Category: Of the DEAF, against DEAFNESS

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Saint of the Day – 29 January – St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Bishop, Confessor, Doctor

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 29 January – St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church – Doctor Caritatis (Doctor of Charity) “The Gentle Christ of Geneva” and the “Gentleman Saint.”

From the Office of the Church
for the Feast, of St Francis de Sales.

Francis was born of pious and noble parents, in the town of Sales, from which the family took their name. From his earliest years, he gave pledge of his future sanctity by the innocence and gravity of his conduct. Having been instructed in the liberal sciences during his youth, he was sent early to Paris that he might study Philosophy and Theology and, in order that his education might be complete, he was sent to Padua, where he took, with much honour, the degree of Doctor in both Civil and Canon Law. He visited the Sanctuary of Loreto, where he renewed the vow he had already taken in Paris, of perpetual virginity, in which holy resolution he continued till death, in spite of all the temptations of the devil and all the allurements of the flesh.

He refused to accept an honourable position in the Senate of Savoy and entered into the Ecclesiastical state. He was Ordained Priest and was made Provost of the Diocese of Geneva, which charge he so laudably fulfilled that Granier, his Bishop, selected him for the arduous undertaking of labouring, by the preaching of God’s Word, for the conversion of the Calvinists of Chablais and the neighbouring country round about Geneva.

This mission he undertook with much joy. He had to suffer the harshest treatment on the part of the heretics, who frequently sought to take away his life, caluminated him and laid all kinds of plots against him. But, he showed heroic courage in the midst of all these dangers and persecutions and by the Divine assistance, converted, as it is stated, seventy-two thousand heretics to the One True Catholic Faith, among whom were many distinguished by the high position they held in the world and by their learning.

After the death of Granier, who had already made him his Co-adjutor, he was made Bishop of Geneva. Then it was that his sanctity showed itself in every direction, by his zeal for Ecclesiastical discipline, his love of peace, his charity to the poor and every virtue.

From a desire to give more honour to God, he founded a new Order of Nuns, which he called the Visitation, taking for their Rule that of St Augustine, to which he added Constitutions of admirable wisdom and sweetness. He enlightened the children of the Church by the works he wrote, which are full of a heavenly wisdom and pointed out a path, which is at once safe and easy, to christian perfection.

In his fifty-fifth year, whilst returning from France to Annecy, he was taken with his last sickness, immediately after having celebrated Mass, on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist. On the following day, his soul departed this life for Heaven, in the year of our Lord 1622. His body was taken to Annecy and was buried, with great demonstration of honour, in the Church of the Nuns of the above mentioned Order. Immediately after his death, miracles began to be wrought through his intercession, which, being officially authenticated, he was Canonised by Pope Alexander the Seventh and his Feast was appointed to be kept on the twenty ninth day of January.

Posted in Of the DEAF, against DEAFNESS, SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 24 August – Saint Audoin/Ouen of Rouen (c 605-684) Bishop

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 24 August – Saint Audoin/Ouen of Rouen (c 605-684) Bishop, Confessor, Evangeliser and Missionary, French official and adviser, writer, peace-makers and diplomat. Audoin was both Lord Chancellor of France and Officer of the Palace or Administrator. St Audoin was known for his personal austerities and support of many charities, he founded several Monasteries in his Diocese and sent Missionaries to the pagans in his see. Born in c 605 at Sancy, Soissons, France and died on 24 August 684 at Clichy, France of natural causes. Patronages – deaf people, invoked against deafness. Also known as Aldwin, Audaenus, Audeon, Audoeno, Audoen, Audoenus, Dado, Dadon, Owen.

Audoin came from a wealthy aristocratic Frankish family who held lands in the upper Seine and Oise valleys. His father was Saint Authaire (Audecharius). Audoin was a first cousin of Agilbert, Bishop of the West Saxons. He spent his childhood at Ussy-sur-Marne and was then sent to be educated at the Abbey of Saint-Médard de Soissons. From there, he went to the Court of Chlothar II (d.629), where training both military and literary was given to young noblemen. He served Dagobert I as one of his administrators.

He was part of a group of young Courtiers like Saint Wandrille and Saint Didier of Cahors and was a close friend of Saint Eligius, whose vita he wrote. He and Eligius served as royal envoys to persuade Amadus to baptise Dagobert’s son. According to Ian Wood, “…Audoin and Eligius were arguably the most influential churchmen in Francia during the seventh century.”

In 634 Audoin was Ordained a Priest by Dieudonne, Bishop of Mâcon. The following year, he and his brother, Ado and Rado founded Rebais Abbey, on land donated by King Dagobert. Audoin appointed his relative, Agilus, as first Abbot. He also took part in the founding of Saint-Wandrille Monastery in Rouen and a Nunnery at Fécamp. Fredegar reports that even as Court Administrator, Audoin had a reputation of being a religious man. He spent some time as a Missionary in Spain, during which a drought was ended through his prayers.

In 641 he succeeded Romanus as Bishop of Rouen. Through his influence, Erchinoald donated to Wandregisel the land for Fontenelle Abbey in Normandy. He developed theological studies and participated in the fusion of the rule of Saint Colomban and that of Saint Benedict.

During the regency of Queen Bathilde, Audoin became one of the first Counsellors of the queen. He was an adviser of Theuderic III and upheld the policy of Ebroin, the mayor of the palace. The Bishop’s position was strengthened, when Theuuderic confirmed to him the right to elect and approve the Count of Rouen.

Around 675 Audoin made a pilgrimage to Rome. There, he visited the sanctuaries, distributed alms to the poor of Rome and collected relics to bring back to Rouen. After Ebroin’s death in 681, he went to Cologne and succeeded in restoring peace between Neustria and Austrasia but died shortly thereafter, at the royal villa at Clichy on 24 August 684. He was buried in the Church of Saint Peter which he himself, had built. The former Abbot of Fontenelle, Ansbert, succeeded Audoin as Bishop and had his predecessor reburied behind the high altar, the equivalent of a Canonisation in those days. The Church in later rebuildings was named after St Audion/Ouen and is now one of the great artifacts of Architecture and is regarded as little less than the Notre Dame de Paris.

Audoin wrote a vita of his friend, St Eloi. This biography, which is one of the most authentic historical monuments of the seventh century, contains a store of valuable information regarding the moral and religious education of that time.

A poem on Audoin’s life was written in the 10th century by Frithegod but it is now sadly lost. The author of the Liber Historiae Francorum, thoroughly hostile to the memory of Ebroin, invariably referred to Audoin as “blessed” or “sainted” and in describing his death said, he “migravit ad Dominum” (migrated to the Lord), a phrase he otherwise reserved in the original part of his history, for the death of the “glorious lord of good memory, Childebert III, the just king.”

Statue of St Audoin (left) and St Waninge (right), in Fécamp, France.
Posted in All THEOLOGIANS, Moral Theologians, CATHOLIC PRESS, CONFESSORS, DOCTORS of the Church, Of the DEAF, against DEAFNESS, PATRONAGE - WRITERS, PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS, EDITORS, etc, SAINT of the DAY, TEACHERS, LECTURERS, INSTRUCTORS

Saint of the Day – 24 January – St Francis de Sales ‘The Gentle Christ of Geneva’

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 24 January – St Francis de Sales CO, OM, OFM (Cap) (1567-1622) – Doctor of the Church: Doctor caritatis (Doctor of Charity) – ‘The Gentle Christ of Geneva’ and   Patronages – against deafness, authors, writers, Catholic press, confessors, deaf people, journalists, teachers, Champdepraz, Aosta, Italy, 8 Diocese, 7 Cities, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, the Salesians of Don Bosco. His motto ‘Non-excidet’ – (No failure).

Excerpt from Pope Benedict’s

Catechesis on St Francis de Sales

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

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“God is God of the human heart” (The Treatise on the Love of God, I, XV).   These apparently simple words give us an impression of the spirituality of a great teacher of whom I would like to speak to you toda – St Francis de Sales, a Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

Born in 1567, in a French border region, he was the son of the Lord of Boisy, an ancient and noble family of Savoy.   His life straddled two centuries, the 16th and 17th and he summed up in himself the best of the teachings and cultural achievements of the century drawing to a close, reconciling the heritage of humanism striving for the Absolute that is proper to mystical currents.    He received a very careful education, he undertook higher studies in Paris, where he dedicated himself to theology and at the University of Padua, where he studied jurisprudence, complying with his father’s wishes and graduating brilliantly with degrees in utroque iure, in canon law and in civil law.st-francis-de-sales-young.beautiful

In his harmonious youth, reflection on the thought of St Augustine and of St Thomas Aquinas led to a deep crisis.   This prompted him to question his own eternal salvation and the predestination of God concerning himself, he suffered as a true spiritual drama the principal theological issues of his time.   He prayed intensely but was so fiercely tormented by doubt, that for a few weeks he could barely eat or sleep.   At the climax of his trial, he went to the Dominicans’ church in Paris, opened his heart and prayed in these words:   “Whatever happens, Lord, You who hold all things in Your hand and whose ways are justice and truth, whatever You have ordained for me… You who are ever a just judge and a merciful Father, I will love You Lord…. I will love You here, O my God and I will always hope in Your mercy and will always repeat Your praise…. O Lord Jesus You will always be my hope and my salvation in the land of the living” (I Proc. Canon., Vol. I, art. 4).

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The 20-year-old Francis found peace in the radical and liberating love of God – loving Him without asking anything in return and trusting in divine love, no longer asking what will God do with me – I simply love Him, independently of all that He gives me or does not give me.  Thus I find peace and the question of predestination — which was being discussed at that time — was resolved, because he no longer sought what he might receive from God, he simply loved God and abandoned himself to His goodness.   And this was to be the secret of his life which would shine out in his main work – the The Treatise on the Love of God.

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Overcoming his father’s resistance, Francis followed the Lord’s call and was ordained a priest on 18 December 1593.   In 1602, he became Bishop of Geneva, in a period in which the city was the stronghold of Calvinism so that his episcopal see was transferred, “in exile” to Annecy.   As the Pastor of a poor and tormented diocese in a mountainous area whose harshness was as well known as its beauty, he wrote:  “I found [God] sweet and gentle among our loftiest rugged mountains, where many simple souls love Him and worship Him in all truth and sincerity and mountain goats and chamois leap here and there between the fearful frozen peaks to proclaim His praise” (Letter to Mother de Chantal, October 1606, in Oeuvres, éd. Mackey, t. XIII, p. 223).

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Nevertheless the influence of his life and his teaching on Europe in that period and in the following centuries is immense.   He was an apostle, preacher, writer, man of action and of prayer dedicated to implanting the ideals of the Council of Trent, he was involved in controversial issues dialogue with the Protestants, experiencing increasingly, over and above the necessary theological confrontation, the effectiveness of personal relationship and of charity, he was charged with diplomatic missions in Europe and with social duties of mediation and reconciliation.

Yet above all St Francis de Sales was a director, from his encounter with a young woman, Madame de Charmoisy, he was to draw the inspiration to write one of the most widely read books of the modern age, The Introduction to a Devout Life.   A new religious family was to come into being from his profound spiritual communion with an exceptional figure, St Jane Frances de Chantal -The Foundation of the Visitation, as the Saint wished, was characterised by total consecration to God lived in simplicity and humility, in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well – “I want my Daughters”, he wrote, not to have any other ideal than that of glorifying [Our Lord] with their humility” (Letter to Bishop de Marquemond, June 1615).

He died in 1622, at the age of 55, after a life marked by the hardness of the times and by his apostolic effort.”

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Posted in All THEOLOGIANS, Moral Theologians, CATHOLIC PRESS, CONFESSORS, DOCTORS of the Church, FRANCISCAN OFM, Of the DEAF, against DEAFNESS, PATRONAGE - WRITERS, PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS, EDITORS, etc, SAINT of the DAY, TEACHERS, LECTURERS, INSTRUCTORS

Saint of the Day – 24 January – St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) – Doctor of the Church: Doctor caritatis (Doctor of Charity)

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 24 January – St Francis de Sales  CO, OM, OFM (Cap) (1567-1622) – Doctor of the Church: Doctor caritatis (Doctor of Charity), Bishop of Geneva, Doctor of Law and Theology, Writer, Theologian, Mystic, Teacher, Preacher, Founder along with St Jane Frances de Chantal, founded the women’s Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines).  Born 21 August 1567 at Château de Thorens, Savoy (part of modern France) – 28 December 1622 at Lyon, France of natural causes.   St Francis is known as:  the Gentle Christ of Geneva and the Gentleman Saint.   Patronages –  against deafness, authors, writers (proclaimed on 26 April 1923 by Pope Pius XI), Catholic press, Confessors, journalists (proclaimed on 26 April 1923 by Pope Pius XI), teachers, Champdepraz, Aosta, Italy, 8 Dioceses.  His motto ‘Non-excidet’ – (No failure).   St Francis became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to the religious divisions in his land resulting from the Protestant Reformation.  He is known also for his writings on the topic of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God.Cheader - st francis de salescoa_francis_de_sales-svgSOD-0124-SaintFrancisdeSales-790x480

Francis, the eldest of 13 children, was born into a family of nobility in France in 1567.   His father sent him to study at the University of Paris.   After six years, Francis was intellectually competent in many areas.   Francis was also a skilled swordsman who enjoyed fencing, an expert horseman and a superb dancer.  Then Francis studied at the University of Padua and received a doctorate in civil and canon law.   His father wanted him to marry but Francis desired to be a priest.    His father strongly opposed Francis in this and only after much patient persuasiveness on the part of the gentle Francis did his father finally consent.   Francis was ordained and elected provost of the Diocese of Geneva, then a centre for the Calvinists.   Francis set out to convert them, especially in the district of Chablais.   By preaching and distributing the little pamphlets he wrote to explain true Catholic doctrine, he had remarkable success, the majority of the Chablais inhabitants accepted the Catholic faith.st francis de sales - young - no 2

At 35, he became bishop of Geneva.  While administering his diocese he continued to preach, hear confessions and catechise the children.  His gentle character was a great asset in winning souls  . He practised his own axiom, “A spoonful of honey attracts more flies than a barrelful of vinegar.”

Besides his two well-known books, the Introduction to the Devout Life and A Treatise on the Love of God, he wrote other marvellous spiritual aid as well as many pamphlets and carried on a vast correspondence  . For his writings, he has been named patron of the Catholic Press.   His writings, filled with his characteristic gentle spirit, are addressed to lay people.   He wants to make them understand that they too are called to be saints.   As he wrote in The Introduction to the Devout Life: “It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman…. It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world. ”

In spite of his busy and comparatively short life, he had time to collaborate with another saint, Jane Frances de Chantal, in the work of establishing the Sisters of the Visitation. These women were to practice the virtues exemplified in Mary’s visit to Elizabeth: humility, piety, and mutual charity.   They at first engaged to a limited degree in works of mercy for the poor and the sick.   Today, while some communities conduct schools, others live a strictly contemplative life.124-st-francis-de-sales-eglise-d-hannevillestfrancois4 T

St Francis is buried at the Basilica of the Visitation, Annecy, France -below.   His heart was preserved as a Relic at Lyon but during the French Revolution his heart was was moved to Venice, Italy.   The Altar below is the High Altar of St Francis at the Cathedral in St Louis, USA.

St. François de Sales. La Basilique de La Visitation. Annecy, Fran
The High Altar at Saint Francis de Sale, St Louis