Sisters of Carmel: Books by St. Francis de Sales

Books by St. Francis de Sales

St. Francis de Sales enlightened the Church with writings filled with heavenly doctrine, spiritual direction and spiritual formation. His most famous book, Introduction to the Devout Life, was most innovative for its time, in that it was written especially for lay people.

Treatise on the Love of God was given to the nuns of the Visitation, but contains for all rich and practical direction for the spiritual life. Written originally as letters, his became an instant success all over Europe. Both works remain much-appreciated spiritual classics. St. Francis carried on an extensive correspondence with many of his spiritual children, both religious and lay. These letters, as well as his sermons, form a large portion of the writings that have been anthologized in many collections. In 1923, Pope Pius XI proclaimed him a patron of writers and journalists, because of his extensive use of broadsheets and books both in spiritual direction and in his efforts to convert the Calvinists of the region. St. Francis developed a sign language in order to teach a deaf man about God, and for this reason, is the patron saint of the deaf.

Francis, born near Geneva, Switzerland of holy and noble parents at Sales, from which his family took its name, was learned in the liberal arts, studied philosophy and theology at Paris, and obtained a doctor’s degree in canon and civil law at Padua. Ordained a priest and made a provost of the church in Geneva in 1593, he carried out his duties so well in his office that Bishop Granier made him a preacher of the Gospel to reclaim the people of Chablais from the heresy of Calvinism. It is said he brought seventy-two thousand back to the Catholic faith after overcoming many difficulties and dangers with the help of God. The people at first would not listen to him or receive him in any way. But he persevered and wrote out pamphlets and newspaper-type journals to explain true Catholic doctrine, slipping them under the doors the inhabitants of the villages he visited. This is one of the first records we have of religious tracts being used to communicate the true Catholic faith to people who had fallen away from the Church. These broadsheets were later collected and published in the book, The Catholic Controversy.

After the death of Granier, he was consecrated Bishop. Among his other many work for souls, he founded in 1610 the Order of Visitation with the collaboration of St. Jane Francis de Chantal. Stricken with a grave illness at Lyons, he passed into heaven in the year 1622 and was declared a Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Pius XI in 1871.