead.

She went to live with her father-in-law, the old Baron de Chantal, at Monthelm. He was seventy-two, and not only was he ill-tempered, but he had introduced into the castle a lady of doubtful reputation, who had gained complete sway over him, and ruled the entire household. This woman treated the young widow with studied discourtesy. In 1604 she met S. Francis of Sales, and then began that long and tender intimacy which lasted during the life of the saintly bishop of Geneva, and which was the means of drawing forth a beautiful correspondence which is an unfailing source of delight to pious readers. She chose him as her director, and made her vow of submission to him on September 2, 1604, at Notre Dame de l'Etang, a favourite place of Burgundian pilgrimage. She heard Mass every morning, then directed the education of her children. She made her own bed, and cleaned her own room daily, and dispensed with the assistance of a lady's maid for dressing her hair.

One day S. Francis asked her if she wanted to be married again. She answered that she had no such intention. “Then,” said he, looking at her piled-up hair, done elaborately according to the fashion of the day, “ down with the pilot signal.”

VOL. xv. She took the hint, cut her hair shorter, and dressed it more quietly. She continued her charities as far as her means permitted. One day three tramps asked alms of her. As she had no money in her house, she took off and gave them a valuable ring which had belonged to her husband. The moment her back was turned, the tramps, knowing the value of the ring, decamped as fast as they could, shrewdly suspecting that the Baron de Chantal, if he heard of what had been done, would send after them, and reclaim his son’s ring. This he apparently did, but the tramps had concealed themselves, so that they could not be discovered. Miracle-mongers have thereupon concluded that they were the Three Persons of the Trinity, visiting Jeanne as the three angels visited Abraham. There can, however, be very little question that the circumstances of the three strangers were simply as described.

S. Francis of Sales had planned an Order of ladies living together in the practice of active works of charity, without any very distinctive dress, or making profession of asceticism which would be modified in the next generation. This Order he resolved to call that of the Visitation, and he persuaded the Baroness de Chantal to become its first superior. The first congregation was formed at Annecy, under the direct supervision of S. Francis of Sales; and the sisters devoted themselves to nursing the sick in their cottages. The Society throve, and it was resolved to establish a second house at Lyons.

The king had granted letters patent for the foundation of a house of “ Sisters of the Presentation ” at Lyons, and as this foundation had proved a failure, the archbishop resolved to make use of these letters for the authorization of this new Society. For this purpose the words “ of the Presentation” were carefully erased from the parchment conDec. *3.] Jeanne Franpoise de Chantal. 1 79 taining the royal signature, and “ of the Visitation” was substituted.

The substitution was, of course, fraudulent, if well intentioned, and rendered the perpetrator of it, should he be discovered, liable to imprisonment in the Bastille. Consequently it was determined to screen the person who had committed the ingenious, but dishonest alteration, by announcing it to be miraculous, and experts decided that the handwriting was indisputably that of the Almighty. Madame de Chantal had the grief of learning the death of her son, killed on the island of Rhd in opposing the landing of the English, and of her daughter, Madame de Thorens, married to the brother of S. Francis. Her father also died; but perhaps her greatest loss was that of her dear friend and guide, S. Francis. She saw her Society erected into an acknowledged Order, not, however, like most Orders, under one superior, but with each house subject to the bishop of the diocese in which it was situated. This was the express stipulation of S. Francis.

She made the acquaintance of S. Vincent of Paul, and the two saints recognized the high gifts possessed by each other. On the 8th December, 1641, she was attacked by inflammation of the lungs, on her way from Paris, at Moulins, and died on December 13, at eight o'clock in the morning, at the age of seventy.

Her body reposes in the church of the Visitation at Annecy.