LAKE JAMES
NORTH CAROLINA
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LAKE JAMES NORTH CAROLINA
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Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
In 1952, the Order had grown to the point where it was divided into 19 federations, each with its own Mother General. In the United States, there are two federations, one which engages in outside ministries such as teaching, the other being fully cloistered, confining their ministries such as conducting retreats and making vestments to within their convents. For several years, I had the privilege of serving as Psychological Consultant to a monastery of cloistered Visitandine Nuns in Massachusetts. Although devout Roman Catholics, their ecumenical spirit was expressed when the Superior, learning that my son, Alfred, Jr. was about to be ordained to the priesthood, asked if they might have the joy of making Eucharistic Vestments for him. I designed the set and he wore it for his first Mass, to the delight of the nuns. So I thought you might like to know a bit about St. Jane Frances whose Feast Day is December 12th, and her spiritual daughters. A.T.K.Z.+
Collect for the Feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal O God, by whose grace your servant Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, kindled with the flame of your love became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that, aided by her prayers, we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To learn more about St. Jane Frances de Chantal from catholicculture.org, click here.
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This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:39 PM |
Saint
Jane Frances de Chantal, born in 1572, was the daughter of a French noble
family. At the age of twenty, she married Baron Christophe de Chantal who died
eight years later. On her husband’s death, Saint Jane took a vow of chastity and
began to devote herself to a life of prayer. In 1604, Saint Francis de Sales,
who had become Bishop of Geneva two years previously, agreed to become her
Spiritual Director. Six years later, the two established a new Religious Order
called the Congregation of the Visitation. The new community was different from
others then in existence in that it was specifically intended for young women
and widows who might be unable to endure what was then the severe ascetic life
of the other Religious Orders for women. From the Mother House at Annecy in
France the Order grew so that when Saint Jane Frances died in 1641, there were
86 convents of the order.