The Life of St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Jane was born at Dijon, France on January 28^th, 1572.  Her father was the president of the Parliament of Burgundy. She was married at the age of 20 in the year 1592 to the Baron Christophe de Chantal and moved into the feudal castle of Bourbilly. She restored order to the household, which was on the brink of financial ruin, by personally taking charge of every aspect of the estate and restored prosperity to the castle.

Jane was known to the household at Bourbilly as a very organized Baroness with a delightful personality. Her pleasant personality made her very popular and she was known to personally hand out bread and soup to the poor who would come to her door.

Her happiness was shattered when her beloved husband Christophe was killed in a hunting accident in 1601. Left a widow with four children at the age of 28, the brokenhearted Jane took a vow of chastity. She tried to forgive the man who had accidentally shot her husband but struggled. She prayed constantly for the strength to forgive and asked God to send her a spiritual guide. Eventually, Jane was able to forgive the man so completely, that she became godmother to his child. During this time, Jane was also granted a vision of the man whom God had chosen as her spiritual guide.

During Lent of 1607, while visiting her father at Dijon, she met Francis de Sales who was preaching at the Sainte Chapelle. She recognized him as the mysterious director who had been shown to her in the vision, and she immediately placed herself under his guidance.

With Francis’ support, Jane founded the Congregation of the Visitation Order at Annecy, France on June 6^th, 1610. The aim of the order was to accept women who had been rejected by other orders because of poor health or advanced age.  The two holy founders lived to see the order prosper. At the time of St. Francis’ death, the order already counted 13 houses; there were 86 houses at the time of St. Jane’s death in 1641 at the age of 69 and 164 by the time she was canonized.