St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Religious

St. Jane Frances de Chantal was the founder of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. She was born Jane Frances Frémyot, in Dijon, France, on January 23, 1572. When she was twenty-one years of age, she married Baron Christophe de Rabutin-Chantal, and the couple had six children (three of whom died at an early age). After seven years of marriage, her husband died as a result of a hunting accident and, consequently, she took it upon herself to raise and educate her remaining son and two daughters. In 1604, she met Bishop Francis de Sales (see January 24), and she soon placed herself under his spiritual direction. Since she had become a widow, she had thought of entering the religious life. In the meantime, however, she continued caring for her children, while following a strict rule of life and visiting the sick and the dying. In 1610, she and Francis founded the Order of the Visitation, whose members would not be cloistered but would be free to assist others in need. Because no one at the time heard of unenclosed sisters, their plan met with such opposition that in the end St. Francis had to agree to enclosure. Under Jane Frances’s guidance, the order prospered, and the number of convents grew. At the time of her death in Moulins, France, on December 13, 1641, there were eighty monasteries. St. Jane Frances was canonized by Pope Clement XIII in 1767. The prayer in her Mass today recalls that she fulfilled a double vocation: marriage and religious life.