A quick look at a list of Saints Feast Days on the catholic.org website shows that her feast day is August 12, moved from December 12 by John Paul II to make room for the Memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In any event, it is a good thing to have kept a feast day for this good and holy woman.
Married at age 20, she was a widow by age 28. Her husband died in a hunting accident and although he forgave the man who shot him before he died, it took Jane some time before she could. She took a vow of chastity and she and her children divided their time between her father’s home and her father-in-law’s home. It was on one of these trips to her father’s that she met Francis de Sales who became a close friend and her spiritual director.
Jane founded the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, accepting women with a religious vocation who were not accepted at other convents because of their age or health. She was criticized for this but explained “What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I'm on their side.” Having tended to the sick and poor in the area of her home when her husband was alive, it was no surprise that she would have an affinity to these poor women. In the first eight years of the order, the sisters spent a good deal of time on public outreach, but opposition arose to women in public ministry and St Francis de Sales had to turn it into a cloistered community.
After St Francis de Sales death, Vincent de Paul became St Jane’s spiritual director. By the time she died at age 69 in 1641 there were 86 convents in the Order of the Visitation. She was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1751 and canonized by Clement XIII in 1767. She is the patron saint of widows, forgotten people, and people with in-law problems. I’m really looking forward to reading the book and hopefully growing in holiness from their wisdom. St Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us.
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