St. Francis de Sales and his Philotheas

As in the two previous videos, ‘Man Explained by God’ and ‘Salesian Sweetness’, Fr. Michele Molinar, who edited this series with the ICP Youth Ministry and Social Communication Departments, presents the third video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IDvChAECDIiz-PXaEEfo8widS5ybi52F/view.

In the epistolary of St. Francis de Sales and also in his other writings, we perceive an exquisite sensitivity in bringing the world of women closer to the encounter with God and through the encounter with God, to the gift of self and to a deep friendship with Him.

Francis proposes all this both in the lay world and in consecrated life. This explains the title of this video ‘St. Francis de Sales and his Philalethes, those who are guided by him to an encounter with God.

It is very interesting to capture particular environments in Annecy, for example, a doorway in the oldest street in Annecy. A doorway, though very similar to the others, gives access to the house where Louise du Chantel who married Charmoisy, Bishop’s cousin, lived. Thanks to her and the written advice that her cousin gave her, we still have today what is called ‘Philothea, Introduction to the Devout Life’.

With the gift of grasping and above all educating the spiritual desires in the world of the feminine sensibility, Francis also recognises and shares with Joan of Chantal precisely as a gift of grace received from God the Father.

"A truly strange thing. I think that, in the world, there are no souls who love more cordially, more tenderly and, to put it all very nicely, more lovingly than I do, because it has pleased God to make my heart this way."

There is a long history that exhibits this gift from our bishop, and this history certainly begins with Francis’ relationship with his mother, Francoise de Syonnaz.

The difference between Francis and his mother was only 15 years while the difference between his mother and father was almost 31 years. It was evidently an arranged marriage. But it was a successful one. Historians tell us that Francesco’s mother had a very amiable character. A year after the marriage, she gave birth to her first son, while her second son, Gallois, would take nine years.

Historians still remind us that the first six years of Francis’ life were the years with his mother. From his mother he received affection, education and certainly also a deep religious sensitivity.

His mother, when well advanced in years, would say of Francis: “This is my son and my father”. In fact, the mother was also one of the souls guided by her son.

The deep sensitivity was expressed in care and kindness towards all those our bishop encountered. For example, one day our bishop entered the house and found his servant busy writing a letter; something certainly not common for those times. He would say “My friend, when I came in, you were engrossed with pen and paper and hid everything. What were you writing then? Am I not sufficiently friendly for you to confide this to me?”

The young man, confused, handed over the paper to the bishop. It was a love letter. The bishop read it and then said: “You cannot explain yourself well. Let me help you. Here, copy this; put your name on it and send it. You will see that all will be well.”

Another person who greatly nurtured Francis’ faith and nurtured his understanding of the female, is the presence of Mary, the Mother of God, of whom Francis would say ‘the most lovable and loving woman of all creatures’. Francis would always have a strong, filial and affectionate devotion to her.

In the Basilica of the Visitation which houses the reliquary of St. Francis and St. Joan of Chantal, we find a very significant letter written at the end of his life to Joan of Chantal. André Ravier, a great and profound expert on our saint, defines this letter as ‘the heart of Salesianity’ as if it gathers in it all the themes and attitudes dear to Salesian holiness.

“A truly strange thing. I think that, in the world, there are no souls who love more cordially, more tenderly and, to put it very nicely, more lovingly than I do, because it has pleased God to make my heart this way. And yet I love independent, vigorous souls, souls that are not female, because too great a relationship upsets the heart, makes it restless and distracts it from loving meditation on God, and prevents complete surrender to God and the perfect death of self-love.”

The excellence of this intense and profound letter is in the last lines when the holy bishop declares, “What is not God’s, is nothing to us. I have the feeling that I love nothing outside of God and love all souls in God. I feel that the relationship that God has produced in me is extraordinary.”

All this means that the space of their friendship is in the heart of Jesus and in the will of God the Father, and in the mutual gift. Nowhere else.

Six months after they met in Dijon, Francis de Sales wrote to Joan of Chantal: “I saw in Rome a tree planted by Blessed St. Dominic. Everyone goes to see it and loves it for love of him who planted it. Well, I, having seen in you the tree of the desire for holiness that our Lord has planted in your soul, have taken to loving it tenderly.”

What we have heard tells us that the holiness of Francis could not exist without that of Joan of Chantal. We could equally say that the holiness of Don Bosco could not exist without the deep desire for God which nurtured holiness in Dominic Savio.

The spiritual path of our Holy Bishop, the one he himself lives and proposes to the souls he guides, is so simple and adapted to our humanity. But we must not believe that it is totally spontaneous. Francis, too, knows a bug that threatens his relationship with God is the bug of self-love; of attachment to oneself, of seeing oneself as the sole master of one's life.

Self-love transforms ties, even the most beautiful ones, into restrictive bonds. So, Francis educates his sisters in detachment; that form of detachment that they still maintain today: “On the last day of the year, you will take your crosses, rosary beads and images and make a small bundle and draw lots to avoid preferences. But listen, here is the best. I cannot tolerate certain religious being called ‘the chosen lady’, such and such a lady. No, no preeminence and no word of seniority: we are all very little. At the first wrap you put number 1, at the second 2, and so on. And, my daughters, in this way we shall live detached from everything.”

Source: Infoans