Saint Francis de Sales
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Francis de Sales did a great deal of preaching. At the beginning, he confined himself to Annecy, but as he developed more confidence, and was more accepted, he spread out to areas outside Annecy. But he didn't venture into any dangerous areas....yet! He was being prepared by the Lord, however to evangelize in the dangerous areas around Lake Geneva. This area, the Chablais, which had been ruled by the House of "House of Savoie", had been invaded sixty years before by militant Protestants from Berne who took over the western part of it as well as some provinces on the north shore of the lake. Catholic worship was outlawed, and churches were burned or destroyed when not appropriated for Protestant use. Religious orders were suppressed and priests were exiled. Thirty years later, the Duke of Savoie was able to get this area back, only he had to agree to the condition that the Catholic religion remain forbidden. He accepted, hoping to get his foot in the door. In 1589, the Protestants from Berne invaded again and lost. Only this time, in the peace treaty, the Duke insisted the Catholic Faith be allowed to be taught and followed. The way was opened for Catholics to come in and try to build up the Church again. But the Protestants broke their word and tried to recapture the area without success. But it was still a stronghold of "Calvinism" and Calvinists. The situation seemed hopeless. As long as the Calvinists held a grip on the area, neither the Church nor the Duke of Savoie had a chance to bring the people back to the Faith. The Duke asked the bishop to send missionaries at least into the little duchy of "Chablais, duchy of", in an attempt to convert some of those who had turned to Calvinism. In response, the bishop sent a priest, who was from Chablais, thinking he would be acceptable to the people because they knew him. That didn't work, and the priest had to flee for his life. The bishop called a meeting of his chapter. Without trying to soft pedal any of it, he explained the problem to them. We don't know why Francis de Sales was the only one who seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. Yet he got up and volunteered to do the job. He spoke very directly and gently, "My Lord, if you think I'm capable of undertaking this mission, tell me to go. I'm ready to obey and should be happy to be chosen."[1] He was unanimously accepted, with good reason. No one else wanted the job. However, it was at this point that his father stood up. He appealed to the bishop. His son was only twenty seven years old. He had a bright future ahead of him. Perhaps he wanted to die a martyr's death, but that was not why the Lord brought him into the world. He was so passionate in his plea to the bishop that he was on the verge of calling the whole thing off. (He was not really sold on the project in the first place.) But Francis stood up and convinced the bishop into letting the project go on, as they had planned it. There were no volunteers other than his cousin Canon Louis de Sales and Francis. On September 14, 1594, the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, they set forth to win back the Chablais for Jesus. They traveled from Annecy to the border of the Chablais region at which point they sent their horses back. They wanted to be like the apostles, following Jesus' mandate to them, "Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road...Wherever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; heal the sick in it and say to them, `The Kingdom of God has come near to you.'"[2] They chose to go on foot from that point on. The remnant of the once great Catholic population, amounted to about twenty scattered individuals, too petrified of the consequences to declare themselves openly. These, Francis worked with and tried to bring back the love of Jesus which they had known. The raggedy missionaries worked originally in the one town, Thonon, preaching daily, and eventually gradually extending their efforts to the villages in the surrounding countryside. They do remind us of the early travels of Sts. Paul and Barnabas on the island of Cyprus, as written in the Acts of the Apostles. They didn't catch many fish there. The same seemed to apply here. The cousin, Canon Louis de Sales only lasted four months, after which he went back to Annecy. That left the entire evangelical movement in the province of Chablais to one, Francis. He went through all kinds of struggles, trying to reach the people. He had to walk back and forth from wherever he was to the Château at Allinges every evening because that was where the soldiers and fortifications were maintained. One evening, on his way back, Francis was set upon by wolves, who may have wanted him for dinner. He wound up spending the night in a tree. With the dawn, some peasants found him almost unconscious hanging on for dear life. It was only the Lord who saved him from sure death. Had they not treated him like the Good Samaritan with food and warmed him, he certainly would have died. As it turned out, they were Calvinists. They were good people; they had just been brainwashed. Francis spoke with such love and compassion to these newly found brothers and sisters, they later converted to Catholicism. Then, of course, he was ambushed by would-be assassins. Apparently, they originally tried to shun him and curse him. When that didn't work, they resorted to physical means. We don't know exactly how the Lord saved him from their attacks, but not only was he saved, but after they were caught, he was able to get their crime pardoned, and they also became converts. We know that necessity is the mother of invention. Francis had such an urgency to reach many more people than he could physically do, especially since his cousin had left him. So in an effort to find new ways to reach the hearts of the people, he began writing what we would call today, little tracts, explaining the teachings of the Church as opposed to the errors of Calvinism. He spent as much time as he could during the day, writing these little papers, which were then copied many times by hand, and passed out to as many people as possible. Oh for copy machines! But he was far ahead of his time. These little tracts, composed under such stress and difficulty, were later to become the basis for his first and most popular book, Controversies, one of the reasons he was made a Doctor of the Church. The originals of these pamphlets are still preserved in the archives in the Visitation convent in Annecy. |
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