FRANCIS de SALES, (1567-1622), Bishop of Geneva from 1602, and one of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation. Born at the castle of Sales in Savoy, he was educated at Annecy, Paris (1578–88; first at the Collège de Clermont and then at the Sorbonne), and Padua (1588–92), reading theology and law. Despite attractive offers of a position by the Duke of Savoy, he felt a strong vocation to holy orders, and in 1593 was ordained priest and made Provost of Geneva. He undertook a mission in the largely Protestant Chablais and, in the face of personal danger and suffering, he won many Calvinists to Catholicism by his unfailing spirit of charity and his engagement in controversy in a conciliatory spirit. In 1599 he was nominated Coadjutor-Bp. of Geneva, though he was not consecrated until he succeeded to the see in 1602.

During that year he went to Paris and met P. de Bérulle, the circle around Mme Acarie, and St Vincent de Paul. He administered his diocese from Annecy in a reforming spirit, also continuing regularly to preach and minister as confessor.

In 1604 he met St Jane Frances de Chantal in Dijon; he became her director and with her founded the Visitation Order in Annecy in 1610. His most famous writings, the Introduction to the Devout Life (1609) and the Treatise on the Love of God (1616; Eng. tr. 1630), designed for those more advanced in the spiritual life, were adapted for publication from instructions given to individuals. Both works had considerable influence on later spiritual writings.

The Introduction was intended to provide spiritual guidance for those who were leading “.an ordinary life to all outward appearances.” It reflected the Erasmian humanism that focused upon finding the love of God and Christ in daily activities. The Treatise was intended for those living in an advanced state of Christian perfection; it focused on charity as the form of all virtues.

In all of his pastoral as well as published work, Francis tried to counter what he considered the pessimistic theology of Calvinism, with its emphasis upon human sinfulness and predestination, and emphasized in Molinistic fashion the freedom of the human will and the natural desire and yearning for God that was harmonized with divine grace. His Christian optimism was based upon his understanding of the doctrines of creation and redemption.

He was beatified in 1661, canonized in 1665, and declared a ‘Doctor of the Church’ in 1877 and ‘Patron of Catholic Journalists’ in 1923. Feast day, 24 (formerly 27) Jan. See also bosco, st john, and salesians.

The best edn. of his Œuvres complètes is that pub. by the Visitandines of Annecy (26 vols., Annecy, 1892–1932 + vol. 27, ‘table analytique’ by A. Denis, 1964); Eng. tr. by H. B. Mackey, OSB, and others, under the direction of J. C. Hedley, OSB (6 vols., 1883–1908). Crit. edn. of his Œuvres [Introduction à la Vie Dévote, Traité de l’Amour de Dieu, and Recueil des Entretiens spirituels], by A. Ravier and R. Devos (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade [1969]) and of his Correspondance: Les Lettres d’amitié spirituelle, by A. Ravier, SJ (Bibliothèque Européenne [1980]). Selected letters tr. into Eng., with introd., by E. [C. V.] Stopp (1960). The primary contemporary authority is C.-A. de Sales (nephew), De Vita et Rebus Gestis … Francisci Salesii (Lyons, 1634; mod. Fr. tr., 2 vols., 1857). J. P. Camus, L’Esprit du bien-heureux François de Sales (6 vols., 1639–41; abridgement by P. Collot, 1727, frequently repr.; Eng. trs. of this abridgement, 1872, 1910, and New York, 1952). A. J. M. Hamon, Vie de Saint François de Sales (2 vols., 1854; Eng. tr., 2 vols., 1925–9); F. Trochu, Saint François de Sales (2 vols., Paris, 1946); E. J. Lajeunie, OP, Saint François de Sales: L’Homme, la pensée, l’action (2 vols., posthumously pub. [1966]). V. Mellinghoff-Bourgerie, François de Sales (1567–1622): Un homme de lettres spirituelles (Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 330; Geneva, 1999). Other modern studies incl. those of R. Murphy (Paris, 1964), R. Bady (‘Les écrivains devant Dieu’ [1970]), and C. H. Palmer (Ilfracombe, 1974). P. Serouet, De la vie dévote à la vie mystique: Saint Thérèse d Avila, Saint François de Sales [1958]. R. Kleinman, Saint François de Sales and the Protestants (Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 52; Geneva, 1962). H. Lemaire, Les Images chez Saint François de Sales (1962). R. Devos, Saint François de Sales, par les témoins de sa vie: Textes extraits des procès de béatification (Annecy, 1967). Mémorial du IV^e Centenaire de la Naissance de Saint François de Sales 1567–1967 (ibid. [1968]); H. Bordes and J. Hennequin (eds.), L’Unidivers Salésien: Saint François de Sales hier et aujourd’hui. Actes du Colloque International de Metz, 17-1q septembre 1992 (1994). V. Brasier, E. Morganti, and M. St Ďurica, Opera e scritti riguardanti San Francesco di Sales: Repertorio bibliografico 1623–1955 (Biblioteca del ‘Salesianum’, 44; 1956); J. Struś, SDB, ‘San Francesco di Sales 1567–1622. Rassegna bibliografica dal 1956’, Salesianum, 45 (1983), pp. 635–71. Bremond, 1 (1916), pp. 68–127; Eng. tr., 1 (1928), pp. 55–100. P. Serouet in Dict. Sp. 5 (1964), cols. 1057–97, s.v. ‘François (25) de Sales’; R. Devos in DHGE 18 (1977), cols. 753–60, s.v. ‘François (63) de Sales’, G. P. Wolf in TRE 29 (1998), pp. 717–23, s.v. ‘Sales, François de’, all with extensive bibl.

Adapted from The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. E. Livingstone, (Oxford, 1977), p.

FRANCIS de SALES ( 21 August 1567, Château de Sales, Thorens, Savoy, 28 December 1622, Lyons, France). Education: studied humanities and philosophy, Jesuit Coll. of Clermont, Paris, 1582-88; studied law and theology, Univ. of Padua, 1588-91. Career: ordained priest, 1593; provost of exiled Genevan canons, Annecy, 1593-99; missionary to the Chablais, 1594-98; trip to Rome, 1598-99; coadjutor bishop-elect of Geneva-Annecy, 1599-1602; bishop of Geneva-Annecy, 1602-22; cofounder with Madame de Chantel, Visitation of Holy Mary, 1610; canonized saint, 1665; doctor of the church, 1877.

Francis de Sales was a religious reformer in Savoy and a theologian of Christian spirituality. Educated under the guidance of the Jesuit humanist tradition, he became during his years in the Catholic diocese of Geneva, which had been exiled to Annecy, Savoy, a spiritual guide to lay and religious within his diocese. He wrote numerous letters of spiritual guidance and eventually collected them into two books-- The Introduction to a Devout Life (1608, rev. 1609) and A Treatise on the Love of God (1616)-which became classics of the Western Christian spiritual tradition.

The Introduction was intended to provide spiritual guidance for those who were leading "an ordinary life to all outward appearances." It reflected the Erasmian humanism that focused upon finding the love of God and Christ in daily activities. The Treatise was intended for those living in an advanced state of Christian perfection; it focused on charity as the form of all virtues.

In all of his pastoral as well as published work, Francis tried to counter what he considered the pessimistic theology of Calvinism, with its emphasis upon human sinfulness and predestination, and emphasized in Molinistic fashion the freedom of the human will and the natural desire and yearning for God that was harmonized with divine grace. His Christian optimism was based upon his understanding of the doctrines of creation and redemption.

Article by Patrick Careyn in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Theologians. ed. Patrick W. Carey , Joseph T. Lienhard . (Greenwood Press. ,Westport, CT, 2000 )

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