Francis de Sales was born on August 21, 1567 in Château de Thorens into a Savoyard noble family in what is today Thorens-Glières, Haute-Savoie,
France. His father was François de Boisy and his mother was Françoise
de Sionnz. Because he was the first of six children, his father wanted
him to attend the best schools, and he enjoyed a privileged education in
the nearby towns of La Roche-sur-Foron and Annecy; his spiritual formation and academics were formed by the Jesuits. In 1583 he went to the Collège de Clermont in Paris. A year later Francis was engulfed in a personal crisis when, after attending a theological discussion about predestination, he became convinced that he was damned to Hell.
In December 1586 his despair was so great that he was physically ill
and even bedridden for a time. In January 1587, he visited the church of
Saint-Etienne des Grès, in southern France, with great difficulty. There his crisis ended, and he decided to dedicate his life to God.
Francis came to the conclusion that whatever God had in store for him
was good, because "God is love", as Scripture attests. This faithful
devotion to the God of love not only expelled his doubts, but also
influenced the rest of his life and his teachings. His way of teaching
Catholic spirituality is often referred to as the Way of Divine Love, or
the Devout Life, taken from a book he wrote of a similar name: Introduction to the Devout Life.
Since the time of the Protestant Reformation, which began in 1517, the seat of the Catholic bishops of Geneva, Switzerland, had been located at Annecy in Savoy, France, due to Calvinist control of Geneva itself. Francis, in his capacity as provost, engaged in enthusiastic campaigns of evangelism among the Protestants of Savoy, winning many returns to the Old Faith (i.e., Catholicism). He also traveled to Rome and Paris, where he forged alliances with Pope Clement VIII and the French King Henry IV.
In 1602, Bishop Granier died, and Francis was consecrated Bishop of
Geneva. During his years as bishop, he acquired a reputation as a
spellbinding preacher and something of an ascetic;
in particular, he was known as a friend of the poor, a man of almost
supernatural affability and understanding. These last qualities come
through in his books, the most famous of which was Introduction à la vie dévote ("Introduction to the Devout Life"), that - unusually for the time - is written especially for laypeople. He also left the mystical Traité de l' Amour de Dieu ("Treatise on the Love of God") and many highly valued letters of spiritual direction. He was a notably clear and gracious stylist in French, Italian and Latin.
Along with Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Francis founded the women's Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines) in Annecy on 6 June 1610. He died on 28 December 1622 in Lyon, France, while traveling in the entourage of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy.
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