What would have led Saint Jane de Chantal to abandon her relatives and break ties of affection in order to found a religious congregation of contemplatives? It would seem that the formation received from the gentle Saint Francis de Sales resulted in very distinct attitudes.
Newsdesk (01/09/2022 10:00 AM , Gaudium Press) Saint Jane de Chantal, who lived from 1572 to 1641, founded the Order of the Visitation with Saint Francis de Sales. She was the widow of the Baron de Chantal, with whom she had six children. After the death of her husband, she began to feel an attraction to travel the higher paths of the spiritual life and was then influenced by St. Francis de Sales.
The object of a gentle formation
This Saint, as we know, was famous for his gentleness. He wrote books on the spiritual life that could never be praised enough, for example, the “Philothea” and the “Treatise on the Love of God”. However, about his gentleness much erroneous is said. We have in St. Jane de Chantal an example of the way in which he would treat the ladies whom he wanted to influence.
On one occasion, St. Francis de Sales was meeting Madame de Chantal – the future St. Jane de Chantal – at a dinner party, and she was very well dressed. Then he asked her: “Madame, would you ever think of marrying again?” And she, a little startled by the question, replied: “But, Monsignor, no!” He said, “In a house where there is no article to sell, you don’t put up a sign…” I mean, why are you so dressed up if you don’t want to get married? Here is where we realize what the quality of his sweetness was. His address was not without a biting sense of irony!
St Jane de Chantal left, passing over the body of her own son
Under the influence of his guidance, Jane de Chantal gradually became a great saint. At a certain moment, she wanted to adopt the religious state. This was the great turning point of her life, the fruit of the guidance of St. Francis de Sales:
When the day came for her departure, Saint Jane, who was a widow, had to leave her relatives to go to the convent she was going to found. The holy widow, who lived with her father-in-law, knelt down to ask him for his blessing and to forgive him if she had displeased him in any way, and recommended her son to her. The 86-year-old was inconsolable, hugged his daughter-in-law and wished her complete happiness. The inhabitants of the Monteron region, especially the poor, believing that with this departure they had lost everything, publicly testified to their grief. In Dijon, she fortified herself with Holy Communion against the weakness that she foresaw would come upon her separation from her son.
Finally, when the hour came, she said goodbye to all her relatives. Then, kneeling at her father’s feet, she asked him for his blessing and to take care of the son she was leaving behind. Monsieur Frémiot, the old president of the Parliament of Bourgoin, felt himself faint. He embraced his daughter in tears and said, “My God, it is not for me to change your designs. I offer you this dear daughter, receive her and console me.” Then he gave her his blessing and helped her to rise.
The young Chantal, her 15-year-old son, ran to her and clasped himself around her neck, hoping to move her. Not succeeding, he lay down before the door through which she was to exit and said to her, “I am too weak, madam, to hold you back, but at least they will say that you passed over the body of your son to abandon him.” The saint wept bitterly passing over the young man, but moments later, fearing that he would think she regretted her decision, she turned to those who accompanied her and with a serene face said, “You must forgive my weakness, for I leave my father and son forever, but I have found my God in all things.”
We see the tragic nature of the scene! Saint Jane de Chantal was a widow, a very good person, who fulfilled her family duties and was capable of attracting all the friendship and affection of a good family. She was therefore held in the highest esteem by all her family. When she was the great support – from the affective and not the financial point of view – of her old father-in-law, of her father, of her son, God touched her with the grace of vocation and asked her to break the bonds of affection formed around her, to be the founder of a new religious family. And a contemplative foundress, in such a way that they would no longer be able to see her. And she, whose goodness had created those bonds, was called to renounce them and, so to speak, break them. It was a surpassing of all her previous life. Saint Jane had hitherto been great as a family member. God was asking her to offer something more than the goodness that one has in one’s family, and it was the goodness that is acquired by adopting the religious state and breaking the family ties that are so holy. And so a tragic situation is determined here: she is going to abandon her father-in-law, her father and her son.
A scene that would not happen today
Nowadays we have lost our sense of the seriousness of things. If we were to imagine the same situation today, there would be a very great difference in atmosphere, which would be as follows: everything would take place with much less solemnity and gravity. We cannot imagine today a young widowed woman who leaves her father’s house to enter a convent and who does all this ceremony before leaving: she kneels before the 86 year old man, asks his forgiveness for all she has done to him and beseeches his blessing; and the old man, almost like a figure from Greek tragedy, bids her a tearful farewell and entrusts her to God. Then, the farewell to her old father: new genuflection, new tears. And finally the dramatic scene of the son hanging on to his mother’s neck, asking her not to enter the convent. She refuses. He then lay on the doorstep and said, “Since I did not have the strength to hold you back, at least it will be said that you passed over your son’s body to go to the convent.” That is to say, “the lady is abandoning me!” We realize the tragic nature of all these scenes.
Why in our days would this scene not take place with so much ceremony? Because we have been accustomed not to go deep into the meaning of things, and to trouble ourselves only with ourselves. As a result, for the old father-in-law the important problem is the newspaper that arrives in the morning, the little bit of milk he drinks, the television, the slipper, health, personal care of all kinds. He reads the news about a heart transplant to see if it would be possible to transplant one in him, prolonging his life for another 30 years. That is the important thing! His daughter-in-law, whether or not she goes to the convent, is an accessory, for if she is absent, he hires a nurse, and life goes on in the same way.
Besides, the idea of going to the convent does not have that former semi-tragic aspect. The sense of the Cross, of the seriousness of things, the sense of all the renunciation that it means to become a religious, the sense of all the dignity that one assumes in embracing that state, that union with Our Lord Jesus Christ with all the serenity it brings, souls have lost sight of this. The result is that the great events no longer have this sharpness, this dramatic character; they are banal episodes.
People watch on television or in the cinema so many dramas, romances, so many goodbyes, so many reunions, that everyone is saturated. So the acts of daily life that would have greatness empty out completely.
Depth of spirit and love for God
So what is the great lesson to be drawn from this? First of all, to consider the profound spirit of Saint Jane de Chantal who responded to her vocation, who understood that the family is such a great institution that when God grants the soul everything, it overcomes itself and tends to produce religious, missionaries, warriors, apostles who are obliged to separate themselves from it. And this kind of conquering, whereby she gives herself completely, is in fact the glory of the family.
Also the depth of spirit of this Saint – renouncing everything to become a religious – and the environment of Christian Civilization in which she lived, where everything was measured, weighed, and because of this, all the acts of her life were clothed with solemnity and characteristics of their own.
This depth of spirit prepares the soul to love God. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the violent, as it is written in the Gospel. The Kingdom of Heaven is of depths profound, because it is the violence of the depths – so often called fanatics in the language of impiety – that pleases God.
Let us ask Our Lady to obtain for us this depth of spirit, and that our Movement may seek to instil in its members, in every way, this depth, which is seriousness, self-denial, and the opposite of selfishness, so that we may have souls capable of being filled with the grace of God our Lord, bestowed by the hands of Mary.
Gentleness and strictness
Saint Jane de Chantal founded the Order of the Visitation whose nuns are strictly contemplatives. We find in this Order another trait of her spirit and of St Francis de Sales: the sense of having no private property is carried so far in this Order that the nuns consecrate themselves to common services, for example, embroidery, sold for their maintenance. Saint Francis de Sales, who made this rule with Saint Jane de Chantal, determined the following: never does a nun complete an entire embroidery; embroideries are rotated within the house, so that no one has an attachment to the work she has done.
We see how, in the last details, the notion of common property has been taken far beyond to produce complete detachment. So much is the right of property in accord with human nature, that when an individual is called to a state of life in which he is not to possess anything, it requires great zeal not to attach himself to property. This is why the great founders of Orders take great care to avoid any form of attachment, of appropriation.
Two aspects worthy of note are, in the first place, the importance of contemplative Orders. At a time filled with these Orders and when there were many vocations drawn to them, St Francis de Sales founded, with St Jane, another contemplative Order. Thus we see what a treasure they are which can never be in the Church in sufficient quantity. There would never be enough, provided the Order is really fervent.
Another interesting consideration is the need for these contemplative Orders to constitute families of souls in the Church, each with its own spirit, forming a kind of mosaic where we see a different tone in each Order. In the Visitation, there is gentleness, but, on the other hand, extreme strictness in all that refers to true virtue.
We have, then, some data that can serve for a meditation on the life of Saint Jeanne de Chantal.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira – Extract of conferences of 21/8/1965 and 20/8/1968
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