St. Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal

St. Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal 

 How soon may I hope for the happy day when I shall irrevocably offer myself to my God? He has so filled me with the thought of being entirely His, and it has come home to me in such a wonderful and powerful manner, that, were my emotion to last as it now is, I could not live under its intensity. Never have I had such a burning love and desire for the evangelical life and for the great perfection to which God calls me. What I feel about it is quite impossible to put into words. But, alas! my resolve to be very faithful to the greatness of the love of this divine Savior is balanced by the feeling of my incapacity to correspond with it. Oh, how painful to love is this barrier of powerlessness! But why do I speak thus? By doing so I degrade, it seems to me, the gift of God which urges me to live in perfect poverty, in humble obedience, and in spotless purity. ~Letter to Saint Francis de Sales, from Saint Jane de Chantal

Born of noble parents at Dijon in Burgundy, Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal lost her mother while she was still a girl, and commended herself to the care of the Virgin Mother of God. Her father gave her in marriage to the Baron de Chantal, and she shewed herself to be a valiant woman above all others, making herself all things to all persons. When her husband was killed while hunting, she made a vow of continence, and she so mastered herself that she did not hesitate to act as godmother to the son of the man who killed her husband. Lest later on she should be moved from her determination to observe chastity, she renewed her vow and inscribed the most holy Name of Jesus on her breast with a hot iron. With St. Francis de Sales as her spiritual director, who taught her the divine will, she laid the foundations of the religious Institute of the Visitation of Holy Mary, which she spread far and wide. Finally, she bound herself by a vow always to do what she understood to be most perfect. Full of merits, she went to the Lord on the 13th day of December, 1641, at Moulins, and was enrolled among the Saints by Clement XIII.

Omnípotens et miséricors Deus, qui beátam Ioánnam Francíscam, tuo amóre succénsam, admirábili spíritus fortitúdine per omnes vitæ sémitas in via perfectiónis donásti, quique per illam illustráre Ecclésiam tuam nova prole voluísti: eius méritis et précibus concéde; ut, qui infirmitátis nostræ cónscii de tua virtúte confídimus, cæléstis grátiæ auxílio cuncta nobis adversántia vincámus.

Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

O Almighty and merciful God, Who didst enkindle the love of thyself in the blessed Jeanne Frances, Who didst give unto her the grace to make every path of life temporal the straight and narrow way which leadeth unto life eternal, and Who wast pleased to use her as a mean whereby to adorn thy Church with a new sisterhood, grant unto us for that thine handmaid's sake, and at her prayers, that we who know that we have no strength as of ourselves to help ourselves, and therefore do put all our trust in thine Almighty power, may by the assistance of thy heavenly grace, always prevail in all things against whatsoever shall arise to fight against us.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
R. Amen.