Saint Francis de Sales

Feast Day: January 24

• Francis was born in the Sales family castle at Thorens, in the duchy of upper Savoy on August 21, 1567. He was Francis and Frances De Boisy's firstborn child.

• Francis completed his extensive education in three phases, starting with college work at la Roche and Annecy, followed by study at the Jesuit college in Paris (where he initially began a devotion to the Blessed Virgin and swore a vow of chastity), and ending at Padua, where he earned his doctorate in civil and canon law in 1591.

• He was ordained a priest on December 18, 1593, and was appointed to the chair of the cathedral chapter in Annecy. At the age of thirty-one, he was chosen coadjutor bishop, and then, on December 8, 1602, Francis was consecrated a bishop.

• As bishop, Francis oversaw the continued education of his clergy, concerned himself with monastic reform and the catechesis of young people, spent hours absolving the faithful in the confessional, engaged in dialogue with Calvinists, delivered homilies for Advent and Lent in numerous cities throughout Savoy and France, provided spiritual direction, argued theology, and founded the Florimontane Academy with his friend Senator Antonio Favre.

• In the midst of all of these endeavors, he published his famous Introduction to the Devout Life in 1608 and his Treatise on the Love of God in 1616.

• He established a convent for his Visitation nuns and turned down the position of coadjutor to the Cardinal Archbishop.

• Francis passed away from a stroke on December 28, 1622. On April 19, 1665, Pope Alexander VII canonized Francis; many years later, in 1877, Pius IX designated him a Doctor of the Church.