Francis de Sales

Francis de Sales was a Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Geneva and is recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. He was born in 1567 in the family castle of Sales, in Thorens in the duchy of upper Savoy, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the firstborn child of Francis and Frances De Boisy, who belonged to old Savoyard aristocracy. He had a privileged upbringing and education in law and theology. He rejected a lucrative personal and professional life in order to serve God as a priest. He was ordained in 1593 and became a missionary in the Calvinist region of Chablais, where he converted many people to Catholicism through his preaching and writing. He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Geneva in 1599 and became the bishop in 1602. He was a reformer and a pastor who visited his 450 parishes, organized the formation of his clergy, reformed monasteries, catechized the young, dialogued with Protestants, preached homilies, undertook spiritual direction, founded the Florimontane Academy, and wrote several books on spirituality. His most famous works are Introduction to the Devout Life (1608) and Treatise on the Love of God (1616), which are considered classics of Christian literature. He also co-founded the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (1610) with Jane Frances de Chantal, a widow whom he met in 1604 and became his close friend and collaborator. He died in 1622 in Lyons, during a journey, and was buried in the church belonging to the first Visitation monastery in Annecy. He was beatified in 1661 and canonized in 1665 by Pope Alexander VII. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1877. He is the patron saint of writers, journalists, educators, deaf people, and several cities and dioceses.