Saint Jane Frances de Chantal

Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot was born in Dijon, France, on January 23, 1572. At twenty she married the Baron de Chantal, and their marriage was a happy one; they had six children, four of whom survived infancy. In 1601 her husband was killed in a hunting accident, leaving her a widow at twenty-eight. She struggled with deep grief and, with great effort, came to forgive the man who had caused his death.

In 1604 she met Saint Francis de Sales, who became her spiritual director and close friend. Together they founded the Congregation of the Visitation of Holy Mary at Annecy in 1610, a community open to women who were too old, too frail or too burdened by family duties for the strict orders of the time. Under her guidance the order grew to some eighty monasteries. She endured the deaths of several of her children and long spiritual darkness with steady faith. She died at Moulins on December 13, 1641, and was canonized in 1767.

Visitation monasteries, called Salesian sisters in many places, celebrate her feast with special prayers and open their chapels to the faithful.

She is often invoked by widows, by parents who have lost children and by women caring for their families while seeking God.