On August 18th the American Church honors Saint Jane de Chantal.  One of the pre-eminent authorities on the life and works of Saint Jane de Chantal was Sister Mary Patricia Burns, the archivist of the Visitation Monastery in Annecy, France.  Between the years 1986 and 1996 Sister published in French a scholarly edition of the entire correspondence of Saint Jane in six volumes. Sister’s research methods were very painstaking and discerning and, as a result, she discovered heretofore lost or forgotten historical documents that bring a new light to contemporary understanding of Saint Jane de Chantal.

In an address she gave in La Bussiere, France, in 1998, Sister Mary Patricia shared how her compilation of Saint Jane de Chantal’s letters led to a deepening of her own esteem for Saint Jane: “I discovered a marvelous woman: joyous, smiling, tender, affectionate, sweet, firm, possessed of a sense of humor (which bubbles up when one least expects it) – in short, a strong and tender woman who had powerful desires and who loved deeply. I think that one can say that Jane did nothing by halves, instead she went to the limit of whatever she had set out to do”.

The life of Saint Jane de Chantal testifies to the workings of grace – and ultimate sanctity – in her roles as daughter, wife, mother, widow, and religious.  In her 69 years of life she mourned the deaths of her husband and three of her five children who survived infancy; she suffered the heartaches of a wayward son and an acrimonious father-in-law. Through it all, she persevered in her faith and love of God and founded with Saint Francis de Sales the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. Sister Mary Patricia frames her talk on these major steps in Saint Jane’s life: “God, who had great designs for her, had prepared her through all these events to become the collaborator with Francis de Sales in the foundation of the Visitation.  I have enlarged on her human image, for that is what I met in working on her.  Such marvelously human attributes placed at the service of the Lord! I mentioned them at the beginning, and we are going to observe them during her entire life.  She did not lose her affectivity in becoming the spouse of Christ, nor her tenderness, nor her compassion and understanding of others, nor her sweetness, nor her robust good sense.  She put all these to the service of God and of the souls that He confided to her”.

And yet, although Saint Jane de Chantal did not like to use the title of “foundress”, she recognized in all humility and truth that the title was hers.  “She preferred to speak of herself as the oldest sister or servant of the Institute, who had known the father better than the others”.  The title Saint Jane preferred to all others is “Mother”; and Sister Mary Patricia notices it often in her letters: “I think that this word encompasses her entire vocation and all that she wanted to be for us”.

Sister Mary Patricia concludes her address with a summary of the characteristics of Saint Jane de Chantal that she found the most engaging: “You must have sensed that she enchants me – for her human and her supernatural qualities.  I find in her a tender, open, and balanced mother. When I speak of her motherly tenderness, I do not mean any softness or weakness; she was exacting but never brusque.  She knew when to close her eyes and when to correct, but always, as she says, with the heart of a mother . . . I have found in her a faithful, affectionate, and understanding friend.  Why has she such attraction? Isn’t it because she allowed herself to be stripped by Love in order to live by Love alone”?

Although four centuries separate the life of Saint Jane de Chantal with our own time, the strength of her character and the power of her example continue to inspire us.  Sister Mary Patricia’s own love and admiration for Saint Jane increased through the decades: “I have been working for several years and yet I don’t think I really know her, for I constantly discover something new about her.  She is like a diamond with multiple facets which gleam in a new way according to how one holds it or turns it”.

On December 3, 2005, Sister Mary Patricia Burns died suddenly in Annecy, France, of a heart attack.  We pray that the friend she so loved and studied on earth greeted her with a mother’s love in heaven.

Suggested Reading:
Madame de Chantal: Portrait of a Saint, by Elisabeth Stopp
Published by de Sales Resource Center, Stella Niagara, New York, 2002

Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal: Letters of Spiritual Direction,
Translated by Peronne Marie Thibert, V.H.M.
(From the Classics of Western Spirituality Series)
Published by Paulist Press, New York, 1988

Bond of Perfection: Jeanne de Chantal and François de Sales,
By Wendy M. Wright
Published by Paulist Press, New York, 1985