- Our Lady of Knock (1879). (Historical)
- St. Jane Frances de Chantal (1641). Founder or Foundress, Religious, Widow. (Traditional) Co-Founded the Visitation Order
- St. Pius X (1914). Pope. (Current) to re-establish all things in Christ
AT the age of sixteen, Jane Frances de Frémyot, already a motherless child, was placed under the care of a worldly-minded governess. In this crisis, she offered herself to the Mother of God, and secured Mary’s protection for life. When a Protestant sought her hand, she steadily refused to marry “an enemy of God and His Church,” and shortly afterwards, as the loving and beloved wife of the Baron de Chantal, made her house the pattern of a Christian home. But God had marked her for something higher than domestic sanctity. Two children and a dearly-loved sister died, and, in the full tide of prosperity, her husband’s life was taken by the innocent hand of a friend. For seven years the sorrows of her widowhood were increased by ill-usage from servants and inferiors, and the cruel importunities of friends, who urged her to marry again. Harassed almost to despair by their entreaties, she branded on her heart the name of Jesus, and in the end left her beloved home and children to live for God alone. It was on the 19th of March, 1609, that Madame de Chantal bade farewell to her family and relations. Pale, and with tears in her eyes, she passed round the large room, sweetly and humbly taking leave of each. Her son, a boy of fifteen, used every entreaty, every endearment, to induce his mother not to leave them, and at last passionately flung himself across the door of the room. In an agony of distress, she passed on over the body of her son to the embrace of her aged and disconsolate father. The anguish of that parting reached its height when, kneeling at the feet of the venerable old man, she sought and obtained his last blessing, promising to repay in her new home his sacrifice by her prayers. Well might St. Francis call her “the valiant woman.” She was to found with St. Francis de Sales a great Order. Sickness, opposition, want, beset her, and the death of children, friends, and of St. Francis himself followed, while eighty-seven houses of the Visitation rose under her hand. Nine long years of interior desolation completed the work of God’s grace; and in her seventieth year, St. Vincent of Paul saw, at the moment of her death, her soul ascend, as a ball of fire, to heaven.
REFLECTION: Profit by the successive trials of life to gain the strength and courage of St. Jane Frances, and they will become stepping-stones from earth to heaven.
WORD OF THE DAY
PHOTIANISM. A schism provoked by Photius (c. 815-97), Patriarch of Constantinople, that paved the way for the Eastern Schism in the thirteenth century. When Ignatius, the incumbent Patriarch of Constantinople, rebuked the vices of Bardas, co-regent under Emperor Michael III, the prelate was deposed, and Photius, a layman, was ordained priest and bishop to replace him in A.D. 857. Pope Nicholas I excommunicated Photius, who meantime charged Rome with heresy for inserting the phrase Filioque (and from the Son) into the Creed. When Emperor Michael died, his successor deposed Photius and restored Ignatius. Both actions were endorsed by the eighth ecumenical Fourth Council of Constantinople, 869-70, which is the first general council, no longer accepted by the Eastern Orthodox.
Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)
This article, AUGUST 21, 2025 – ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
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